Help me understand a (non) trade on Oanda?

NZDUSD. 8:50AM New York time. 12/14.
Had a take profit set(I was short) at .67800. The Oanda chart, set at “mid” has the low of the
5 minute bar at .67802. However, when I switch the chart to “bid”, the low of the bar was .67793.
I was not executed and, of course, it went up from there.
The only reason I looked at “bid” was because my short entry was set was at .68446. On 12/13,
17:20, the “mid” bar got down to .68477, but I was executed short. Switching to “bid”, the bar
got down to .68377 and I was short.
So, it executed my short trade on the “bid”, not the “mid”, but did NOT execute my closing trade
on the bid?
Only thing I can think of was that since I was going short, it used the bid but for the buy back at a lower
price, it uses the ask?
Is this just the “magic” of FOREX? It’s frustrating when you do everything right…

I use Oanda myself that’s weird can you take a screenshot.

I did notice a price difference though via mobile/desktop by 0.5 - 1 pip spreads at time.

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Well, looky there! I think I did it?
This is the one with the mid prices. That red WTF on the upper left is where I was put in short. Fortunately, it came back down before being stopped out.

This is the way it looks on bid. My take profit was the second low, near 9AM.

That is actually weird. Did you contact Oanda (I know they’re some of the slowest when it comes to support)?

Did you place an entry order? Was it via mobile/desktop?

No, haven’t contacted them. I have a “introduction” guy (I get a couple bucks a month from him) and he had a “standard” response. I’ll try and find it.
Sell stop order to short(it was above my entry price) and whatever that “take profit” order is on the original order screen. On desktop.
Thanks for helping!

Here’s his response:

I can appreciate that this is frustrating, but you have to remember 2 things:

  1. all Oanda clients see the same pricing, so they are not manipulating pricing to all clients to adversely affect you.
  2. Oanda does not know where the market is going either.

Unfortunately in these instances, it is just a bit of bad luck that the market didn’t cross your price and allow you to exit the trade.

I can assure you, however, that Oanda is not doing anything untoward with regard to your account.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Have a great rest of the day.

Best regards,

I know they clearly could care less about my little account when it comes to “manipulation”.
But it does make me wonder when there are a LOT of orders sitting out there…

Lol what type of response is that. That didn’t make sense and is super generic. I definitely would follow up because I’ve never seen that on Oanda.

Funny how that kinda stuff never happens in a good way, isn’t it?
Just the odds, should be 50:50!
This is, like, the 5th-6th time it’s happened, albeit in a year. I used to trade stocks/options,
and never had to worry about weird bid/ask prices.

That is EXACTLY how it works :sunglasses:

THe bid is what they will pay you. The “Ask” is what you must pay them to buy.

Closing a sell trade is a “Buy” so the TP waits for the “Ask” price.

Annoying but it is that which forms teh “Spread” which we accept they are entitled to as their payment for betting against us.

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I’m still thinking that since I was initially selling(ask) I should look at bid prices and since I was buying to close I should have looked at ask prices? At least, that would be their response.

Figured. I didn’t think it was one of the more “volatile” pairs, but, I guess, for USD, it probably is?

Shiite. Only took me a year to learn that!:wink:
Thanks, fellas.

Look at it like this - get a piece of paper and a pencil Draw your “bet” with a little smiley face and the “bid” at a lower price and the “Ask” at a higher price.

Now put in your TP and see how the “ask” lags behind price like a sulky child not wanting to pay you out !

Now put a Stop Loss the other side of price and see how the “Ask” reaches out in front of price towards your SL when the bet is going against you ! I Think of this as a “Grasping hand” trying to grab your money.

Then try the same excercise with a “buy bet” - The Bid wrks exactly the same way ! Grasping hand trying to stop you out and sulky child not wanting to pay you!

Remember that - you’ll never be confused again.

But n a more serious note. If you use calculated stops, you need to make allowance for this distortion, in where you pplace them !

Also in R:R calculations when you pplace a 1:1 - say 10 pips SL and 10 Pips TP then you are actually placing something like a 8 pip stop and 12 pip TP even tho’ the money aspect does seem like a 1:1, cleary the reality is putting the odds way in the favour of teh “house” by say 8 pips to 12 !

Longer term bets with wider stops suffer less distortion in this way.

Ok mate - lecture over ! :grin:

[Edit apologies for the “Fat Finger Flamenco” here - can’t be A**ed tooo go back and fix 'em one ata time. sorry ! :wink: ]

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