Oanda is one of the most respected online Forex and CFD brokers in the industry, boasting numerous industry awards, including ‘Best Mobile Platform’ in 2015. Established as a currency business in 1996, Oanda launched its proprietary fxTrade platform in 2001, providing fully automated retail Forex trading possibilities to the general public. Oanda has since evolved into a global financial business consortium with headquarters in Canada and subsidiaries in the UK, Australia, Singapore, Japan and the USA. Operations in each of the corporate locations, comply fully with regulatory and financial regulations and manage risk by segregating clients’ funds in Tier-1 banks. Significantly, Oanda is one of few online Forex brokers licensed by US regulators to provide Forex trading platforms to US residents legally. Oanda is accessible in 9 languages and offers 24/6 live support and educational information on the website.
Account Features
The live trading account is available to all trading clients at Oanda. Unlike most online brokers, Oanda does not distinguish between its clients with different types of trading accounts. Moreover, there is no minimum deposit requirement or minimum size trade, making it very attractive for beginners in Forex and CFD trading. Nevertheless, traders should consider that low deposits, lower the amount of leverage that can be accessed from Oanda for opening bigger market positions. Clients who have a live trading account can access the Oanda REST and FIX application program interfaces also referred to as APIs. Using APIs allows traders to develop automated Forex and CFD trading strategies. Additionally, traders can access a host of free educational tools including live webinars and video tutorials.
Traders at Oanda are offered a core pricing + commission trading option, calculated per 100,000 units traded. Commissions are charged on both the buy and sell side of each trade and taken directly from the client’s account when a trade is executed.
Oanda Financing Charges
Oanda makes a second by second financing charge on the currency pairs held in forex traders’ positions. Notably, the ‘ask’ financing rates are higher than the ‘bid’ financing rates. Moreover, the financing rates, calculated by special algorithms, vary between currencies and change daily.
Oanda Forex Trade Margins and Leverage
Whilst the Oanda fxTrade platform allows margin trading with leverage provided by Oanda, the maximum amount of leverage is determined by financial regulators in each region that Oanda operates in. Typically, maximum leverage on currency pairs is 1:50 in most countries. Significantly, Oanda recommends that traders using leverage, utilise stop loss orders to limit potential losses.
Spreads for Currency Pairs and CFDs
Oanda offers 60 currency pairs and always publishes the real time bid and ask rates, accessed by traders on the Oanda Live Trading platform. Whilst Spreads for EUR/USD can be as low as 1 pip, they do vary as they reflect foreign exchange and CFD rates from many global banks. Typically spreads widen at 4pm every Friday, due to decreased liquidity in global markets over the weekend. 30+ CFDs can be traded at Oanda with spreads varying according to asset choice.
Oanda Demo Account
Beginners to Forex and CFD Trading can benefit by opening the free Demo account available at Oanda. In contrast to most online brokers, the Demo account does not have an expiry date, and traders are given limitless virtual funds to practice across the fxTrade, MT4 and mobile platforms. Opening an Oanda Demo account is easy, requiring only a name, phone number, country and email address without any obligation to open a real money account at any future date.
Trading Software & Assets
Oanda offers award winning fxTrade, Forex and CFD trading platforms for Desktop, Web trading and Mobile trading. Each trading platform features ‘industry leading execution speed’, dynamic tools for technical analysis and advanced charting. Additionally, Oanda offers clients access to the popular MetaTrader4, a Windows based electronic trading platform giving clients automated trading possibilities on desktop and mobile devices.
Oanda Forex and CFD Desktop Trading Platform
By downloading the award-winning desktop platform, traders get access to an intuitive trading interface with highly competitive spreads, market transparency and all the latest industry news. The desktop platform can be customised according to trading preferences and offers a huge range of trading tools. The fully automated desktop trading platform features exceptionally fast execution of one millisecond, due to the new v20 execution engine recently introduced by Oanda. Notably, traders are not subjected to re-quotes, last look or rejects before trades are executed.
Oanda Web Trader for CFD and Forex Trading
As the name implies, traders can execute CFD and Forex trading directly from the web browser without any software downloads. The fast, intuitive Oanda web platform features competitive spreads and allows clients to place open market, limit and stop orders. Notably, traders can deposit and withdraw funds without leaving the web platform, managing their Oanda accounts. Additionally, traders can follow all the forex industry news on the web platform and use advanced charting to analyse trends and close trades.
CFD and Forex Mobile Trading Apps
The CFD and Forex mobile trading apps make trading on the move an exciting option at Oanda. By downloading the native apps to Android or iOS powered phones and tablets, traders can access their trading portfolios and features from any location. Price signal notifications are available from Oanda Alerts and traders can use the mobile chart trading functionality with simple taps on the screen of the mobile device.
MetaTrader4 Trading Platforms
Once traders have set up an Oanda Trading account and deposited funds, they can set up a MT4 sub-account and transfer funds from the Oanda Trading account. The MT4 account available on desktop and as a mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, has 9 time-frames and provides 50 built in indicators to assist traders in finding trading opportunities. Additionally, traders can gain access to Oanda technical analysis with intra-day market scanning by installing the MT4 PLUGIN.
CFD and Forex Trading Tools
The Oanda live trading account gives traders access to a broad range of potentially lucrative trading tools. These include 65+ popular technical indicators, drawing tools for analysing market trends as well as advanced charting with leading edge indicators. Oanda Technical Analysis lets traders follow volatility, create automated alerts, check performance statistics and use pattern recognition technology.
Support Information
The Oanda Help Portal offers clients several support options. Multi-lingual live and Email support is available 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, for clients with accounts in any of the Oanda subsidiaries across the globe. Education, My Account, Other Products and Platform Help are the primary categories with detailed explanations in the Help Portal. However, we found the Frequently Asked Questions page provides detailed answers to diverse subjects including how to set up a trading account, depositing and withdrawing funds and fxTrade Margin rules.
Banking & Company Information
The exact payment methods vary with each Oanda regional division and are clearly displayed on the Oanda website. Nevertheless, every division supports well-known debit and credit cards, bank wire transfers and PayPal methods of deposit and withdrawal. Whilst Oanda does not typically charge deposit fees, PayPal deposits made in EUR, USD and GBP are charged a service fee of £0.35 per transfer and up to 1.4% of the total amount transferred.