Forex Question

[cooter]

It's all Marketing BS.... what it comes down to is how they treat trading during news events, and how profitable they will allow you to be.

In case you're wondering why they call it a "bucketshop" it's because in the majority of cases for retail spot FX you're trading against yourself and the house.

The trades stay in-house in a "bucket" and aren't necessarily matched at the real market. Sort of like your local bookie, I'd guess. They set the odds (spread), and you play (trade), and they decide how much they want to give you at the end of the day (busted trades, etc...) , essentially.

Nice racket, huh?

[waveslider]

Not a level playing field at all.. I guess that's why I've heard people say that they play longer moves, to overcome some major slippage.

[walterw]

	Quote:	notouch
	Oanda are one of the worst bucketshops of them all and have been known to increase their GBP/USD spread to 200 pips during data releases. Waveslider, these bucketshops are just glorified bookmakers who offer 400:1 leverage in an attempt to get their gullible punters to part with their money.

Oanda gives a maximum of 50:1 leverage, I think thats a serious leverage, they have a 1.2 pips spread (real) on eur/usd pair , and there are no IB brokers for them... at news euro/usd spreas can open up to 10 pips... during max 1 minute... think thats the only complaint I would have.... They are quite big forex dealer and it is a member of the National Futures Association (NFA ID #0325821).

I believe Notouch, to keep this forum serious and profesiional should you inform yourself before making such non-fundamented statments... OR if you have material to backup your information, please post it.... cheers Walter.

[notouch]

I used to have an account with Oanda and have a lot of evidence that they are a total bucketshop. Someone posted a video over at ET showing they had a 200 pip spread for one second after a data release (enough to take out plenty of stops) and I have screenshots of their spread widening and slippage games. I'm not going to spend hours carefully documenting ever post I make on this forum though. It's up to you what you believe.

[cooter]

	Quote:	notouch
	Someone posted a video over at ET showing they had a 200 pip spread for one second after a data release (enough to take out plenty of stops) and I have screenshots of their spread widening and slippage games.

For your viewing pleasure:

YouTube - Oanda spread on Non farm payroll 2/2/2007

+ YouTube Video

Enjoy!

[walterw]

yes... they do that... thought that doesnt make them a bad forex dealer....

if you compare to so many dealers that dont take your trade and offer you a second price... oanda never does that... any way I think every one knows what work best for him... I still would recomend it for forex scalping, their spread its very competitive and my previous experience was nice and smooth with them.... cheers Walter

[Alex]

Why trade spot when you can trade futures? I can think of many advantages of trading in the futures market, but can think of none when trading spot. The only disadvantage is that the futures market is closed for one hour each day (the liquidity in the spot market is poor then anyway). Honest forex brokers are rarer than hen's teeth and with so many discount futures brokers to choose from these days, why put yourself through the pain. They're all bucket shops and anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong! There is no obligation for them to carry out your trades and more likely than not, they'll just get tossed into the metaphorical bucket along with all the other mug punters' tickets.

[walterw]

	Quote:	Alex
	Why trade spot when you can trade futures? I can think of many advantages of trading in the futures market, but can think of none when trading spot. The only disadvantage is that the futures market is closed for one hour each day (the liquidity in the spot market is poor then anyway). Honest forex brokers are rarer than hen's teeth and with so many discount futures brokers to choose from these days, why put yourself through the pain. They're all bucket shops and anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong! There is no obligation for them to carry out your trades and more likely than not, they'll just get tossed into the metaphorical bucket along with all the other mug punters' tickets.

Ok... can someone make a list of decent "non-bucket shop" forex brokers ? I would like to know then wich are the true serious forex dealers for the retail trader.... thanks Walter.

[Alex]

Suffice to say, hen's don't have teeth.

[waveslider]

Alex- Looking at the charts I agree with you 100%. Maybe the leverage isn't as good, but the bid/ask is tight. I you trade forex futures, what time frame to you look to enter on?