OANDA is a financial trading firm that is originally from the United States, it was actually the first brokerage firm to introduce a fully automated forex trading platform, and the platform was called FXTrade. This was revolutionary for the forex industry and the two people who founded OANDA are Dr Michael Stumm and Dr. Richard Olsen.
From that point henceforth OANDA has become a leader in the industry and more so a trusted partner when it comes to forex trading and other tradable instruments alike. Since they were revolutionary in the automation of the forex trading platform, they also had massive servers that could handle all the trades made seamlessly.
The estimation today is that over 20% of the global spot forex trades are processed through OANDA’s servers. This is proof that they are global leaders in the financial industry. Below is their website page.
OANDA (UK) Review
OANDA offers the best trading platform in the business; they offer the MetaTrader4 (MT4), and the FXTrade WebTrader. The two platforms offer the best experience to traders; the web trader platform can be used from anywhere as long as you have access to the internet.
The MT4 platform is a trading application that is downloaded as a standalone application. It has numerous charting tools that will definitely enhance the trader’s technical analysis expertise.
Both these platforms have been optimized for use with mobile devices, for traders who are always on the move this is an advantage, one can monitor his or her trades from anywhere. The OANDA FXTrade API libraries can be used to create a personal automated trading system that can process the following actions:
- Risk free testing; one can use the system to back test a strategy without risking any money.
- Access to historical and current data.
- Placing entries, stop loss orders and inputting take profit targets.
- Access to historical trading transactions.
Oanda Account Types
OANDA does not have a particular account type for a particular group of clients; rather they have a standard account for every client in their firm. They also do not have a minimum deposit so the traders will only have to put in what they are comfortable with and also trade the sizes that they want with no limitations.
This will obviously spur the growth of the clients account exponentially if they know how to trade successfully. Not forgetting that they also offer leverage for all their traders to the tune of 1:50.
Commissions and Spreads
OANDA has some of the industry’s lowest spreads on the forex pairs, indices and commodities. The company does not charge a commission on the trades taken but the charge their trades a small spread on the trades taken. This allows the trader to keep majority of the profits for themselves.
Although during high impact news releases the spread widens and that can hurt the trader who specifically focuses on these types of opportunities. Below is a table showing the spreads on some of the popularly traded instruments.
Customer Service
OANDA has some very good customer service, it is a 24 hour service accessible by their live chat on their website, the telephone numbers, and they have a fax contact and an e-mail address.
The above mentioned are just to maximize the clients ability to reach them when a need arises. If the client needs personal attention to their problem, they have contact centers around the world, these are:
- London, United Kingdom (OANDAU.K)
- Bayfront, Singapore
- Chicago, USA
- Toronto, Canada
- Tokyo, Japan
This proves that OANDA have their clients’ interests at heart.
OANDA’S Reliability
OANDA is one of the brokerage firms that are highly regulated; since it is based in the States it has one of the toughest regulations.
OANDA is registered with the Futures Commission Merchants (FCM), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the National Futures Association (NFA) under their NFA ID 0325821. These regulations are to ensure that the clients’ interests are adhered to and avoid any causes of fraud.
OANDA is also protective of their client funds; they only use Tier 1 banks. They are J.P Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Deutshce Bank.
Oanda Pros and Cons
Form the review there are some advantages and disadvantages that have emerged clearly. The following are the pros or advantages that have been found from reviewing OANDA.
Pros
- OANDA does not discriminate against its clients; they have all been given a level playing ground. They all the same trading platforms, similar trading accounts, similar leverage, ability to trade as many lot sizes as they can and lastly they are all afforded a no minimum deposit fee to cater for everyone.
- OANDA is a reputable broker, they have been in the industry long enough and they have been part of revolutionizing the forex trading industry. They are also highly regulated.
- OANDA offers quality support to its clients from all over the world, this ensures that their clients’ problem have been accessed and dealt with in the best possible manner.
- OANDA has creative and innovative trading platforms that have helped many clients improve their trading performance and skills alike.
- OANDA offers quality spreads for their clients on all tradable instruments.
- OANDA protects client funds using the best banks in the industry; this ensures that clients can access their funds back easily if they want to make a withdrawal.
Cons
- OANDA’s MT4 platform does not allow the use of Expert Advisors (EA); this is a major disadvantage especially for trades who prefer to use automated systems to trade.
- OANDA’s spreads tend to widen during major news releases; this is very expensive for clients who trade during the news events.
- OANDA is a market maker; this means they create the market for their clients, they play the role of the market and that can be conceived as trading against their clients.
Conclusion
OANDA is generally a very good client and they offer very good services. They can always improve on their disadvantages and carry on with their goals of revolutionizing the forex trading industry.
