Oanda Spread Hike

Hi everyone,

Oanda wasn’t my first option as a forex broker. Thanks to the politicians, it is really one of a small handful of choices; they are a market maker. Anyhow, I placed a trade around noon on GBP/NZD because the NZD is strong and the GBP was weak. Make good sense to sell.

The market is pretty quiet right now, honestly. But I looked at that trade and saw that I was in the negative by over 70 pips. I thought that it was strange. No news. 5:00 EST time. What’s going on? Lack of liquidity can cause higher spreads, but 30?

I looked at the spread and saw 27 pips. It probably spiked above 30 pips. I can’t post a screenshot as a new user.

Is this normal? This is a very lethal tool that the market maker has.

NOTE: There are a few people that don’t have anything better to do in life than to post negative responses on people’s threads. If you don’t have anything useful to say, please find another thread. If you do, please share your expertise.

5pm EST is rollover. Spreads widen. No foul play. Especially as gbp/nzd has about 15pip typical MM spread, around 20pips right now. During rollover you’ll easily see Spreads widen upto 200%, more so in non major pairs, even more so in exotic pairs.

Google 5pm EST fx rollover.

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Thanks man!

I figured that my small position wasn’t worth Oanda getting in trouble for price manipulation. Cheers!

No problem.

Perhaps one reason why many stick to the major pairs. A 2pip standard spread temporarily inflating to 6pips during rollover is more manageable than an exotic pair with a 20pip standard spread temporarily inflating to 60pips. Then again this risk ‘shouid’ be priced into your trade with a much wider stop.

Just food for thought.

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The GBP/NZD isn’t the most traded pair by a lot, but I didn’t consider it an exotic pair because it had a combination of the following currencies:

USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD, CHF, CAD, and JPY.

Okay, I just acting crazy right now. I know what you meant. Stay away from those pairs that are close to exotic pairs. Lesson learned on my part.

Thanks again!!

Hey, actually OANDA counts GBP/NZD as exotic. If you check their spread history, you will find it listed under exotics. You can also see the spread widening history, and while 27-30 is a bit extreme, you will see very wide spreads historically with this pair. By the way, if you are new to Spot C trading, you are starting at the worst time of year, they don’t call it the summer doldrums for nothing, so be careful when you trade and what you trade.

The Ever Trading VIPER

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Is it wrong I have a specific trading system for this part of the year alone, lol. Always good to be organised :sunglasses:

Hi TradeViper,

Thanks for your response. I knew it wasn’t the BIG 8, but I thought that it was a middle ground between the BIG 8 and the exotic pairs. How about USD/INR? Absolutely an exotic pair.

I’m sure I can find enough trading opportunities trading the BIG 8. And for the summer trading, I’m a vocation, so now is really the time that I have plenty of time. I’m aware that the summer can be pretty difficult. Last year, the Brexit really made me not want to trade that whole summer, and I did very little that year.

Thanks man!!

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Hey Dude, I do too, its called holiday, hehehehehe

The Ever Chillin VIPER

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Or… you guys can be like me in 5 years, don’t even bother with trading during the summer and coming back when the big guys are back from vocation.

:slight_smile:

Jannafx from YouTube trades like 4 months out the year and on vocation the other 8. I swear, this is a great opportunity to be in, if you can speculate with a bit of accuracy.

Haha, should have seen that one coming!! Doesn’t sound half bad either…

No, it’s not normal! But, I understand your emotions because I have slimier experience as like you! Actually, I seem this broker is not good for news trading! Because, so many spikes on news session! So, I have already left this broker.