The generic market certainly goes after stops, especially during the Australasian shift & particularly if/when prices are near well touted Options barriers & busy round numbers.
I can't comment about individual brokerage shops, especially retail ones as I don't trade retail, but I can tell you that if there are overweight orders stacking up at a particular level/zone & price is being directed towards that zone, then it will be vulnerable. Not particularly from any individual broker, just the market in general.
At the end of the day, you're going to have to experience these
alleged drawbacks & negative occurrences yourself, but I'd lay very good odds that the vast majority of these folks bitching & wailing about being stop hunted by retail shops are inexperienced novices with totally unrealistic expectations.
Oanda appear to be a well capitalized solidly managed outfit & just as importantly, are officially & genuinely regulated.
If they tick most of your boxes, which includes flexible bet sizing, then try them out with a reduced capital input & see how they perform.
You're not going to get the perfect broker, because they simply don't exist.
You should be concerned with financial stability & robust regulation.
castor wrote:And of course any advise for a new trader starting to go live
Take your time to become accustomed to your new surroundings.
Scale down in bet sizing until you're completely familiar with the platform & order execution (in & out).
The toughest transition is what you're going through right now (demo to live).
Once you dip your toes & you come out the other end relatively unscathed, you're on your way.
It's all about confidence & repetition!!
Good luck & remember, you have a support network right here – use it as you see fit!
Financial Stability, knowing who the regulators are, checking to see if there have been rulings against the broker, are the keys to understanding the retail brokers that are out there. I trade retail and came to the same conclusions a while back, because 
