Quote from bl33p:
One year. I mostly trade manually, no limit orders. With a minor news release I may enter before the news into the direction of the prevailing trend if there is even slight possibility that the news might be good or at least matching expectations. It's a gamble, but being in a trend the odds are that any negative movement will get reversed pretty soon, often within the same day.
With major news I will enter into the direction of the initial peak once there is a good opportunity, or fade the initial peak, or both. It depends on the strength and style of the price action.
I try not to pre-enter major news even with a perceivedly high potential for being right, like the last NFP. I felt that the 325k figures are bs and there will be disappointment backlash but ultimately it depends on the market's point of view. I don't mind losing the initial 50 pips. There was plenty of after action.
Sometimes there is wysiwyg slippage as prices have changed from what there's on my screen, such is the way with trading news using market orders, I accept it as part of the risk. It goes both ways, sometimes price is better sometimes worse. This only matters with the initial fill, then I let the trade develop and close nicely in the calming aftermarket, this can be anything from 5 minutes to 3 days. Added bonus in letting the trade develop is that the spread goes down very quickly letting me close with normal spread. If the move is huge I stack more at natural intervals of the price action.
Like I said I don't know what trading anywhere else is like (for real, I have tried some demo platforms, didn't like them) but I'm more than happy at Oanda as their easy to use simple platform lets me concentrate on making money. To me it's all about speed and reliability of execution for which Oanda gets full marks from me.
