Oanda review

OANDA broker overview

Established in the mid-1990s, OANDA is one of the pioneers of online Forex brokers. The company's founders are Dr. Michael Stumm and Dr. Richard Olsen. When the online trading platform FXTrade was launched in 2001, it was the first fully automated Forex trading platform. Since then, OANDA has shown rapid growth with the ability to process more than a million requests per day. It is estimated that about 20% of global spot currency trading is conducted through OANDA servers.



Trading platform

Two main types of trading platforms serve the needs of traders on OANDA, the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform and the FXTrade WebTrader. The MT4 trading platform is highly regarded in the online trading community for its advanced features and advanced trading tools. As for FXTrade WebTrader, it requires JAVA to run. Since it uses internet technology, traders can access the platform from anywhere in the world, provided they have an internet connection.

Both of these versions of the trading platform are also available in the mobile version for mobile devices. Technically advanced traders can use the OANDA FXTrade API libraries and build their own automated trading system to perform trading actions such as:

  • Getting access to current and archived market data
  • Getting access to archived trading operations
  • Testing without any risk
  • The limit of loss, take-profit or entry orders
  • Trade requests

OANDA account type

OANDA does not distinguish account types between different types of traders. Thus, OANDA has only one standard trading account type. The good news is that it also doesn't have a minimum deposit requirement. It is allowed to conduct trades of any volume without any requirements for the minimum transaction size.

Commission and Spreads

Like most online Forex brokers, OANDA does not charge a commission for its trading services. In fact, traders ' payments are spread based on real-time market value. Depending on the currency traded, the spreads start from as low as 1.1 pips. Index spreads are even lower, starting from 0.5 points.
Traders should note that when volatility is high, spreads tend to widen.

Customer support

OANDA customer support is available 5 days a week from Sunday (13: 00 Eastern time) to Friday (18:00 Eastern time). A customer service representative can be contacted via live chat, email, Fax, or phone. For the convenience of its customers, OANDA has opened offices in the following locations:

  • Bayfront, Singapore
  • Chicago, USA
  • London, United Kingdom
  • Tokyo, Japan
  • Toronto, Canada


Reliability

To maintain the integrity and reliability of its operations, OANDA pays special attention to meeting all the necessary regulatory requirements for an online Forex broker. For example, a company registered in the register of futures brokers (FCM), the Commission on trade commodity futures (CFTC) and National futures Association (NFA ID #0325821).

With regard to the protection of client's funds, OANDA only works with tier 1 banks such as Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Canada and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Pros

  1. Innovative trading practices
  2. The lack of discrimination between traders
  3. Open and transparent pricing
  4. Powerful and easy-to-use Forex trading platforms
  5. Qualitative performance
  6. Quality support
  7. Reputable broker
  8. Narrow spreads


Cons

  1. The MT4 platform does not support the expert Advisor program
  2. Spreads tend to widen when news is published


With features such as real-time pricing, automated trading, and no minimum deposit or trading volume requirements, it is easy to understand OANDA's popularity among many traders. The fact that OANDA is a regulated and long-established broker is an added bonus for traders.


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