Hi OrderlyFlows,
I got the LMAX for MC, the data speed is much more faster than that with Oanda.
Few things I noticed:
1. it's not traded 24 hours.
2. so sometimes there's a gap.
3. in Far East's morning, the USD/JPY, AUD/USD are not heavily traded in Lmax.

And the most important thing I am now wondering is:
Since Lmax works like an Exchange, so the price of the instruments traded in LMAX is ONLY driven by the trades that took place within LMAX? On hourly, 4 hour charts, the Price changes are almost the same with those quotes from FXCM, Oanda? Like the AUD/USD example, price will gap to catch up with the worldwide Forex market movement. So I can trade the Forex at LMAX just like future contract in CME? And most importantly, I can rely on the traded volume at LMAX more than those tick volumes at FXCM/OANDA?

Thanks.

You shouldn't see much difference in price for liquid pairs between decent brokers. Oanda's spread is huge, I wouldn't use that as a reference point. I don't have access to LMAX, but I assume the liquidity & spreads there are as good as anywhere. Yes, you only see the order book & traded prices/volume that occurred on LMAX. Same with any broker. For example some platforms (cTrader) show volume, but this is only the aggregate volume of the liquidity providers that particular broker uses. Using LMAX volume is probably a better option that using tick volume from FXCM.

Main reason I recommended LMAX was because of the MC integration & transparent exchange style trading.

I started off with Oanda and switched to LMAX a year ago. LMAX is much better in my opinion. The transaction costs are smaller (even though you have to pay the spread + commissions) and the connection with multicharts has been much more stable. The worst thing about oanda though is that buy stops get triggered at the ask and not the bid, which means that you might get stopped out when spreads widen (especially overnight). Also when trading automated breakout strategies, you will have fills with oanda which would not have been filled in your backtest. LMAX lets you chose how buy/sell stops should be triggered in the settings.

I am in no way affiliated with LMAX.

Using LMAX volume is probably a better option that using tick volume from FXCM.

Main reason I recommended LMAX was because of the MC integration & transparent exchange style trading.

I started off with Oanda and switched to LMAX a year ago. LMAX is much better in my opinion. The transaction costs are smaller (even though you have to pay the spread + commissions) and the connection with multicharts has been much more stable. The worst thing about oanda though is that buy stops get triggered at the ask and not the bid, which means that you might get stopped out when spreads widen (especially overnight). Also when trading automated breakout strategies, you will have fills with oanda which would not have been filled in your backtest. LMAX lets you chose how buy/sell stops should be triggered in the settings.

I am in no way affiliated with LMAX.

I started off with Oanda and switched to LMAX a year ago. LMAX is much better in my opinion. The transaction costs are smaller (even though you have to pay the spread + commissions) and the connection with multicharts has been much more stable. The worst thing about oanda though is that buy stops get triggered at the ask and not the bid, which means that you might get stopped out when spreads widen (especially overnight). Also when trading automated breakout strategies, you will have fills with oanda which would not have been filled in your backtest. LMAX lets you chose how buy/sell stops should be triggered in the settings.

I am in no way affiliated with LMAX.

Recommend you try LMAX, however they don't allow retail clients from certain countries.