RefcoFX vs. Oanda

[Remiraz]

Quote from eagerbeaver:

But they do, in droves, in growing droves. Most of them may be clueless, but all of them? There must be some perceived advantage to the spot market over the futures. Anyone?

1) People with little capital and so can't meet the minimum account requirement by futures brokers or the margin requirement.

2) People who want to trade "mini-lots" to try out.

3) People who are clueless about FX and think bucketshops = FX.

Seen plenty of them around.
Nobody will go to bucketshop spot if they can do futures.

 

[TradingWise]

Quote from eagerbeaver:

So, to bring it back to the original question ... what led you to choose Oanda over, say, Refco? Or whomever else you considered?

I think in the quote below he was referring to FXCM/REFCOFX:

I had an experience not unlike yours that cost me thousands of dollars in one day (a Sunday, no less), with another large, well-known bucketshop, err, market maker. You know what? That MM will never again have, shall we say, the pleasure of my company.

Eagerbeaver, what size do you plan to trade and how much funds will you deposit at first?

 

[Lon Eagle]

Do Oanda mind people jobbing and trading on figures?

I read somewhere (either here or on another board) that someone had a trade canceleld by Oanda sometime after he dealt. Is this anyone elses experience of Oanda?

 

[tomcole]

With all the talk about this firm, Oanda, I read their Terms & Conditions for trading and its pretty striking. You should read it too when you have time to consider the agreements implications.

But, if you're trading with them and making money, why question a good thing?

 

[TradingWise]

Quote from Lon Eagle:

Do Oanda mind people jobbing and trading on figures?

I read somewhere (either here or on another board) that someone had a trade canceleld by Oanda sometime after he dealt. Is this anyone elses experience of Oanda?

Spreads will be higher on news, and you can get slippage if the market gaps.

 

[eagerbeaver]

Quote from TradingWise:

I think in the quote below he was referring to FXCM/REFCOFX:



Eagerbeaver, what size do you plan to trade and how much funds will you deposit at first?

TradingWise -- Wow, that's interesting. I've been trading a RefcoFX demo accoutn and, I have to say, I've had some concerns. Those three pip spreads they talk aboit on the EUR/USD pair frequently seem to be more like five or six pips. Last night, during a low-volatility period, the spread went up to nine pips.

At least their not sugar-coating their demo account as a come-on to get people to risk real cash...but, yikes...I'm beginning to wonder whether this forex stuff really is a racket.

My plan is to open a 20k account. To start with, I plan to risk no more than $300 on any one position. That is, if I go through with this, which I'm beginning to doubt...

Thoughts???

 

[2cents]

Quote from TradingWise:

Spreads will be higher on news, and you can get slippage if the market gaps.

or no execution if the market has moved beyond the max. slippage your prepared to accept on a given order.

what IT guys (Finatek) who've worked on their API in Jan tell me is Oanda's quotes are not really ESP. the client station is actually polling the Oanda server not as many times per second as one would like (can't remember but maybe only every 500ms!) to get the latest price but thats not necessarily the price you'll be done at... therefore the potential for slippage, not just on figures...

and yes they do cancel trades when they feel they're being 'taken advantage of', your order flow is 'unfriendly' etc... thats their 'language' )))) ... which is always a fine line shall we say but basically as the client, u r the one who gets screw*d in these cases...

other than that, excellent spreads indeed, can open an acct with $1, trade fractional quantities and all sorts of good things.... pretty good & honest single broker-dealer service for swing / position trading i'd say

 

[TradingWise]

Quote from eagerbeaver:

TradingWise -- Wow, that's interesting. I've been trading a RefcoFX demo accoutn and, I have to say, I've had some concerns. Those three pip spreads they talk aboit on the EUR/USD pair frequently seem to be more like five or six pips. Last night, during a low-volatility period, the spread went up to nine pips.

At least their not sugar-coating their demo account as a come-on to get people to risk real cash...but, yikes...I'm beginning to wonder whether this forex stuff really is a racket.

My plan is to open a 20k account. To start with, I plan to risk no more than $300 on any one position. That is, if I go through with this, which I'm beginning to doubt...

Thoughts???

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?

 

[Solaris]

I trade with both,
It depends on your style.

Oanda is better if you have to trade extremely
close to present prices.

With refco, you cannot touch prices less than six pips or so to the present price.

 

[Idoogye]

Agree with late apex and 2cents.

OANDA may be a "bucketshop", but all in all they're the BEST bucketshop. And they're getting better.