FinPro Trading or Oanda? Please advise a newbie

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
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Hello BBP Community

I have been thoroughly researching the webs for the past month religiously, and have spent quite a bit of that time here at BBP. The search function has become my new best friend. However, I have come to a crossroads as to which broker/platform I wish to proceed with as I venture back into paper trading.

I have found that the commitment to learning forex and ultimately profiting from it, is an endeavor that will take many years of dedication and perseverance. I have no prior experience with stocks, forex, economics or market structure. What I do have is time. I have a window of about a year or so to fully commit myself to the learning process, providing the necessary knowledge to build a foundation. My commitments in life over the next year are basically nonexistent.

I started a demo account with Tallinex (recommended by a coworker) two months ago. That was my introduction into trading and forex. All I did was watch charts. All day for two weeks straight. I would place trades but had no real understanding of what was actually taking place. Pure punting at its finest. Shortly thereafter I came to find out Tallinex is no longer accepting US clients. I needed a new broker, but who?

I discovered BBP when I began researching brokers. I have since spent a month researching many other topics related to trading. I came to realize I should be spending my time learning about so much more! Now my days are filled with reading and more reading. The stack of books I have collected, along with PDFs, is a little out of control. Al Brooks, Van Tharp, Bob Volman and Joe Ross are some of the material I have read or currently am reading that I have enjoyed the most so far. Also , Trading And Exchanges: Market Microstructure For Practitioners (Larry Harris) is a great place to start your learning if you are new to trading.

So to get back on topic, I now am looking into getting back to paper trading and need a little advise from the community. I am considering the following:

FinPro Trading:
I have had a demo with them now for a week, and am much more impressed with their version of MT4 versus the speed/tick volume of Tallinex. The difference is easy to recognize, even for a newb like myself. Decent commission and tight spreads for sure. Haven’t looked into regulations yet. For a first account with a small start up capital it seems I could definitely do worse than FinPro.

OANDA:
Considering giving them a shot, their platform seems to get decent reviews in comparison to MT4. I am not looking to “scalp” or trade during times of high volatility so the spread issues I read are not going to deter me from going with them. And being regulated, combined with allowing the small 1k startup capital I have, is enticing.

Intraday trades lasting 5min to 1hr range is where I feel comfortable right now, although some trades I do aim for a longer expected duration at a lower lot size. And I wouldn’t mind getting away from MT4. If any opinions could be given on FinPro Station or the platform offered by OANDA I would greatly appreciate it!

Sorry for the long-winded introduction! This sure has been one valuable resource, and I look forward to sticking around here for some time. Too many one post wonders around the forums these days. Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Zatokrev

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Hello, Zatokrev

Regarding the brokers you are comparing: Here are two factors which you may have considered, although you didn’t mention them —

[B]1. Finpro Trading is an STP/ECN broker, while Oanda is a market-maker.[/B] Some traders have strong feelings about the difference. Those traders tend to treat market-makers with great suspicion. Many market-makers have earned bad reputations trading against their customers — but, I don’t think that criticism applies to Oanda. If you haven’t already made a decision on STP/ECN vs market-maker, then it’s something you might want to factor into your due diligence.

[B]2. Oanda allows you to trade any size position, from one single unit of base currency, up to a fully-leveraged position.[/B] Minimum position size at Finpro Trading, on the other hand, is one micro-lot (1,000 units of base currency). If you intend to start live trading with a modest account balance, Oanda’s policy can make it much easier to manage position sizes, without exceeding your predetermined risk percentage (1%, 1½%, 2%, or whatever your trading rules call for).

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1 Like
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Oanda is much like Profiforex in terms of minimum position size. You can trade micro lots with as little as 1USD. But I could not trade with Oanda because I discovered it does not favor news trading as I expected. I preferred the Profiforex platform for this.

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Thanks for the responses, guys! To add to what Clint has said pertaining to Oanda and being a market maker, it seems to me that through doing some research on the matter, that they do not operate like a true market maker. And I am also entertaining the thought of opening an account with both finpro and oanda with low funds. I know that the reality is I would be making things more difficult for myself as a newbie, but I don’t plan on going live for another six months or more. I will have more clarity on the matter by then.

I have decided to start a demo with Oanda using the fx trade platform, and my main concern with proceeding is the spread fluctuations during volatile periods. If the demo reflects different spreads than the live account, it makes it difficult to know what I am getting in for.

The ability to manage position sizes makes it very enticing to go with them, especially if it’s your first account. I wondered if this was a way for Oanda, a market maker, to bring in less experienced traders and make easy money off of them. Statistics I have found seem show retail traders having more profitable accounts with them versus other US brokers. They also have pretty solid reviews.

As for Finpro, I have no complaints so far. Spoke with them already via phone and email and they have been excellent to deal with. My only real concern is that of regulations. I worry about my funds being safe. I don’t have nearly enough capital to start an account with IB or one of the better brokers out there. I guess I can only proceed from here, and down the line if I decide to do business with Finpro I can discuss in detail what my concerns are.

Thanks again Clint and Heir for giving me some things to consider. If anyone has any input on Finpro’s platform (Finpro station) I would like to know what you think. I am considering getting away from MT4. Before I really delve into trading and learning the software I am kinda just exploring my options.

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I don’t have much idea about Finpro, but I traded with Oanda sometime ago, I wasn’t happy with things at all. I do scalping mainly and here it wasn’t easy with re quote been too much during any sort of violate scene, so that wasn’t what I liked!

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Can you explain this a bit more? Ive used Oanda and have not noticed any problems

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I just tested Oanda’s iPad platform. Scalped some pips with 1 unit positions (Demo trade).
1 It is realy slow.
2 Hard to use.
3 Fast trade imposible, orders filed 3-5 seconds, can’t trade with one click.

Their PC platform FXtrader also not so good. Seems like outdated software from 90’s.