RefcoFX vs. Oanda

Quote from eagerbeaver:

My plan is to open a 20k account. To start with, I plan to risk no more than $300 on any one position.
Thoughts???
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u mean 1 lot (10,000 units), 30 pips stop loss, right?

if thats the case, your pretty safe with most of the fixed spreads type brokers... if your not particularly trading on figures, oanda's pretty good on spreads, saxo too, i (used to...) like acm (refco group) but there r a couple dozen or 100s other good brokers to choose from, incl probably IB thats mentioned a lot on this forum (quite like how they don't try to deny problems, i mean there r going to be problems from time to time on any platform)... hope this helps
 
Quote from TradingWise:

Refco has variable spreads? Didn't know that.

About opening an account, it's for you to decide what's an acceptable risk. You could deposit part of your money (say a few k) and deposit more over time if everything is going well.

I would not open an account at Refco, a lot people here endorse Oanda, including myself, so if you want to try it out, open a real account (FXTrade) there and deposit some money. The Oanda spreads don't move out of line during low volatility and stay real during news. Check out the spreads from the past week here.

Do you have any previous experience trading (other markets?), or is this all new for you?
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I've been trading the indexes for about two years, first as a position trader, using options spreads, but slowly evolving into a directional trader, which seems to better suit my temperment. I'd been looking into Forex only because it seemed to offer the potential for the kind of short-term (15 minutes-to-one hour) swing trades with which I've been getting good results, but during off-hours, when I'm not at work.

This appears to be a chief appeal of Forex, and may be one of its warning signals -- beware of trading vehicles that appear a mite to accomodative of the average retail schmo.

Indeed, the more I look into Forex, the more slippery it seems. I did not like last night's spread issues at all and, despite the fact that my trades were "profitable" in this demo account, needless to say the margin for error was greatly reduced. Worse, the margin for error seemed capriciously reduced. Who's deciding when the spread is 3 pips or 9 pips -- and, mind you, this was not a high-volatility environment, some nice, gentle rolling action but, other that, snoozeville. I'm used to broker (like thinkorswim) that finds the best price for my order. I don't like the idea of throwing myself at the mercies of one particualr market maker, regardless of how honorable he or she (or it) may be. Perhaps I'm paranoid here?
 
Quote from eagerbeaver:

Who's deciding when the spread is 3 pips or 9 pips -- and, mind you, this was not a high-volatility environment, some nice, gentle rolling action but, other that, snoozeville. I'm used to broker (like thinkorswim) that finds the best price for my order. I don't like the idea of throwing myself at the mercies of one particualr market maker, regardless of how honorable he or she (or it) may be. Perhaps I'm paranoid here?
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strange it shld happen on a demo really, but, yeah it does happen on real accts, thats for sure...

unless you trade via an ECN where the liquidity providers contribute their best bid/ask (and where the spreads can vary more widely than u'd like at times, and move very fast overall... be warned!), then its your broker who decides what the spread is... now if you stick with brokers who have and seem to care about their good rep - read the posts on this forum or moneytec or forexfactory etc - then you shld be fine 99% of the time, or perhaps even more... g'luck!
 
Why limit your trades to ONE so-called market-maker, when you have futures on euros where there are hundreds of participants watching, trading, showing bids/offers etc etc?
 
Quote from tomcole:

Why limit your trades to ONE so-called market-maker, when you have futures on euros where there are hundreds of participants watching, trading, showing bids/offers etc etc?
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never tried but def. interested. i wrote to eurexUS today coz i cldn't find a broker who can give me either web-based or API access to their newly launched currency futures contract... can u help?

i suppose u trade cme curr. futures as well right? any slippage / bad fill type issues there? i mean, maybe not on a $1mio pozzie
but from what sort of size on EURUSD, GBPUSD for instance?
 
Quote from eagerbeaver:

Perhaps I'm paranoid here?
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Like Chood? :D

j/k, the only way to find out is to open an account. I can assure you I've never seen the spread thing you say at Oanda. Don't deposit all your money so you can try the broker out at first. If they are worthless, no harm is done.
 
Globex posts prices and volumes - you can trade all you want.

For API, theres no shortage of brokers - try Man, IB etc, APIs are not the scary invention they used to be!
 
I traded the currenex platform through REFCO while beta testing a system for a private f/x capital pool. At one point I placed a large order and was filled 45 pips from the quoted price on my screen. This was of course during a news related event. I was told by their rep that one of the 10 banks they quote from was delayed/experiencing problems and that they did not have to stand by their price quote. I told him that it is their own fault for not having an algorithm in place to drop any quote with a specified variance of the avg or something similar. After escalating the issue, I finally received the quoted price and my account was credited the next day. Of course I knew that the quote was crap as I have other quoting servies. The only reason the quote was honored was because they wanted the business from the pool. All of this from supposedly their best platform for HNW individuals and entities.

As for stop running issues; please show me a market where stops are not gunned? Index futures, currency futures, spot f/x...if you think stop clusters are not gunned for, your head is in the clouds. What you should keep an eye on is if your broker's move (in the case of spot market) is well outside that of other borkers. It pays to watch multiple quote services. Patience can turn a perceived disadvantage into an advantage.

Just my .02
 
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