Oanda

OANDA has built a solid reputation for itself since its inception in 1996 and has rapidly become one of the world’s big names in forex trading and CFDs. As a result, spreads, costs, platforms and data access are all highly competitive.

OANDA offers a wide range of CFD and forex products. CFDs cover indices, commodities and metals. For forex, you have all the majors and a good range of minors. However, metals and cryptocurrencies are narrow in their range. Also note, there are no stock nor ETF CFDs available.

Pros

• Trusted brand with a positive reputation

• Ease of account opening - no docs for deposits below USD 9K

• Tier-1 banking relationships

• Best-in-class MT4 bridge

• Excellent market research tools

• A lot of customer education and industry news sources

• Competitive spreads, margins, and trading costs

• No direct withdrawal or deposit fee

Cons

• Not listed on any stock exchange, and no banking licence

• More modern trading platforms (currently offering MT4 only)

• No individual stocks, stock CFDs, ETFs or Futures

• Customer portfolio analytical tools

• Social trading tools that most of its competitors offer

• Live support during market hours only

Open a live account in 3 easy steps

You can open a live account with a bank transfer (local or international), credit/debit card, Skrill or Neteller, and trade in up to four currencies: USD, EUR, HKD and SGD. The accounts OANDA offers include standard, core and swap-free. In addition, negative balance protection and premium are in the pipeline. You can also set up a demo - paper or sim - account before committing to trade with real money. Document verification is not needed when you open an account and deposit below US$9,000.

Deposits and withdrawals

OANDA does not charge a fee for deposits, and withdrawals are free except for the bank transfer option that incurs a US$25 transaction fee. All major funding options are accepted, including bank transfers, electronic wallets, debit cards, and credit cards.

Fees, leverage and competitive spreads

OANDA doesn’t charge for account funding options. In addition, there are no deposit or withdrawal fees charged, although OANDA does charge account inactivity fees if your trading account remains inactive for 12 months.

OANDA compensates for the lack of individual stocks and ETF options with high leverage (up to 200:1). In addition, they apply tiered margin requirements with open trade positions, so, generally, the higher the value of an open trade position, the higher the margin you must maintain.

OANDA offers competitive spreads:

• FX spreads from 1.0 (spread only)

• FX core spreads from 0.2 to 0.6 (+ commission at $40 per million notional)

• Gold from 30 cents

Security and regulations

OANDA is regulated by the BVI Financial Services Commission in the British Virgin Islands (BVIFSC). As a result, traders aren’t provided with negative balance protection. 

MT4 Trading platforms

For Virgin Islands accounts, OANDA offers the Metatrader 4 platform. Order execution is 100% automated, with no dealer intervention.

MT4 comes with powerful analytical and charting tools. OANDA integrates market research and charting tools to enhance your trading experience.

Some critical features offered by OANDA for charting and analytical purposes include:

• 30 technical indicators

• 24 analytical objects: lines, channels, geometric shapes, as well as Gann, Fibonacci, and Elliott tools

• 9 timeframes including M1, M5, M15, M30, H1, H4, D1, W1 and MN

• Popular features such as Renko charts, OCO, keyboard trading, Expert Advisor and MLQ4 language indicator

• MT4 technical analysis powered by AutoChartist

Through MT4 premium, you can access quality web content inside your trading platform. From within the MT4 client terminal, you now have direct access to content from Dow Jones, market news sentiment, as well as two calendars to stay up to date. You can also access OANDA’s forex blog content.

Learning and support

OANDA offers an abundance of educational material, industry news, blogs, and trading guides. In addition, its Market Pulse covers comprehensive industry news and events. They also provide helpful customer training through live events and webinars.

OANDA offers 24 hours dedicated customer support on 5 weekdays. Its mode of communication are:

• Live chat with an advisor

• Direct call support

• Email, and

• Chatbot for basic queries

The in-depth industry analysis and market news make up for the lack of 24/7 live support. Fortunately, the level of support on those 5 and a half days of the week is of a high standard, with waiting times for calls being about 16 seconds and just 10 to 15 seconds for a chat on average.