Oanda Home Page
What’s The Attraction?
What attracted me to Oanda was the ability to trade any lot amount. As most brokers only allow users to trade either the standard (100k) or mini (10k) lot size Oanda is a breath of fresh air.
One other thing that attracted me to Oanda was its own user forum and plethora of information - it sure is one content rich web site! Whatever you are looking for regarding the forex market I am sure you will be able to find at Oanda.
Live & Demo Differences
As with other platforms we found no difference between the demo and live accounts, bar the reset button for demo accounts - I wish they would implement that button in the live
accounts too!!! Another excellent feature of Oanda’s demo account is that it never expires.
What We Liked About Oanda:
The charting package that came equipped with the platform was not bad. It wasn’t the best charting package we had seen, but it altogether was not the worst either. Some time frames that we like to monitor were not available which was disappointing (time frames that are not available include: 10min, 15min, 2hr, 4hr, 8hr, 12hr, 1week, 1month).
Oanda has the capacity to have multi-denominated sub accounts other than in USD with no minimum deposit. The different currency accounts available include: AUD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD & CHF and allows the user to transfer between their primary account and their sub account easily with the only restriction being that you cannot externally withdraw funds from a sub account, it must all come out of the primary account.
One other little thing that might go unnoticed by others is that Oanda display the volume currently available at the current market price. It is only seen when you place an order - it can give you an idea of what size order can be taken.
The orders screen is nothing new, however, where the orders can go is unique. Oanda do not have any restrictions on how close you can place a stop or limit order to where the current market is (I have experienced placing limit orders within the spread)!
Similarly there are no real restrictions on attaching stop and limit orders bar just covering the spread and adding one pip. Orders also have a variety of expiry times allowing you to place an expiry time of 1 hour (the earliest) to 1 month (the largest) on your orders.
Added to those features we also have Oanda paying us interest by the second for currency positions that do accrue interest - obviously it works in the reverse for positions that require us to pay. AND they also pay interest on a daily basis on your account’s capital.
What We Didn’t Like About Oanda:
The highest leverage available from Oanda is set at 50:1, which you can change to 40:1, or 30:1, or 20:1, or 10:1 if desired. We would have preferred at least the standard 100:1 leverage.
It has been stated in other forums that you will encounter more slippage with Oanda, but I personally have never enountered this slippage. However, do keep in mind that Oanda clients do experience
both negative and POSITIVE slippage - it just depends on which side you sit.
The news package offered by Oanda is not the best we have seen and could be much better. I personally think that all a forex broker would need do is have streaming live news headlines on their platform - nothing fancy, but effective in providing the latest news. Oanda do have streaming news, but it’s some weird UBS feed that doesn’t display relevant economic headlines.
Oanda is also a web based platform. I personally have never liked web based platforms, I prefer to have the platform physically on my hard drive, but that’s just my view.
In summary then…
Oanda PROS:
- Charting package okay
- Platform not bad
- Can trade any sized lots (not restricted to the $100k and $10k lots imposed by other firms)
- Account can be denominated in any currency & you can have multiple sub accounts in any currency too
- Demo account that doesn’t expire
- Active user group forum
- You can place stop and limit orders right up to the current market price bar a couple of pips
- Orders can have a range of expiry times
- Tight spreads on EURUSD (~1.5 pips!)
- Interest earned on positions by the second (for currency positions that do accrue interest)
- Interest paid daily on account capital
Oanda CONS:
- 100:1 leverage NOT offered
- Interest paid on positions by the second (for currency positions that do require you to pay interest)
- News & charting package could be better
- Slippage can occur on stop and limit orders more frequently than would otherwise be exhibited at other forex brokerage firms (can be a positive if you place limit orders)
Our Oanda Rating
Oanda is another forex broker firm that is heading in the right direction. I think you will begin to see many more advancements with this firm in the future as they seem to take a lot of what their customer base recommends to heart. I personally recommend Oanda to everyone that starts out in the forex market.
As you can see from the summary above there aren’t too many major negatives that weigh Oanda down, and that is why we have given it quite a good score. If Oanda can implement a trailing stop feature, offer 100:1 leverage and can allow OCO type orders I think we would have a near 10/10 broker!
7.5/10
What has been your experience with Oanda? Add your comments below
