Oanda is a forex broker based in the United States that was established in 1996. OANDA provides clients with a trustworthy Forex broker and 69 currency pairs to trade from an improved MT4 trading platform.
Oanda has recently evolved into a global corporation with offices in eight financial centres (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia).
It serves clients from over 200 countries, provides support in nine languages, and complies with the strict regulations of six major authorities; FCA (BVI), ASIC, IIROC, CFTC, MAS and FSA).
If you are looking to open an account with Oanda, consider this review first.
You can find our transparent Oanda review below. Broker reviews are updated frequently!
We value your feedback: Rate this broker by leaving a comment and rating below this review.
>Oanda Regulation
As a US broker, Oanda has regulations from the top regulators.
The IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada) is OANDA’s major regulator, and it limits leverage and restricts bonuses and promotions.
The expense of regulation is also obvious in the other four jurisdictions, which are overseen by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore), FSA (Financial Services Authority) and the FSC (British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission).
In the United Kingdom, OANDA Europe is approved and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Clients are eligible for additional asset protection of up to £85,000 through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Despite the high level of regulations, the amount of protection available to each account in the event of default is restricted. It may vary depending on where you open your account.
For instance, OANDA Europe Limited provides ESMA-mandated negative balance protection, but OANDA Asia Pacific Ltd. provides guaranteed stop-loss orders. US clients are the exception, as OANDA Corporation does not provide such protections for their accounts.
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>Reliability
Oanda has regulations from top tier entities. This is significant since the extent of investor protection, and the regulator vary from entity to entity.
Negative balance protection is available for FX spot and CFD trading at Oanda, but only for retail clients from the European Union. Negative balance protection does not apply to professional or non-EU traders.
However, due to several regulations, your investments are in safe hands when trading with Oanda.
>Oanda Tradeable products
Oanda offers a diverse range of CFD products (including stock index, bond, commodities and Crypto (Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum ) CFDs as well as a fair number of currency pairs.
The range of markets available may differ slightly according to the OANDA entity where you open an account. CFDs are not available in the United States, although OANDA sells Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies as a CFD.
There are no ETFs, individual stocks, or futures CFDs in the product lineup.
>Oanda Account types
There are two types of trading account at Oanda; a standard account and an advanced trader account (for US clients only). In addition, you can also open a demo account.
OANDA’s advanced trader program, a three-tiered compensation structure for large-volume traders, is available to US clients. Its perks involve spread or commission savings, a dedicated relationship manager, API support, free VPS and wire transfers, and cheap access to third-party platforms.
While most retail traders open a standard account with Oanda, the overall pricing remains competitive in both accounts. The standard account requires no minimum deposit, while conditions for the advanced account vary on the regulatory jurisdiction.
Don’t get discouraged from the availability of advance traders program to US clients. You can open up to 19 sub-accounts with Oanda. These are useful if you want to keep many base currencies in one account. For instance, you can have a USD account with EUR and GBP sub-accounts.
Average Standard Account Spreads on Majors
- EUR/USD: 0.6
- GBP/USD: 1.7
- USD/JPY: 1.2
- AUD/USD: 1.4
>Opening an account
You can open an account in less than 10 minutes. However, the account approval process can take several days. Oanda also asks you to send verification docs like proof of residence through email.
OANDA offers simplified account opening where most traders don’t need to provide verification documents when they trade up to USD 9,000.
Here are the steps of the Oanda account opening process:
- Provide personal and financial information.
- Describe your trading background.
- Confirm your identity and citizenship. You can check your identity by uploading a national ID, passport, or driver’s license. Utility bills and bank statements are accepted as proof of residency.
>Account currency
There are nine base currencies for opening an account with Oanda. They are:
GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, CHF, SGD, HKD, and JPY
Note that you can expect a conversion fee if you open an account in a different currency like ZAR than the base currencies.
>Trading platform
Oanda offers three trading platforms: Oanda’s native platform, known as Oanda Trade or FX Trade, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5.
Oanda’s trading platform is simple to use and well-designed. It is also customisable, allowing you to adjust the position and size of the tabs.
With 28 plug-ins, OANDA offers one of the greatest MT4 upgrade packages. It demonstrates OANDA’s dedication to automated traders, a feature that OANDA own platform does not support. While the MAM/PAMM module is not available on MT4 at OANDA, the trading platform does have a copy-trading feature.
FX Trade provides traders with a better user interface compared to the dated MT4 design.
Both trading systems are easy to use. Beginner traders will have no difficulty learning it. Both MT4 and OANDA Trade allow for customisation and feature several technical indicators and drawing tools for performing technical analyses.
OANDA also collaborated with TradingView to provide a third option. Using the TradingView platform with OANDA’s account as a third option gives you access to TradingView’s community features and technical analyses.
The Oanda mobile trading platform is available for both iOS and Android devices. In terms of functionality, it is similar to a web trading platform.
>Oanda Commissions and fees
OANDA provides a great commission-free and commission-based pricing environment. For the EUR/USD, the broker starts with a minimum mark-up of 0.6 pips or $6.00 for a 1.0 standard lot.
High-frequency traders who trade $10 million per month are eligible for a volume-based return ranging from $3.00 to $11.00 per $1,000,000 transacted. It reduces the cost of a lot by $0.30 to $4.70 to $1.10 to $3.90.
These price alternatives are freely accessible on OANDA’s website and are available for both account types offered by the broker; however, the displayed spreads may vary.
For example, the minimum EUR/USD spread for US clients on a standard account is 1.3 pips, while the advance model shows a raw spread of 0.4 pips.
Oanda applies swap rates on leveraged overnight positions. It also applies an inactivity fee of $10 monthly after twelve months of inactivity. Besides this, OANDA charges a currency exchange fee of 0.50 per cent. Third-party deposit and withdrawal fees may also apply.
As part of its quest for enhanced price transparency, OANDA releases a trailing average of its average spread across nearly all timeframes regularly.
>Leverage
Oanda has leverage options for people who want to trade on margin. Maximum leverage for retail clients is determined by regulators in your geographic location; nevertheless, all Oanda customers can further reduce their leverage limit.
We liked how you could manually adjust the leverage. This functionality is not available at all brokers. You can go to the Deposit and Withdrawal tab to select the leverage of up to 1:200.
When you wish to reduce the risk of your trade, changing the leverage is a handy function. For instance, in commodity CFDs, instead of trading with 5:1, you can just trade with 2:1 leverage.
A keynote to add here is to be careful when trading forex and CFDs, as the preset leverage levels may be high.
>Deposits and Withdrawals
There are vast deposit methods available at Oanda. However, it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
The majority of OANDA traders can only use bank transfers, credit/debit cards, and PayPal. There are no deposit fees, but all three options have third-party withdrawal fees. OANDA does not provide competing payment processors; however, some jurisdictions have localised options, which are frequently tied to banks.
Oanda does not charge any deposit or account fees. The charge for inactivity is likewise affordable. You can also withdraw with a debit or credit card for free; however, bank transfers and PayPal withdrawals are expensive.
Oanda does not impose fees for debit card withdrawals, and the first credit card transfer each month is also free.
>Education and Research
OANDA provides competitive research in-house and on its MarketPulse blog. MarketPulse provides well-written news and commentary, as well as visual components like charts and videos. You can also find a useful economic calendar here. You can also get daily market comments and trade suggestions.
The educational section for new traders remains limited and insufficient. The information is basic, and there is no classroom-style approach with well-structured lectures and courses.
OANDA conducts live webinars; however, its total educational value lags below competitors with a strong educational offering.
Oanda offers a variety of research tools, such as news, technical analysis, and an API. These features, however, are not properly organised on their website.
>Customer Service
Oanda’s customer service is available round the clock, five days a week. However, Oanda does not have a specific contact section and does not list phone numbers or registered addresses. It largely relies on its FAQ section, and the live chat looks to be a chatbot with no human support. Although there is an email button and Oanda claims 24/5 assistance, the broker fails to maintain a customer support portal with quick access to a customer service professional.
The majority of Oanda’s support is available through the FAQ section or a chatbot. If you require human assistance, you may only contact the support team by email.
>Bonuses and Promotions
Currently, Oanda doesn’t offer any bonuses and promotions.
>Special features
Aside from the MT4 upgrade and the TradingView collaboration, OANDA also offers technical analysis from Autochartist.
Autochartist is a program that can identify chart patterns using technical indicators. It monitors the markets 24 hours a day, alerting you to trading opportunities in real-time.
VPS hosting is also offered for automated trading solutions, and OANDA provides an API that allows you to have advanced trading options with Oanda’s platform. These trading tools provide traders with a competitive advantage in financial markets.
>Oanda South Africa
As a South African, you’ll be glad to know that you can open an account with Oanda. However, it doesn’t allow you to open an account in ZAR.
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>Our verdict
OANDA is well-known among seasoned forex traders. Its native platform provides a great desktop trading experience, combined with outstanding research and analysis features.
While the research offerings are extensive, their structure needs improvement, as the content is dispersed over Oanda’s website and channels.
Additionally, considering OANDA’s history in the online brokerage industry, the limited amount of product offerings, particularly when compared to its competitors, is quite surprising.
Having regulations from top-tier authorities is advantageous, but failing to provide slippage protection or further deposit protections beyond what regulators require is a disadvantage at Oanda.
Nonetheless, Oanda’s price transparency, platform technology, and global regulatory monitoring should provide you with peace of mind. Experienced traders looking for a well-designed desktop platform will find what they are looking for at Oanda.
>From a South African perspective
Oanda is a great broker with top-tier regulations. It provides simple trading platforms that you can easily learn. It also offers strong research tools, particularly trading APIs. The process of creating an account is simple and quick.
Feel free to give Oanda a shot because top-tier authorities regulate it, there is no minimum deposit, and the inactivity charge only applies after one year.
We value your feedback: Rate this broker by leaving a comment and rating below this review.
>Broker FAQ
Thinking of Trading with Oanda?
What is the OANDA’s minimum deposit?
There isn’t a minimum deposit for the Standard account, but for the advance traders program, requirements are as high as $20,000.
How do I deposit/withdraw from the OANDA account?
You can deposit/withdraw funds through debit or credit card, bank wire transfer or PayPal.
Is OANDA spreads high?
OANDA offers tighter spreads, delivering a trading cost advantage to clients.
What is the maximum leverage at Oanda?
Oanda offers maximum leverage of 1:200.
Does OANDA use MetaTrader?
Yes, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5.
Is Oanda available in South Africa?
Yes, Oanda is available for South African traders.
