Oanda Broker Review

Is Oanda a good broker? Oanda is one of the pioneers of online Forex trading. The brokerage only offers two standard client accounts, which is extraordinarily flexible. Oanda has been around since 1996, and now features several offices around the world, one of the biggest online brokerages for both institutional and retail traders.

Oanda Forex Trading accounts

As mentioned previously, Oanda only offers two types of accounts, the standard account and the premium one. These account features 1:50 maximum leverage, or 1:100 maximum leverage in the European Union or Australia, due to some restrictive legislation. The premium one is simply a tighter spread with low commissions. The broker is a market maker, so be aware that they are on the other side of the trade. However, they are also heavily regulated and therefore are audited routinely.

Oanda company information and safety of funds

Oanda is one of the pioneers of online FX trading. Established in 1996 and now has offices in Toronto, San Francisco, New York, London, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney. All of the group companies are duly regulated by the relevant authorities in the United States, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia. The company has offered Internet-based Forex trading for both retail and institutional customers. Its portfolio includes FX, index, commodity, and bond see if these, as well as precious metals.

Oanda is registered with both the CFTC and NFA, both of which are extensive with their set of rules. This is part of the reason why the leverage at Oanda is a bit lower than most other places, and hedging isn’t allowed in some countries. When a company is NFA registered, they are required to have net capital of at least $20 million to guarantee customers positions, which makes them amongst the safest brokers in the world.

Trading conditions

Initial deposit

Oanda has no minimum deposit requirement for opening an account, but obviously you need to have trading capital in the account to place a trade. You can trade for pennies as opposed to having a minimum investment of something like $250 like many other brokers, so this opens up the world to many other traders it wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity, and also allows you to trade with real money in a low risk situation.

Spreads and commissions

The spreads are variable at Oanda, with the average spread on the EUR/USD pair being 1.4 pips. There are no commissions, as it is simply a situation where the broker gets paid in the spread, as is one of the oldest business practices in the Forex world.

Maximum leverage

Oanda offers a maximum leverage of 1:50 on FX products, which is lower than many other places, but being a US regulated company it has two follow these rules. However, one of the biggest killers of retail accounts is the massive amount of leverage that is available, so quite frankly it might not be a bad thing to avoid any way.

Trading platforms

Oanda offers three different trading platforms, including FXTrade, which is its proprietary platform, and MetaTrader4. You will find FXTrade to be robust, but most traders probably use MT4 as they are more than likely familiar with it. The third platform is Protrader, which allows everything that a regular Forex trading platform will do, but also has an algorithmic strategy development tool built into it.

Payment methods

Oanda offers the ability to deposit/withdraw funds from their accounts via debit/credit card, bank wire, checks, PayPal, and UnionPay.

Extras

Oanda has a reasonable amount of extras, including a decent blog with news and analysis, and of course the educational section is pretty good. There are also webinars as you see it most large brokerage firms, and overall Oanda is probably one of the safest brokerage firms to trade within the world.