You simply cannot trade during news events and even during non news event. If there is large price fluctuation expect to be disconnected from their platform. You can be disconnected numerous times in a day and sometimes for more than 4 hours at a time. Yes this happened for more than a week now. It used to be that they will disconnect you only during news events that will last only for several minutes. Not anymore If you are a scalper, forget it. You will not be able to access the fxtrade desktop and web platform. Even then, if you are lucky to be connected to the platform, the charts will not be displaying. Troubleshooting and updating your java, browser, etc., will not solve the issue. Even contacting your internet provider will not help because it is in their end. You just have to wait until it came back which is several hours later with your account already close if you are unlucky.-Quotes- Beware, there is a large variation between oandas quote and current market. Always compare oandas quotes with other broker or charting websites. This is especially true with energy instruments and one index that I follow. Quote variation can be 60-100 pips sometimes or more. This is very apparent for NGAS, oanda is showing a max price of 2.25 for daily while in one broker and other charting website it is around 3.5-3.7 for the Oct 27-29 quotes. I asked them for clarification and they give me an explanation about interest and finance charges and other computations that did not really answered my questions. They cannot explain how they have substantial downward price swing while others are showing substantial upward price swing. Im still waiting again for their reply. For currency pairs there is not much difference in quotes from what I have noticed. Always have screenshots for proof.-Customer Service- A pop-up message in Live help will display nonavailability because it is not business hours when in fact you are contacting them during business hours. It will entail several tries before that change from not available to an available agent.Do not trade with this broker. Definitely not for scalpers. If you are always disconnected, how can you tradeI took a 1 lot trade with Oanda and they Charged me 40 PIP spread on NZDUSD ... IF you go on there website it shows you there spread history and its a JOKE it says AVG Spread during news is 5.5 pips ... if you click Max spread you will see they charge 8x that amount ... 40pips right off the bat thats 400. I lost 400 in .01 seconds.BEWARE if you use them and dont trade during news with these a-holesJust to say that Oanda hunt stop lossesfbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd/hphotos-ak-prn1/t1/1528730101518296049425401412522678n.jpgscontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn/hphotos-prn1/155162810151829604947540526104722n.jpgCheck both imagesI have had a long and successful run with OANDA and consider them to be one the most reliable Forex brokers on the market. Their platform is excellent for newbies its user friendly and offers a flexible position size. The customer support is always friendly and helpful..I give them 4 out of 5 stars because of the wide spreads on the weekends and the relatively low leverage apart from that, I recommend OANDA to all beginners and more advanced traders.Chat InformationPlease wait for an agent to respond.Chat InformationYou are now chatting with EileenEileen: Thank you for choosing OANDA. How may I help youace lu: ticket 921628339ace lu: stoploss of 1.30955 should not be hitEileen: For your security, before I can continue I will have to ask you your security question.Eileen: What is your mothers maiden nameace lu: the highest price was 1.3084 after last fridays closingace lu: Eileen: Thank you.ace lu: ive been monitoring fxcm and esignal and they both confirm my claimEileen: One moment please whille I retrieve your account information.ace lu: even with oandas wide spread during weekend it still should not have hit 1.30955ace lu: with ticket 921127646 i changed stoploss from 1.30905 to 1.30955ace lu: oandas own hourly chart shown 1.30842 was the highest priceace lu: i firmly believe esignals price is the collection of all prices from the world and it shows 1.3084 was the highestace lu: after noon of last friday pacific timeEileen: Thank you for waiting.Eileen: I have taken a look at your stop loss.ace lu: thanksEileen: I can see that your weekend data is hiden.ace lu: my data feed is esignal. i use ensign windows for analysisEileen: Can you please allow your trading platform to show weekend data You should be able to see that the High Ask price during the time that your stop loss was triggered was at 1.30969.Eileen: OANDA is a market maker. We may not offer the same prices as the other brokers.ace lu: i dont see any weekend price on esignal close to 1.30969. you mean oanda can hunt stops at will during weekend regardless esignals (world prices collection) official prices then i would be speechless...ace lu: i will definitly publish my story on every fx review sites as i can.ace lu: thanksEileen: We do not hunt stops.--------------BE AWARE OANDA WILL HUNT YOUR STOPS WHENEVER IT CANBasically Ill just confirm what most others have already written: Oanda has good execution and some nice features, but their spread widening that happens so frequently takes them from being a potentially excellent broker to being clearly below average.Spreads widen not just at news. Even when theres no news, if even the slightest hint of volatility appears in the market, spreads immediately double or triple, and stay that way for a long time. Often for a good 20-30 minutes or more. Of course their spreads at news are patently ridiculous of course, but again, Im not even talking about news just regular trading.Bottom line Oanda is still a bucketshop. They make money when you lose. They (or anyone else) can try to spin doctor that fact any way they choose, but it doesnt change anything.I opened an account with Oanda Singapore. Initially spread was quite good, but when economic news hit the wire, spread goes wild and my stop loss was wiped out.
