OANDA Chart Spread - Confused

Hi Folks,

Just looking to see if anyone here has had similar issues with OANDA or if they can shed any light on this one.

I set an entry order (short) which got triggered on OANDA but on TradingView.com it’s nowhere near it, it’s like it triggered at 11 pip difference and when I check on OANDA its instantly -11pips, feels like it’s spread trigger by the broker, check both screen shots let me know what you think.

EDIT - both are 4 hour time frame, top screen shot is OANDA and my trade is triggered at the yellow triangle, very thin light line spiked down to hit the trigger and on the second screen shot TradingView shows no such action at all, an 11 pip drop does not exist on Trading view …

Thanks,
Steven

I’m rather surprised to see this.

It [I]may[/I] just be very unlucky, rather than suspicious. But still disconcerting, of course.

Have you sent both screen shots to Oanda’s helpdesk and asked them for their observations (perhaps even mentioning that both charts have been posted in a trading forum where it’s currently being discussed)?

Hi Lexy,

It has been cleared up and confirmed by their live chat, I have the chat saved as well if you want to see it.

Basically their spread jumped drastically by 10+ pips triggering my trade which by the way I set that trigger for a reason, to be safe and to confirm the trade was going my direction! Not a broker I would use based on this, far far to risky and their spread will most likely trigger alot of people into losing trades overall.

Beware folks, spread is insane on OANDA and can trigger a ton of losing trades for you.

Regards,
Steven

That’s what I was afraid they might say.

Was this during normal trading hours, and not at “news” time (that would be fair enough, of course.)

I must say that I never had such difficulties with Oanda in all the time I traded there. (I did routinely avoid “obviously bad times”, though).

What reason did they offer for their spread “jumping 10 pips while others’ spreads didn’t”? It’s highly unsatisfactory, if they don’t have an answer to that, IMO.

just the way it is over there. This is why I say, never expect price to be just at times you think it should be. Ive seen sooooo many spikes at odd times, for no general reasoning behind them.

No news today? Dont rest on your eggs, the tornado can form and make landfall in split seconds,.

This is why I cant wait to get a fixed spread broker. I love Oanda for ease of deposits and the Java platform on the tablet, and the speed of execution, but man, those spread jumps get ya going.

Just an update for you all.

The trade that just got triggered insanely early due to their crazy pip spikes between 10-20 pips at any given time has just closed at a loss because they done it again! the trade hit my stop loss because OANDA jumped the spread by a whopping [B][U]14 pips![/U][/B], so they actually screwed my trade twice lol!

There 10pip+ jump caused my so called “Safe” trade to trigger and they jumped again later at exactly 14 pips causing it to trigger the stop loss in place for that same trade!

I 100% recommend staying miles away from this broker, definitely some major spread manipulation happening here that some people might overlook and just think the trade bombed out when in actual fact it was OANDA abusing the spreads.

It was during normal trade hours and I only placed the trade because no major news feeds were coming up anytime soon.

Even if this was later at night when London closes off at 5pm they shouldn’t be spiking their spread to 10-20 pips on the chart! that’s just insane and would cause so many stop losses to be hit very easily and this would trigger “safe” trades ultimately causing this trade to become a loss because it shouldn’t have hit the safe zone in the first place.

I’ve caught them red handed on a demo account, god help traders on there using alot of real cash when they’re currently abusing spreads to 10-20 pips at any given time regardless of news feeds.

Looks like I will be sticking with FXCM, a solid trustworthy broker with set spreads at all times.

OANDA, just terrible for a broker to get away with that.

Its their business, thats what they do.

And besides, truthfully, you shouldnt be trading this time of the year. ( this week, till Jan3rd )

So much hidden volatility and so many big players at home enjoying the holidays. Anything can happen.

When things get slow, Spread widens, then someone dumps large, and it might widen bigger, or, drop to normal. But at this time of the year, it happens.

Oanda just knows how to laso folks when they are vulnerable, because thats what they do, lol…

they can single handily pump and dump their own market. If they see a bunch of stops, they will whack them. Because the number on the wrong side is greater then the number on the right side, its to their advantage.

If you need the action, hit up the strate tester on slow, lol…

BUT, I freakin hear ya, like I said, cant wait to have a nice deposit for a tighter broker.

I was using a demo account not real cash and yes I agree, no one should really trade in the December period as it’s just never a good idea with all the upcoming holidays and everything going ghost like at this time of year.

I’m only really trying to get my chart skilling up to scratch with scoping out support/resistance zones and the same goes for my price action reading ability, practice is practice which is better than no practice at all :).

I’d say FXCM is pretty solid although you need a decent capital for their standard accounts I believe but overall they’re top notch. Not exactly noob friendly though due to having a requirement for a big starting capital so I see your point with finding a good tight broker to deposit any capital.

I guess you can deposit low on FXCM and see how it goes, maybe? never tried so not sure on that one.

If anyone else knows a solid UK regulated broker that has fixed spreads give a holler.

Yea, tryin to get that last bit of action while we can, lol…

Love the game,

There was a spike down on chf (check USD/CHF) on the 29th, there was an even larger spike during Asia today, happened on Euro and triggered a spike yet again on Chf (check Eur/Usd).

No one can say what the cause was, usual reason offered is thin liquidity.

Nothing to do with Oanda, during increased volatility their system, like many others, automatically increases spread, that increase can last for seconds or minutes depending on the volatility.

It’s for this reason that many advocate extreme caution at this time of year and equally at major news release times - the usual victims of spikes are pending orders like yours.

Good news that it was demo, also good news that Oanda’s demo is replicating real life, apparently some demos would hide the action you describe.

So annoying, the 3 trades I scoped out were all winning trades on the 4 hour TF, cancelled them all on OANDA after the insane spike spread that happened twice on the 1 trade. Also this trade was a winning trade on FXCM.

They take the biscuit with their spreads which cause alot of winning trades to lose, this exact same trade was a winning trade on FXCM.

As I’ve said before, FXCM is the way to go for me with their solid rep and set spread count.

I’m really sorry to hear this, about Oanda.

(And it isn’t the first time I’ve heard it, recently).

Things have clearly changed, there, and my impression of them from when I was happily trading there seems to be out of date, now. That’s a great shame, [I]especially[/I] given all their other advantages - but you can’t really trade there under circumstances like that.

Yeh it’s a bit lame having such a volatile spread like that but I guess through time most will move to more solid brokers like FXCM, others will see the light in this and switch to set spreads as well I would think.

My question to you about this whole situation is, should I include these 3 trades I scoped out (which are winnings ones) in my new journal? I think I should lol.

Lol, it will make no real difference in the long run, I suppose …