Overview
Trust score
Tradeable Symbols (Total): 124
Year Founded: 1996
Publicly Traded (Listed): No
Bank: No
OANDA is not publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by six tier-1 regulators (high trust), zero tier-2 regulators (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). OANDA is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Learn more about Trust Score.
OANDA is considered low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 92 out of 99.
Pros 👍🏻
- Founded in 1996, OANDA is regulated in six tier-1 jurisdictions, making it a safe broker (low-risk) for forex and CFDs trading.
- Excellent quality market research articles and daily analysis updates can be found in the Market Pulse hub.
- OANDA produces its own podcast series, “Market Insight”.
- The fxTrade mobile app has a great balance of features and ranks highly for ease of use.
- OANDA’s offering of research tools, news, and market analysis is excellent.
- Social copy trading is available via ZuluTrade (though it requires a $500 deposit).
- TradingView platform offered alongside several VPS services for MT4 hosting.
- OANDA provides multiple options for algorithmic trading, including via API as part of its Algo Labs offering.
Cons 👎🏻
- Offers fewer video market updates than its peers.
- Though the educational material is good, OANDA’s video content is not comprehensive, and mostly takes the form of platform tutorials.
- OANDA’s spreads are below average, trailing discount leaders CMC Markets and IG by a wide margin.
- OANDA’s fxTrade desktop and web trading platform is good – not great – and trails platform leaders such as IG and Saxo Bank.
About OANDA
OANDA Global Markets Ltd is a company registered in BVI number 2026433. It is authorised and regulated by the BVI Financial Services Commission, number: SIBA/L/20/1130.
Company Overview
The name OANDA is an acronym for “Olsen & Associates” or “Olsen AND Associates”. It is registered in the United States and provides its clients with a wide range of financial services in most countries of the world. The company was founded in 1996 and is currently regulated in four jurisdictions. The main regulator of the broker is the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Oanda Canada is licensed by IIROC.
The company has several significant awards to its credit, including a victory in the category “Best Forex Trading Technologies” from the UK Forex Awards, “Best Trading Platform” from FX Week, as well as “Best Customer Service” from the US Foreign Exchange Report.
Commissions and Fees
OANDA’s trading costs are generally steep, with high effective spreads across both its default and core pricing, compared to the best brokers. While not a discount broker, OANDA’s main advantage is its automated execution across its account offering.
Spreads: OANDA’s bid/ask spreads (the fees clients pay to trade) are most comparable to FOREX.com and FxPro, while the minimum spread cost (or lowest advertised rate) may be slightly higher than those firms that list a sub-pip spread (less than 1.0 pip). For example, the average non-core pricing at OANDA was 1.2 pips on the EUR/USD pair during Q1 2019.
Core pricing: OANDA’s core pricing features lower spreads, but includes a per-side commission of $5 per $100,000 worth of currency (or roughly $10 per round turn standard lot). This option requires a $10,000 minimum deposit, and when factoring in the commission, the all-in cost ends up being nearly identical to the commission-free pricing. For example, let’s say the spread on the EUR/USD is 1.4 pips under the default pricing structure, and the spread for core pricing is only 0.4 pips. Once you factor in the commission-equivalent of 1 pip (0.5 pips per side), the total cost for core pricing ends up coming to 1.4 pips – same as the default price.
Micro lots: In most cases, the smallest contract size for trading forex is one micro lot. However, OANDA brings this minimum trade size down by three orders of magnitude – to 1 unit or 0.001 micro lot.
Transparency: As part of its push for greater pricing transparency, OANDA continually publishes a trailing average of its spread across nearly all time frames. However, because it does not publish a number that reflects the average spread over a fixed period – such as one day or one month – it is difficult to make precise comparisons.
About Fees
It’s safe to say that Oanda’s fees are low in general. They either don’t charge a brokerage fee for things other brokers do charge for, or they only charge a small amount. This means that you can use Oanda even in case you trade frequently like multiple times a week or daily.
Assets | Fee level | Fee terms |
---|---|---|
EURUSD | Low | The fees are built into the spread, 0.9 pips is the average spread cost during peak trading hours. |
GBPUSD | Low | The fees are built into the spread, 1.2 pips is the average spread cost during peak trading hours. |
S&P 500 CFD | Low | The fees are built into the spread, 0.3 points is the average spread cost during peak trading hours. |
Inactivity fee | Low | £10 per month after one year of inactivity |
Account Type
Account Type | Description |
Standard | an account with a minimum deposit of $1. Spread type – floating, minimum spread for currency pairs is 1.1 pips. Stop Out level is 50%. Suitable for newcomers. |
Premium | an account with a minimum deposit of 20 000$. Spread type – floating, minimum spread for currency pairs is 0.8 pips. Stop-out level is 50%. High volume traders. |
Core | an account with a minimum deposit of $1. Spread type – floating, minimum spread for currency pairs is 0,2 pips. Stop-out level is 50%. Suitable for newcomers. |
Swap-free | Spread type – floating, minimum spread for currency pairs is 1,6 pips. Stop-out level is 50%. Suitable for Traders who do not wish to pay or receive interest on their accounts. |
Premium Core | an account with a minimum deposit of $ 20 000. Spread type – floating, minimum spread for currency pairs is 0.2 pips. Stop-out level is 50%. High volume traders. |
Reviews
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