OANDA vs IB

[Steve_IB]

Quote from taboni:

Just curious why you would want a buy stop for instance to be triggered when ask price=stop price.
Personally I prefer my stops to be done when, on a buy stop for instance, bid price=stop price. In my 18 years of trading in FX, I have witnessed far too many instances where the market raced to a stop level and then backed off. I put alot of thought into where my stops should be placed and I want to make sure my technical points are truly broken in order to stop out a position, not just touch and retrace.
So it costs an extra 2 pips, for my money it is well worth it.

Also say spreads aren't 1 pip wide as after figures, etc as the interbank market goes a bit wider. Say the spread jumps to
5 pips, even for a second. Say you have a stop at 60 to buy and the market goes 52-54, then 55-60, then 52-54 again. You are executed under the ask=stop rules. No thanks. Correct me if I am wrong but this is how I see it.

To avoid all the confusion, let's look at an example:
Current Euro quote on IB is 1.2363 / 1.2364

If you place a buy stop at 1.2370, then this will be triggered when the bid price is >= 1.2370

If you place a sell stop at 1.2350, then this will be triggered when the ask price is <= 1.2350

 

[taboni]

Thanks Steve. I was under the impression from other posters that it the target price only had to be quoted. Your method is by far the most professional method of execution. I have only found it on one other system to date.

 

[TGM]

Quote from Steve_IB:

To avoid all the confusion, let's look at an example:
Current Euro quote on IB is 1.2363 / 1.2364

If you place a buy stop at 1.2370, then this will be triggered when the bid price is >= 1.2370

If you place a sell stop at 1.2350, then this will be triggered when the ask price is <= 1.2350

Thanks steve for the clarification. I pulled up an order tick and went through the steps to put in a stop. I was under the impression that there were extra steps to make sure it triggers. Was that with an older version of TWS? It seemed simple---so I am guessing it automatically triggers off of the bid/ask now? On the forex discussion board a while back someone from IB (if I remember correctly) said to make sure you check off something to get the stops to trigger. I could see nothing to check off on my platform.

 

[Kicking]

Quote from taboni:

Thanks Steve. I was under the impression from other posters that it the target price only had to be quoted. Your method is by far the most professional method of execution. I have only found it on one other system to date.

well that's what the problem is . It should trigger the way stops usually trigger. Buy stops triggered on ask sells on bid. I do not care whether stops can be gunned or not. If you want to avoid that ,place a wider stop. I trade economic releases and cannot afford to use stops that trigger this way because then market moves 20- 50 pip a clip , once the stop is triggered, next available price could be 30-100 pip away

 

[Hayek]

How is stop-limit order triggered?

 

[swingerdan]

Quote from cooldude:

Can you enlighten me on this:

How do they charge you?
Pokect the spread when the trade is entered or take your pips when you close the trade or what?

Thanks

I am a bit confused about this also. The chart candles seem to be offset higher or lower based on the spread.

One way or another they get the spread from you. I have noticed that Oanda's chart candles do not reflect the same levels and candles on other charts. The buy and sell and take-profit and stop-loss icons are pasted on top of the chart witch makes the chart hard to read. I have also noticed that some of my take-profit lines (green) have not been triggered when the candle low price shadow (line) has gone past my take-profit line.

 

[late apex]

The reason for all those things you mention is that, for better or for worse, Oanda's candlestick, HLC bar and HLOC bar charts display the average of bid and ask, rounded to a whole pip.

To see the actual high / low bid and ask, change momentarily to a min/max chart type, then back to your usual chart.

So, for example, the shadow of the 1 - 2 pm EST candle for GBP/USD today extends down to 1.8062, as shown in the quote box when you move the crosshairs over that candle. But the true low was 1.8061 bid / 64 ask, as shown on the min/max chart. If you were short, with a buy limit TP at, say, 1.8063, it would not have been executed. Even though, visually, the candle penetrated the TP level of 1.8063.

 

[Steve_IB]

Quote from Kicking:

well that's what the problem is . It should trigger the way stops usually trigger. Buy stops triggered on ask sells on bid. I do not care whether stops can be gunned or not. If you want to avoid that ,place a wider stop. I trade economic releases and cannot afford to use stops that trigger this way because then market moves 20- 50 pip a clip, once the stop is triggered, next available price could be 30-100 pip away

Kicking,
The way you would like to trigger stops is very dangerous
If buy stops trigger on ask, then the following could happen:
Current IDEAL-Pro Eur quote is 1.2330 / 1.2331
You have a buy stop at 1.2345.
Market thins or fast market and quote widens to 1.2320 / 1.2345
- then suddenly your buy stop is triggered. Even though the market may not trade any higher than 1.2330! Your stop becomes a market order and takes our 1.2345.

Nevertheless, if you want your stops to trigger this way ... then you can easily do this with the sample Excel spreadsheet that we provide in the API.

 

[swingerdan]

Thanks for the information. Oanda's system makes no sense. The shadow went 1 pip below my take-profit limit (the green horizontal line on the screen). Why should I have to do a computation about where my stop or take profit is located in relation to the actual price when I have the visual screen to look at? The candle should follow the actual bid price. This is the way most platforms work.

So this, in effect makes Oandas actual price higher than the other platforms even though Oanda's price line is correct with the others price lines because their candles shadows follow the bid price. This must give Oanda an advantage of some kind.

swingerdan
----------------------------

Quote from late apex:

The reason for all those things you mention is that, for better or for worse, Oanda's candlestick, HLC bar and HLOC bar charts display the average of bid and ask, rounded to a whole pip.

To see the actual high / low bid and ask, change momentarily to a min/max chart type, then back to your usual chart.

So, for example, the shadow of the 1 - 2 pm EST candle for GBP/USD today extends down to 1.8062, as shown in the quote box when you move the crosshairs over that candle. But the true low was 1.8061 bid / 64 ask, as shown on the min/max chart. If you were short, with a buy limit TP at, say, 1.8063, it would not have been executed. Even though, visually, the candle penetrated the TP level of 1.8063.

 

[TradingWise]

Quote from swingerdan:

Thanks for the information. Oanda's system makes no sense. The shadow went 1 pip below my take-profit limit (the green horizontal line on the screen). Why should I have to do a computation about where my stop or take profit is located in relation to the actual price when I have the visual screen to look at? The candle should follow the actual bid price. This is the way most platforms work.

So this, in effect makes Oandas actual price higher than the other platforms even though Oanda's price line is correct with the others price lines because their candles shadows follow the bid price. This must give Oanda an advantage of some kind.

swingerdan
----------------------------

Press the two icons at the top of the chart to show the bid/ask price.