OANDA

Rating: 90%

Min Deposit

$ 0

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Last Updated:Feb 13, 2024

OANDA FX - How Good Is This CFD Platform?

OANDA is a multi-regulated CFD broker from the United States formed in 1996, making it one of the oldest forex brokers in its niche. The firm is also among the few that can accept traders from most countries worldwide, including clients from America.

Additionally, the broker has offices in Canada, Japan, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. With OANDA, you can trade currencies, metals, indices, commodities, and crypto (along with spread betting for UK clients).

Aside from the familiar MetaTrader platforms and its own proprietary software, you can connect the TradingView platform to your OANDA account.

With OANDA, you can open your account in USD, EUR, HKD, and SGD. This company only offers three account types: standard, zero spread, and professional. We’ll go further in depth with the available products and services in this OANDA broker review.

Been in business since 1996
Regulated in multiple countries
No minimum deposit
Accepts U.S.-based traders
Several base currencies provided

OANDA Summary

As a client, you not only get OANDA Forex trading. You can also access stocks, indices, commodities, metals, bonds, and Bitcoin markets (along with spread betting for UK clients). The broker holds regulatory licenses in several jurisdictions: the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, and Malta.

OANDA offers access to the MT4, MT5, OANDA Trade, and TradingView platforms with a $0 minimum deposit (higher deposit on the professional account).

Licenses

Registered retail Forex dealer with the U.S. CFTC

Has a type 1 financial instruments license from the FSA Japan

Platforms

MetaTrader 4
MetaTrader 5
OANDA Trade
TradingView

Privacy and Protection

OANDA has a detailed privacy policy on how it uses personal information for things such as cookies to enhance your trading experience.

It also clarifies that it will never ask for security information via phone or email.

Spreads/Fees

OANDA charges competitive spreads across its entire range of CFD markets with no additional trading fees. The spreads start from 1 pip on EUR/USD and 1 point on the DAX 40.

While OANDA doesn’t charge deposit fees, it does charge withdrawal fees for some payment options as well as fees for overnight positions.

Mobile

All the platforms provided by OANDA have downloadable mobile versions on Android and iOS.

Customer Care

OANDA offers 24/5 customer support via phone, email, and live chat.

The OANDA Broker’s Protection and Regulation

OANDA doesn’t implement negative balance protection for all traders (depending on their region). Therefore, you may possibly owe the broker should, in a rare event, your equity fall below 0.

Only clients from Canada and the United Kingdom can access a compensation scheme mandated by their respective regulators for investor protection. This is deposit insurance in case the broker goes under or defaults.

For UK traders, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme can compensate you up to £85,000.
Canadian clients have financial protection from the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF) to the maximum value of $1 million.

For execution, OANDA has a detailed policy. It states that they act as the principal, not the agent of your positions. In other words, the broker is the trading venue or market maker that determines the prices from their third-party liquidity providers.

OANDA uses the best execution to ensure fair and smooth settlement. However, slippage is possible, though seldom, under certain market conditions. OANDA doesn’t reject prices or employ requotes (provided you have a sufficient margin).

Furthermore, OANDA permits hedging, scalping, news trading, and expert advisors (EAs).

OANDA is regulated by several regulators in different jurisdictions:

Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Monetary Authority of Singapore
Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada
Financial Conduct Authority
Japanese Financial Services Agency
Australian Securities and Investment Commission

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 78.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with OANDA Europe Markets Ltd. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

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The Tradable Assets of OANDA

For tradable products, the OANDA broker provides around 108 derivatives (the range may be more or less depending on your region):

Forex (about 70 pairs): currencies are paired against each other, e.g., EUR/USD, USD/JPY
Metals (about 3): a precious metals such as platinum (XPT), gold (XAU), and silver (XAG)
Indices (about 15): a basket of financial instruments, usually stocks, representing a certain sector, e.g., JP225, DAX40, S&P500
Commodities (about 10): raw materials such as oil, copper, sugar, and corn used to produce other goods
Cryptocurrencies (about 4): a digital currency not issued by any government or central bank, e.g., Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC)
Bonds (about 6): a fixed-income loan made by an investor to a corporate or government entity, e.g., US T-Bond, Bunds, US 10-Y T-Note
Spread betting (only for UK clients): here, you trade all of OANDA’s markets in a wager-style method; clients essentially place a bet on the price movements (spread betting is tax-free)

Interestingly, OANDA doesn’t offer individual stocks like most of its competitors. So the best alternative is buying and selling indices. Still, the broker’s market selection is relatively broad, but some firms provide hundreds more CFDs.

The broker doesn’t provide any other investment-related products, such as copy trading. You can use the OANDA demo account to test-drive their instruments before trading them live.

OANDA's easy to use mobile platform allows you to trade on the go from everywhere around the world. You also have the opportunity to constantly improve your trading skills with Oanda's Classroom where you get access to premium webinars and various educational resources.

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OANDA | fxTrade Mobile: Placing a trade

OANDA’s Trading Fees

As with all brokers, OANDA’s primary pricing option is the spread, the markup between an instrument’s buy and sell quotes. This is influenced mainly by how busy the markets are and the liquidity of the traded derivative.

You can expect more consistent and thinner spreads when a market has high activity. However, this may fluctuate slightly during certain times, e.g., high-impact news events. On the other hand, with less liquidity, the spreads will be higher.

If you hold your orders overnight, you should be aware of the overnight financing costs or swaps. These may be positive or negative depending on the OANDA Forex rates within your traded markets.

All of OANDA’s accounts only charge spreads, with one exception. The fixed spread account has lower spreads with a fixed commission starting from $5 per standard lot (100,000 units of the base currency).

Fortunately, OANDA trading doesn’t involve deposit fees (but note that your payment processor may still charge you). For withdrawals, note the following:

The company allows 1 free withdrawal to credit/debit cards per calendar month (the rest incur a fee).
The OANDA broker levies a cost for bank transfers depending on your currency and how many you’ve made in the same calendar month.

For other non-trading fees, note the following:

Any deposits or withdrawals made in any unsupported currency will incur a fee.
If you have no trading activity or open position in a funded account for at least 1 year, you incur a $10 inactivity fee each month.

Opening an Account with OANDA

The OANDA sign in and sign-up process is as smooth as expected. It involves three steps: completing an application form, verifying your identity, and depositing funds.

Pros

No starting balance on most accounts
Offers a fixed spread account

Cons

We found the live account process to be longer than those of other brokers
OANDA could improve in their account selection

Step 1: In the application stage, OANDA asks about your personal details, employment status, and income bracket. Afterward, the OANDA broker reviews your application.

Step 2: In this phase, OANDA requests an identification document (national ID or passport) via email before activating your account.

Step 3: Once verified, you can use your OANDA login details (username and password), where you can open your account and receive its platform credentials. Lastly, you can deposit funds during this time.

Step 4: The Deposit Stage on OANDA

For account types, OANDA has three different accounts (not available in all regions):

Standard: This is the most basic account type with no starting balance and access to all of the OANDA broker’s trading products.
Professional (or Advanced Trader): This is the company’s premier account where the minimum deposit is $10,000. You can expect a dedicated relationship manager, priority service, and other perks here.
Fixed spread: Here, you receive lower spreads with a fixed commission starting from $5 per standard lot.
No OANDA micro account or OANDA PAMM account is available.

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Depositing and Withdrawing with OANDA

OANDA supplies several payment options: Visa/Mastercard, Skrill, NETELLER, PayPal, and bank wire. Not all methods are available in the regions supported by the broker. Traders from particular Asian, Latin American, and African areas can use local mobile or e-wallet methods.

Generally, you’ll always want to fund using a card because this is the cheapest and most convenient method. The minimum deposit starts from $0, and the maximum is $9,000 (per transfer).

For withdrawals, there is no cap. The broker allows you to take out the maximum funds in your account at any time.

Like all brokers, OANDA uses a “return to source” policy for withdrawals. This means that your money goes back in the order of the payment options used. Anything above your initial deposit (i.e., profit) comes through via bank wire. Here’s an example.

You fund a total of $200 ($100 via card and another $100 via Skrill). Let’s assume you profit $500 from this deposit (totaling $700). If you withdrew the entire amount, then

a maximum of $100 goes to Skrill,
a maximum of $100 goes to the card, and
you withdraw the $500 or parts of it via bank wire.

Deposit Method	Deposit Processing Times	Min Deposit	Withdrawal Procesing Times	Min Withdrawal
Credit / Debit cards	Instant	$0	1-3 business days	N/A
eWallets	Up to 1 hour	$0	1 business day	N/A
Bank Wire	1-5 business days	$0	1-5 business days	N/A

*18+ T&Cs apply to each offer.

How Does OANDA Treat Your Privacy and Data?

OANDA has a lengthy privacy policy that you can download. To summarize, the company speaks about implementing the best safeguarding procedures and how your personal data is stored on its servers.

The broker states that it uses security technology such as firewalls and data encryption to protect its network from unauthorized access. Also, traders always require a user ID and password to access their accounts (information they must keep private at all times).

Coupled with strong financial regulation, we are confident in this OANDA review stating that the broker is all-around safe to use.

Which Trading Platforms Can You Use with OANDA?

OANDA offers four different trading platforms: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, OANDA Trade, and TradingView.

MT4/5: MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 were developed and released by the Cyprus-based software developer MetaQuotes in 2005 and 2010, respectively. These two platforms are very popular for Forex analysts in discretionary and automated trading.

However, you can use MT4 or MT5 to trade a wide variety of other instruments. These MetaTrader platforms are known for being pretty user- and beginner-friendly.

While the overall interface and number of features are limited, you can expect reliably fast execution and sufficient technical tools to get the job done.
OANDA Trade: This is the broker’s proprietary trading platform launched in 2001. Its charts are powered by TradingView, which you can also use as standalone software. OANDA Trade is much more advanced than MetaTrader, boasting excellent technical tools, performance analytics, and personalized layouts.

A unique feature of this charting package is the presence of a trading journal to keep a record of your positions, manage risk, and build confidence. OANDA Trade also supports automated trading across many programming languages.
TradingView: TradingView is one of the most supercharged charting platforms available. It was created in September 2011 by Denis Globa, Stan Bokov, and Constantin Ivanov, established as a U.S.-based fintech company.

Few charting software can rival TradingView when it comes to features and data richness. You can find many chart types, thousands of custom indicators, and tens of drawing tools, screeners, custom time-frames, etc.

Although TradingView doesn’t support automated trading, you can create your own indicators and strategies added to your charts using Pine Script™. TradingView works with tens of stock, futures, and crypto exchanges, along with a growing list of Forex brokers.

Despite this being an incredible platform, you need a paid plan to experience most of TradingView’s qualities. Alternatively, you can use the free, ad-based version with limited features.

Trading on the Go

All the desktop and web platforms have mobile applications for Android and iOS. Here, you can switch between numerous accounts and perform most operations as you would on the PC versions.

This includes charting, executing, closing trades, watching the markets, etc. The MetaTrader apps are the easiest to use, while the OANDA fxTrade and TradingView apps are best suited for advanced users.

Still, you can expect the same level of speed and navigation on the ordinary desktop program on all these apps.

The MetaTrader Mobile App

MT4/MT5 apps: Both of these applications are quite similar to each other. Of course, MT5 has more features. Another significant difference is that you don’t have the depth of market on the MT4 app (this is on the MT5 app).

Android
iOS

OANDA App

OANDA fxTrade (the mobile version of OANDA Trade): This app is multi-purpose. Not only can you trade the markets on the go, but also, it helps with several administrative tasks. These include depositing and withdrawing funds, transferring money between accounts, accessing tools, and so on.

TradingView Mobile App

TradingView: This is one of the most advanced and highly rated trading mobile applications. One advantage with TradingView is that you can follow tens of other markets not available on the OANDA broker.

The Trading Tools of OANDA’s Platforms

The platforms provided by OANDA have sufficient trading attributes to analyze the markets and execute positions. These include the following:

Indicators (e.g., moving averages, Bollinger Bands, RSI, stochastics)
Graphical objects (e.g., trend lines, channels, Fibonacci)
Time frames (M1, M5, M15, M30, H1, H4, D1, W, M)
Chart types (bar, line, Japanese candlesticks, Renko, etc.)

Each charting software has the following standard order types:

Pending limit and stop order
Market order
Stop loss order
Take profit order
Trailing stop order

In all areas, OANDA’s proprietary platform and TradingView will generally have more detail than MetaTrader.

OANDA has a few other interesting features not found with many other brokers:

On the OANDA Trade platform, you can use guaranteed stop loss orders (GSLO). The GSLO is a type of stop loss that ensures you exit your positions at your specified price regardless of slippage or erratic volatility.

A standard stop loss order may fill you at a worse price than requested. Still, a GSLO incurs a premium (but only when triggered).

The OANDA Currency Converter

The OANDA converter is an online tool where you can view the latest OANDA FX rates live across virtually all world currencies.

OANDA’s Order Book Indicator

OANDA has an interesting tool not found with other brokers, the MT4 Open Order Indicator. Here, you can see real-time information (updates every 5–20 minutes) on the open positions taken by clients of the OANDA broker.

This tool works on selected Forex pairs and isn’t available for every supported region.

OANDA Customer Support

Live Chat

Yes

E-Mail

[email protected]

Phone

+44-20-7101-1600 / +44-20-3151-2050

What languages does OANDA support?

OANDA is available in the following languages:

English

French

German

Italian

Japanese

Mandarin Chinese

Spanish

OANDA trading comes with customer service through the popular avenues of brokers: phone, email, and live chat. These operate 24/5 in different languages with good response times and knowledgeable assistance.

The one area that OANDA could improve on is opening up some or all of their support channels to work 24/7. Brokers have slowly started incorporating this to offer convenience to their clients.

Pros

Has live chat
Good response times

Cons

Could offer more website languages
May be expensive for foreign clients to contact the broker via phone

Research and Education Tools

This broker fares well in the research and education category with regularly updated information. It has educational guides on starting with the broker, using their charting platforms, and general CFD topics.

You can access live market analysis through live and archived webinars and learn about trading basics. The latest financial market news is available on OANDA’s website and another dedicated site called Market Pulse (run by OANDA).

As a client, you can benefit from other useful tools:

Historical OANDA trading spreads across all instruments
Economic calendar from the OANDA Trade platform
Dow Jones FX Select, which delivers real-time breaking news, expert trend analysis, and in-depth policy commentary

Miscellaneous Info about OANDA

Up to this point, we didn’t find anything else worth mentioning in our review of OANDA. The company has been around a lot longer than your average broker, with several major corporate moves.

For instance, OANDA acquired TMS Brokers, a Polish multi-asset brokerage, in 2020 to help their expansions in the Eastern Europe and Baltics area. OANDA’s most recent awards came in 2021 when they were voted Most Popular Broker and Best Forex & CFD Broker by TradingView.

For now, OANDA hasn’t announced any future plans, meaning that everything should proceed as usual.

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FAQ

How Much Leverage Does OANDA Give You?

All U.S.-based brokers governed by the National Futures Association (NFA) establish a maximum leverage of 1:50.

What Instruments Are Available in OANDA Trading?

With the OANDA broker, you can trade FX, metals, indices, commodities, bonds, and crypto (spread betting on these markets is available for UK residents).

What Is OANDA’s Minimum Deposit?

The broker has no starting balance. However, given the lower leverage, you will probably need a few hundred dollars or more, depending on what you’re trading and how often you trade it. It’s important to understand money management and ensure that your account size is always adequate.

Does OANDA Trade Bitcoin?

OANDA offers the Bitcoin (BTC/USD) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH/USD) markets, along with Ethereum (ETH/USD) and Litecoin (LTC/USD).

Conclusion

Pros

Multi-regulated
Accepts U.S. clients
Provides several charting platforms
Zero minimum deposit
OANDA Forex demo account available

Cons

Inactivity fee applies
Withdrawal fees apply in some instances
Lower leverage and market selection than most brokers
Doesn’t offer individual stocks

To conclude our OANDA Forex broker review, this is an excellent broker overall. The company is well-known to traders in various financial markets. OANDA is one of the oldest derivatives brokers globally and is highly secure as it holds several regulatory licenses.

Some of OANDA’s other key highlights include the following:

No starting balance
Numerous payment options
Several recognized trading platforms
Accepts traders from the United States
Unique trading tools

One of the main disadvantages with OANDA is its limited selection of CFDs (not to mention that it doesn’t offer individual stocks). Lastly, the lower leverage may not be preferable for all traders.

With that being said, OANDA fires on enough cylinders to make the broker easy, safe, and optimal to use.

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