I guess there is alot going on with Oanda, and I dont have many real gripes with them. Their web based platform is adequate, along with adequate charts, and i really like the elimination of the large/mini thing now that im used to it...but the leverage thing. Its only 50 to one! Is there some other firm that might have the same decent and reliable qualities as Oanda, with higher leverages?
I know , didn't like that either last time I checked them out , are there any restrictions to get the max leverage 50:1 ?
Isn't it actually an effective leverage of 100:1? You don't get anything closed untill all the money is gone? They just stop you from buying past the 50:1 point... Michael B.
Exactly. Put another way, Oanda's de facto initial margin is 2%, maintenance margin -- 1%. The position will be closed automatically, via a margin call, after several platform warnings, when half (rather than all) the money is gone. For instance, with a $10K account, the most EUR/USD one could buy or sell right now would be $10,000 x 50 / 1.2280 = EUR 407,166 (USD 500,000). If that's your only position, at $40.72 a pip, it would take a 123-pip ($10,000 x 0.5 / $40.72) adverse move against you to get a final margin call and get that position closed. IMO, the vast majority of forex traders would be far better off with 50:1 max leverage, if that, rather than 100:1, 200:1 or (saving the "best" for last) 400:1. Professsional currency managers rarely, if ever, exceed even 10:1.
Ok i get that, (maybe) no i dont...it seems that no matter how you crack it, with 10m, i can only buy 500,000...thats it. Given i use your example, about the pip value and margin, i can only squeeze 42.72 a pip. now if i had 100/1 i could pull 85.44 or 200/1= 170.88 per pip right? im a pure spec so i see it as p/l per screen hour. Using the same maint number, at 100/1 i could lose half my money and still trade as much as the 50/1 right? I dont have any underlying currency and only want to intensify my time without sacrifice of service. Did i do that right about the pip/margin? or, am i missing something...which would not be unusual.
If you have 10k funds in your account, Oanda allows you to purchase 500k units (or 5 lots; 50 leverage). Now the position can move against you, when that happens, your position will be closed at 100 leverage: When $5000 is left in your account (500k/100). So the initial leverage is 50, and the maintenance leverage is 100.
that makes sense. 50 initial and 100 maint. but now im still left with my original wrinkle. i want to see if anyone knows of a firm out there where there is more initial leverage without sacrifice of Oandas, what i consider, Oandas better traits; low spreads and no standardized lot sizes. btw, i have put up other platforms side by side with Oanda and noticed that their spikes are inside the others spikes by sometimes as much as 5-6 pips. Is there such a firm?
There is one with unit size increments but I can't remember. There was something wrong with them when I looked at them...so I forgot about them. No one talks about them either.... The purpose of this post was to tell you that there is one with unit size increments...just can't remember...I am sorry to say I am getting old, but I can still trade some of you younger whipper-snappers under the table... Happy Hunting Michael B.