Wanting to Switch from Oanda

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
1

I’m wanting to switch from Oanda…Here are the reasons why:

  1. Variable Spread…I absolutely hate it!..One second a 2 or 3 pip spread, the next, up to 7 or 8!..I use a 5 pip scalping technique that works well for me, except when I (in a split second) suddenly have to “make” 12 pips to get my 5…Not how I want to do business.

  2. No live trailing stop yet…they’ve been saying it will be available “in a couple of weeks” for well over three months now (I usually keep a swing trade going as well, and I like to use a trailing stop.)

  3. Not very PDA user-friendly…Most of my trading needs to be done from PDA, and I’ve had trouble accessing Oanda.

Other than the three points mentioned above, I love Oanda…I almost hate to leave them, but I’m in this to make a living.

Can anyone give me some recommendations (based on your experiences with some of the other companies) as to who to go with for:

  1. Fixed spreads
  2. Trailing Stops
  3. PDA ease-of-use (Especially)
    Please Note: My PDA is NOT windows mobile compatible
  4. Customer Service

I’m also toying with FXSolutions, but haven’t tried their mobile platform yet, so please let me know what you think of them too.

Thank you, in advance, for all the great help I know I will get from here.

P.S. No offense intended, but please realize that I have a strategy that I enjoy and that is profitable for me…please let’s keep this thread on subject and not turn it into a scalping debate, etc.

2

what you want really doesn’t exist for a market maker. No legitimate broker will give you fixed spreads…at least none that I’ve seen that have had good feedback. Variable spreads are part of the game because liquidity decreases. Brokers are just responding to this.

Now, trailing stops is available for pretty much any broker using MT4…so problem solved there.

Then only PDA solution that works half-way decently is MT mobile. I believe it’s windows based…which you said won’t work. So I’m not sure what other options are available. There’s suppose to be a MT4 coming to the iPhone or ipod Touch but don’t know when it’ll be out. But regardless, you can’t use custom indicators or EA’s on the mobile versions. So unless you use all stock indicators or use something that doesn’t require them, you’re SOL.

Customer service is not an area I’m very knowledgeable about.

If you’re biggest gripe is spreads, I’d suggest going with an ECN. But then you’ll have to pay commission on each trade. Not sure if that’s better or not for you. But like I said, I’m not aware of any really good brokers that offer fixed spreads.

3

Thanks Virtecs. I’ll look into ECN…I only use the Cowabunga indicators, so EAs aren’t a factor for me. It seems like a lot of brokers have web based platforms, like Oanda’s, and that will take care of the phone problem…I was getting excited about FXSolutions, but after chatting with their rep online tonight, I deleted all their software…Good company, but not for me…

Thanks again…I’ll let you know what I think about ECN soon.

4

By the way…can you recommend a good ECN…The only one I’ve found is Schwab…know anything about them?

5

You do a 5 pip scalping method on a PDA???:confused:

6

4xis2ez, Please read the “P.S.” on my original post…
Thanks,
Jesse

7

hey pipsrgood, I got curious because Im thinking about going with Oanda.
Can you explain a little bit more about this variable spread ?
what currency pair you were trading when this happend?
how often and what time? (news release ??)

I’m with FXCM right now, they don’t seem to spike up their spreads that high during news release… (except NFP release…)
Thinking about opening up Oanda account since FXCM doesn’t have manager’s acct.