The questions I hear daily in #forex are what broker should I use or start out with, whos a good broker whats best etc..

For many of you starting out I will recommend Oanda.

PROS:
1. low account requirements. you can start trading with very little money and allthough oanda says you can start with $1 i recommend atleast $100.
2. leverage is by far the most controversal topic I ever hear of and I keep seeing people wanting 1000:1 which is ubsurd, by doing leverage that high you have no possibility of using proper money management. oandas maximum leverage is 50:1 and that is more than enough especially for beginners.
3. % based position sizes: you can automatically have a limmited % size base on your account ballance, this makes it easier to establish moneymanagement at all times no messy lot size increments to worry about.
4. One click trading. need to trade in a hurry when your always sure what your doing you can enable one click trading to enter and exit trades.
5. variable money management by pair. in this case if you trade multiple pairs you can set specific stops and targets for each pair since not all pairs move the same way and some require different strategies all together.
6. have multiple positions in a pair, you can close them all out in 2 clicks just by using the position window.
7. fxtrade runs on allmost any system provided you use java.(this is a con as well)
8. multiple ways to deposite and withdraw. paypal, wire, etc.
CONS:
1. charting really is something to be lacking, the one thing that bugs me about it is that it automatically scales the chart for you, this can give a bit of misleading representation of the market and color schemes also cause limmitations since you cannot customize all the colors of your backgrounds and grid, you can change the colors of the bars and some of the indicators however..
2. No custom indicators, thats something you can ask for and maybe it will be implemented in the future.
3. java. well java has a bit of a bad rap mainly that its slow and can be a bit buggy.


for some of those issues many Oanda users seek to chart with metatrader, its not a perfect solution due to broker price variances but it can be effective.

other things to consider: I have had losses that I attributed to glitches with Oandas server outages or platform problems. however one email to them will result in a full refund of those losses. no questions asked. I dont know of too many brokers/dealers that will do that.

feel free to comment on your experiences, this is just my own experience and recommendations.

What about the manipulation on the feed performed by some brokers. I used to get my feed from the same broker and it was a really bad move. And I guess java sometimes becomes your worst enemy though I decided to go with faster internet connection.

I downloaded the latest java version but I am now having troubles running my MT4. I had to open a whole new account, and now I am having really slow execution. I am wondering now if it's a problem caused by my platform.

couscous wrote:
What about the manipulation on the feed performed by some brokers. I used to get my feed from the same broker and it was a really bad move. And I guess java sometimes becomes your worst enemy though I decided to go with faster internet connection.
all in all your PC performance is usually the culprit. in Linux on a dual core system I have no problems.
on a side note, I do not think oanda is good for scalping. so if your watching an MBT feed and trading on oanda you will be very upset. watching mt4, oanda does seem to quote faster.

Shell25 wrote:
I downloaded the latest java version but I am now having troubles running my MT4. I had to open a whole new account, and now I am having really slow execution. I am wondering now if it's a problem caused by my platform. I have to wonder what your system specs are. or possibly your net connection.

Dracozny wrote:
couscous wrote:
What about the manipulation on the feed performed by some brokers. I used to get my feed from the same broker and it was a really bad move. And I guess java sometimes becomes your worst enemy though I decided to go with faster internet connection.
all in all your PC performance is usually the culprit. in Linux on a dual core system I have no problems.
on a side note, I do not think oanda is good for scalping. so if your watching an MBT feed and trading on oanda you will be very upset. watching mt4, oanda does seem to quote faster.

I am actually trading on a short position, as a scalper I guess so as you said probably Oanda is not the right one for me. I am now working with a whole new platform from MT4, it is called Ikon Platinum and it's been ok. Fast execution though I am getting the feed from some other guys.