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CloseOanda Review
Oanda offers an exceptional, easy-to-use trading platform and requires no minimum deposit to open an account.
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All reviews, research, news and assessments of any kind on The Tokenist are compiled using a strict editorial review process by our editorial team. Neither our writers nor our editors receive direct compensation of any kind to publish information on tokenist.com. Our company, Tokenist Media LLC, is community supported and may receive a small commission when you purchase products or services through links on our website. Click here for a full list of our partners and an in-depth explanation on how we get paid.
In this review, we focused on the services provided by OANDA Global Markets, www.oanda.com/bvi-en, authorised and regulated by BVI Financial Services Commission. Some features and services may vary depending on where you reside.”
Oanda is a globally recognised, retail trading platform, currency data and analytics company. The company was founded in 1996 by Dr. Michael Stumm, and now operates across the globe in over 196 countries.
The broker is regulated by 8 top-tier entities, including the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada and Japan.
Oanda’s award-winning technology and execution across a wide selection of asset classes, enables customers to trade currencies, including commodities, equity indices, and precious metals.
In May 2018, CVC Capital Partners Asia Fund acquired the leading platform, Oanda.
Disclaimer: The OANDA Group has multiple subsidiaries who are licensed to offer products to clients around the globe.
The OANDA subsidiary with whom a client contracts depends on their country of residence. Each subsidiary provides different products via different platforms, so clients will experience OANDA differently depending on their country of residence.
CFDs are not available to residents in the United States.
Spreadbetting is only available to residents in the UK.
Fast Facts
- Account Minimum: $0
- Regulation: FCA (UK) and CySEC (Cyprus), FSC – BVI, ASIC, IIROC
- Demo Account: Yes
- Asset Coverage: Forex, commodities, indexes, and certain CFDs only
- Best for: Experienced traders
- Inactivity fee charged: Yes, after 2 years
- Country of regulation: USA, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Japan
Ratings
- Commissions & Fees: 9/10
- Investment Selection: 9/10
- Account Options & Features: 8/10
- Usability: 8.5/10
- Educational Resources: 8/10
- Customer Service: 7/10
- Overall: 8/10
Investor Warning: CFDs are complex financial products and come with a high risk of losing money. 76.8% of retail client accounts lose money trading CFDs with this provider.You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Under the acquisition, the company will continue being led by Chief Executive Officer, Vatsa Narashimha, who was a pivotal figure in the growth of the business.
Senior Managing Director at CVC, Siddharth Patel said: “This is an exciting opportunity to invest in a leading global player with a consistent track record of growth and a highly cash-generative business, in a sector known well to CVC.”
Pros
- Minimum deposits from as little as $1
- Considered safe and is regulated by top-tier governmental regulatory bodies
- Stellar, easy-to-use trading platform
- Generally low fees
- Access to a large number of currency pairs and other asset classes
Cons
- Access to forex and certain CFDs
- Customer service team is knowledgeable but slow
- No negative balance protection on accounts
Overview and Summary
Oandas most important aspects:
- Oanda is a globally recognised, retail trading platform, currency data and analytics company, founded in 1995 by Dr. Michael Stumm.
- Oanda is regulated in six tier-1 jurisdictions, and is considered a safe broker for trading forex and CFDs.
- Oanda overall charges low fees, although their EUR/USD pair is higher than competitors.
- Oanda’s research is top class and hits all the right points to create a high-quality well-rounded offering that includes expert economic analysis, live news feeds, calendars, and progressive data analytics.
- Oanda has a good selection of markets including bonds, indexes, commodities, and forex. But they are limited in certain categories.
- Oanda provides 24/7 customer support, but their live chat and mobile support is only open Monday to Friday from 1:00 to 6:00 ET, which is narrow and inconvenient for most.
Is Oanda Safe? 🛡
Oanda is considered safe and is regulated by top-tier governmental bodies, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the U.S. Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), among others. The firm also has a proven record of being transparent and disclosing its financial records.
While the firm is registered with an impressively large amount of overseers, the firms protection of traders in the event of an account default is limited.
OANDA Market Insights 👨🏫
Oanda offers a market insights podcast from its very own market analyst Craig Erlam, who has over five years experience working as both a financial market analyst and trader.
Craig offers insights on technical and fundamental analysis, while conducting commentary from a macroeconomic perspective.
In the Year in Review podcast Craig, together with Panmure Gordon’s Chief Economist Simon French, and Economist Francis Coppola talked about 2019. financial markets.
In it, Craig discusses what he believes to be a certain kind of inertia in regards to BREXIT “and the rest”, and a sense of time wasted. ⏳
One of the defining features of the last 3 and a half years is that business investment has underperformed its long term trend in the U.K economy. This, allied with a poor improvement in the UKs balance of payments in trade, means that the UK has probably forfeited over that period of between 2-3% GPB.
So, the question to ask he suggests is; “how much recent political events will lead to a catch-up in that demand, or has some of that demand, or the majority of it been lost forever.”
The British Fatigue 🕵️♂️
The podcast discusses the public’s sense of feeling fed-up with the ins and outs of the Westminster bubble, BREXIT fatigue, and whether or not that helped the conservative party win.
They suggest that people didn’t feel a sense of outstanding support, but instead, more a sense of ‘let’s just get this over the line and be done with’. People may have got caught, or lost in the noise, when it wasn’t that simple.
The analysts went on to discuss the possibility of there being a common sense of right—perhaps people felt like they’d made their beds and now they had to follow through with it. Ignoring that the economic consequences of this train of thought will stay with the U.K for a long time to come.
Craig refers to the amount of time that he’s had to tell clients that he didn’t know the answer. He says that the difficulty in the situation is that although the UK voted to leave the EU, they didn’t vote how to.
🇬🇧 Are you a UK-based forex trader? Here are some leading forex trading platforms in the UK.
The Economic Cold-War 🏛
The analysts go on to discuss oil prices, and the shift that’s taken place. Craig states that it’s crucial to look at the last four years to see where the shift has come.
The effect that the Economic cold-war is having is mentioned, the battle between two economic powers in the world, China and the U.S and their constant battle for hegemony. The initial public obsession that Trump was hand in hand with Putin has died, they observe.
Why is There No Market Effect? 🧐
While this is all quite substantial stuff, none of it has really affected the markets.
Craig suggests this is because the market performance in 2019, for example, the equity market’s response, was driven by the Federal Reserve, not the White House, and that most investors concluded they are guessing in terms of the next move; both in terms of the president and the impeachment, because it [the impeachment] likely won’t even go to full-term.
In terms of risk assets, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates 3 times this year, and that’s enough to reallocate towards risks, and away from the fears that really stalked the market back in 2019.
Proceed with Caution 🚧
The team concluded that the scale of the electoral victory means that Borris Johnson will likely be safe for 5 years, and in that environment businesses can plan with a degree more certainty, but not complete certainty, take caution.
There remains significant structural difficulties with UK economy, from low productivity to structural deficits on both the trade and fiscal side to try and manage, which means that the economic political risk factor has dialed down for investors.
Oanda Compared
1.2
0.9
1.4
0.363
$0
$250
71
93
0.9
0.6
0.363
0.6
$250
$10,000
93
182
Average spread EUR/USD standard
1.2
0.9
0.6
All-in cost EUR/USD - active
1.4
0.363
0.6
Minimum initial deposit
$0
$250
$10,000
Total currency pairs
71
93
182
Demo account?
Social / copy trading?
Fees & Commissions 💳
Oanda overall charges low fees, although their EUR/USD pair is higher than competitors. Oanda’s CFD fees are generally low in comparison to competitors, like FXCM and Pepperstone.
The firm tracks global pricing, but spreads can still be affected by market volatility and liquidity. Oanda offers transparent pricing, and traders can view current spreads and historical average spreads easily.
There is also a commission plus raw-spread model available for traders who meet the right criteria, which can work out cheaper than standard spreads. Oanda has a $0 minimum investment policy.
Inactivity Fees 💸
Oanda’s inactivity fees are standard but they don’t charge a deposit fee. Withdrawal fees are good for credit/debit and PayPal, but the firm charges high bank withdrawal fees. There is also an inactivity fee of $14 per month once you have been inactive for one year, which is fair.
What OANDA Do Best 🏆
Oanda’s desktop experience, FXTrade is stellar. Users can speculate on quickly changing forex pricing with fast execution features, no re-quotes and tight spreads from 0.00 pip’s.
The platform allows users to access the firm’s trading instruments, live prices to trade major, minor and exotic currencies, advanced order types, and account analytics.
You can avail of charts with advanced studies from TradingView and MultiCharts, along with all the other standard features; including watch lists, some superb market analysis, and real-time news feeds.
Oanda also offers MetaTrader 4 platform. With this, traders can speculate on greater market depth, an integrated economic calendar, one-click trading, advanced analysis tools, and greater charting functionality.
With more advanced trading tools, improved charting capabilities, and the depth of market available as a plug-in, MetaTrader 5 is now featured on the Oanda platform.
MT5 is available for web, desktop, and mobile on live and demo accounts.
Mobile Experience 📱
Oanda offers an impressive app platform with good functionality, and is quite similar to the desktop version, enabling access to Oanda’s trading instruments, analytics, and advanced order types for traders on-the-go.
The firm regularly updates and improves its app and also improved its calendar function; adding a 3-day schedule and therefore allowing traders to see whether markets are open or closed.
FXTraders mobile app includes charts, indicators, and the ability to trade straight from the chart. Everything else is impressively the same for a small platform.
🚶♂️Are you interested in seeing more mobile trading choices? These are some of the best apps for trading on the go.
Research Tools and Insights 🛠
Oanda’s research is top class and hits all the right points to create a high-quality, well-rounded offering that includes; expert economic analysis, live news feeds, calendars, and progressive data analytics.
The platform is quick, and robust, and is most suited to advanced traders, but all users can probably expect a bit of a learning curve before you can fully utilize it.
The Economic analysis, along with experts insights of current economic and political affairs in their podcast is a good way to spend 20 minutes of your morning. ☀
The calendars include historical trend graphs, and have just been updated, as we mentioned. Also, more experienced traders will definitely appreciate the pattern matching engines and volatility analysis.
With the sheer pace of the financial markets traders have been looking to experts more than ever for their advice, predictions, and insights into the markets behavior. The only downside is that everything can be a bit scattered and semi-difficult to locate.
🥇 Did u know? Oanda currently has its place in our list of best forex trading platforms.
Education 📚
Oanda’s educational offerings include videos and articles, with a section for beginners, as well as more advanced material for seasoned traders. Traders can take advantage of this learning section with topics on tools and forex trading strategies, capital management, and webinars and events.
Some of the written material can be a bit outdated, but the live webinars and insights from experts definitely make up for it. All in all, in combination with its accessible and user-friendly platform, Oanda’s educational offer is great for new traders that are just getting started in forex trading, as well as seasoned pros who are looking to learn and improve.
Special Features ⚙
Oanda’s selection of special features is exciting and earns the broker a lot of customer satisfaction awards each year by investment trends research. The only downside to it all is that it can take a while to master—but all good things do, right?
With Oanda’s analysis tools traders can create complex strategies that involve coding languages, visual market data, and analyze how economic news affects the market on charts. This is all of course, more suited to experienced traders with a good knowledge of the market and strategy creation.
Where OANDA Could Do Better 👨🔧
Investment Products 🗃
Oanda has a good selection of markets including bonds, indexes, commodities, and forex. But they are limited in certain categories. Oanda’s offer of 52 CFDs is below the number that some of its competitors offer, which could be anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000. However, Oanda do openly focus on forex trading.
Customer Support ☎
Oanda provides 24/7 customer support, but their live chat and mobile support is only open Monday to Friday from 1:00 to 6:00 ET, which is narrow and inconvenient for most. The support can be slow to respond, and waiting times are far too long, with some reaching 35 minutes. Overall the service just isn’t up to scratch.
That said, the customer service team is knowledgeable and helpful, once you get a hold of them.
How to Open an Account with OANDA 🏗
You can open an account with Oanda fairly quickly and easily, and there is no minimum deposit required. The online application consists of 7 short sections, and the approval can take from 1-3 days. You can also create a demo account if you would like to try it out first.
Oanda has one main account type, but you can also get a premium account if you meet certain criteria. A premium account will give you access to discounted spreads, a partner platform subscription, and free wire transfers, plus commission accounts.
The Bottom Line 🏁
Oanda is a great option for experienced forex traders with low fees, and a fantastic trading platform. It’s also regulated by 6 top-tier entities and has transparent pricing.
The firm offers excellent research tools and top class insights, along with a good educational section for both beginners and experienced traders, although the information can be a bit scattered.
Oanda’s customer support can have long waiting times, and its opening hours are quite inconvenient for most. The firm’s bank withdrawal fees are high, but this shouldn’t be too big an issue if you only withdraw once a month.
Lastly, Oanda’s product portfolio is limited to forex and CFDs, but if this is you then you might be on the money.
Oanda: FAQs
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How Good is Oanda in Forex Market?
Oanda is considered to be one of the best forex brokerages out there as they offer access to a large number of currency pairs with low fees and an excellent easy-to-use platform. With their fxTrade desktop platform, they offer a superb users experience. You can access a vast amount of charts, analyses as well as the real-time news feed. That said, we believe that Oanda is a go-to for seasoned traders.
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How Can You Open an Oanda Trading Account?
The whole process of opening an account with Oanda is pretty simple and quick. All you need to do is fill in the online application, after that, you'll just need to wait for approval anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. Also, don't worry about any initial payments since the company made sure that the required account minimum is $0.
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Does Oanda Charge Fees?
Oanda charges low forex fees, average CFD fees, and a $14 inactivity fee. You won't be charged any fees for depositing money, but when you decide to withdraw money it's recommended that you do that through PayPal or debit/credit card since the bank withdrawal fees are pretty high.
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Is Oanda Available in the United States?
Yes - Oanda allows U.S. clients to trade forex online, though only for the major currencies. The service has been registered with the CFTC, NFA, and FCA.
Compare Oanda
Find out how Oanda stacks up against the competition.
All reviews, research, news and assessments of any kind on The Tokenist are compiled using a strict editorial review process by our editorial team. Neither our writers nor our editors receive direct compensation of any kind to publish information on tokenist.com. Our company, Tokenist Media LLC, is community supported and may receive a small commission when you purchase products or services through links on our website. Click here for a full list of our partners and an in-depth explanation on how we get paid.
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