OANDA Review

Wanna see if OANDA is a legit broker? Is it safe to trade? Is spread high or low? How long to deposit or withdraw funds?

We provide answers to all the questions in this OANDA Review.

We checked OANDA licenses and regulation status, compared OANDA Fees, spread & commission from the Live account to other 150 brokers. The time for deposit & withdrawal and many more findings, all you can get in this Review.

What is OANDA

OANDA is a global financial service corporation founded in 1996 with headquarters in USA. OANDA is one of the largest companies offering services in Foreign Exchange including Currency Exchange and Currency Converter, FX data services and CFD trading.  

OANDA is regulated by several financial authorities including the respected CFTC in the US, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, Australian ASIC, IIROC in Canada, etc.

OANDA Highlights

🗺️ Regulated in	USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Malta
🛡️ Is OANDA safe to trade	Yes
💵 EUR/USD spread	1.2 pips
🏦 Deposit	Cards, Bank Transfer, PayPal
💰 Minimum deposit	US$0
🏦 Withdrawal	Cards, Bank Transfer, PayPal
💻 Trading platform	OANDA Trade, MT4
💳 Trading markets	Forex, Indices, Commodities, Metals, Bonds
📈 Number of product	100+
📉 Live chat response	Instant and relevant answers

Regulation

License and regulation are the keys to traders’ money security. There are two factors to check, the broker’s license with its background and how traders protected if anything go wrong.

Is OANDA legit

OANDA is regulated by several financial authorities with global coverage, including the USA Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Australia Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). Asian region covered by MAS in Sigapore and Japan FFAJ.

OANDA Licenses and Regulatory status

Entity	Registered in	Regulator	License no.	Status
OANDA Corporation	USA	Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)	No: 0325821	Currently Regulated
OANDA Europe Limited	United Kingdom	Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)	542574	Currently Regulated
OANDA Australia Pty Ltd	Australia	Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)	ABN 26 152 088 349, AFSL No. 412981	Currently Regulated
OANDA (Canada) Corporation ULC	Canada	Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC)	09-0280	Currently Regulated
OANDA Asia Pacific Pte Ltd	Singapore	Monetary Authority Singapore (MAS)	200704926K	Currently Regulated
OANDA Japan Co., Ltd	Japan	Financial Futures Association of Japan (FFAJ)	(Kin-sho) No. 2137	Currently Regulated
OANDA Europe Markets Limited	Malta	Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA)	C 95813	Currently Regulated

Is OANDA safe

OANDA considered safe because regulated by the top-tier CFTC, NFA, FCA, ASIC.

OANDA operates over seven fully legal and regulated entities allowing to serve traders worldwide from almost any region. Each entity applies specified laws and regulatory restrictions, also the amount of protection the trader get in case of insolvency.

OANDA Compensation Scheme

We recommend registering trading account with the UK entity, if it’s possible for you

OANDA provides negative balance protection for the accounts that on trades went below zero.

Markets and Products

At OANDA there is a good range of product offering traded as CFDs and including Spread Betting for the UK residents.

Currency

OANDA main offering is based on Forex and Currency trading, where other instruments like Indices, Commodities, Cryptos like Bitcoin and Bonds are available. The missing point is Shares trading.  

Forex

A good range of Forex pairs are available to trade as CFDs and/or Spread Betting.

Markets	Instruments
Forex	71
Indices	16
Commodities	31
Cryptocurrencies	3
Bonds	6
Shares	–

Account types

OANDA has two account types, Standard and Premium account for higher account balances, where Premium account entitles extra benefits like free VPS, API trading and free Wire transfers.

There is sub-account that enables UK residents to trade Spread Betting.

Login

To login OANDA account you should follow registration and account opening to sign-up from the official website link.

	Standard	Premium
Minimum Deposit	0 USD/EUR/GBP	20,000 USD/EUR/GBP
Minimum Balance	–	20,000 USD/EUR/GBP
Spreads From	–	1.4 pips
Commissions	Zero Commissions	Zero Commissions

Fees and commissions

Fee levels in OANDA ranked as average and low based on the instrument offering and compared to other 150 brokers Live account spread.

Spread we collect for popular instruments, 6 markets and 150 brokers

Markets	Instruments	Low	Average	High
Forex	EUR/USD	0.1-0.9	1-1.5	1.6 or higher
Indices	US S&P500		0.75-1
Commodities	Gold		0.3-0.5
Stocks	Tesla
ETFs	US Russell 2000
Cryptocurrencies	Bitcoin		0.5-0.75%

Spreads

OANDA CFD trading costs are built into a floating spread, however fee structure depending on the entity. E.g. US traders can choose between spread and commission basis.

Comparing the spreads derived from Live Account to industry benchmarks, we found OANDA Live spread on Forex and Stocks are low. While the spreads on CFD ETFs and Commodities are high.

Markets	Instruments	Trading Spread	Other brokers’ avg spread
Forex	EUR/USD	0.6	1-1.5
Indices	US S&P500	0.4
Commodities	Gold	2.5
Stocks	Tesla	Not available
ETFs	US Russell2000	3
Cryptocurrencies	Bitcoin	36

Currency Converter

OANDA Currency Converter is additional and separate from the trading offering service that provides option to exchange currencies through real-time rates, also transfer funds. This service is very convenient and accessible through OANDA website – Currency Conversion.

Historical Rates

OANDA provides historical rates for both services Historical Exchange Rates and Historical Currency Converter with 25 years exchange rata data.

Other Fees

OANDA has low non-trading fees. There are no fees for deposits and withdrawals are available for free.  

However, there is an inactivity fee for an account with no activity of 12 months and conversion fees for CFD trading of other currencies different from your account currency applying 0.5% markup.

Trading Conditions

The trading conditions at OANDA are good. You can deploy Hedging available on MT4 platform and Scalping strategies.

Trading Conditions	Yes/No
Hedging Allowed	Yes
Scalping Allowed	Yes
Change Leverage Allowed	Yes

For hedging, there are no time limitations for keeping your open hedging positions. However, hedging is not available in the US due to regulations.

For scalping, OANDA does not restrict timing or profits so scalpers are welcomed.

Expert Advisors (EAs) are available via the MT4 platform. VPS is provided by subscription through partners OANDA cooperates with, including BeeksFX, CNS and LiquidityConnect.

OANDA allows to use leverage for CFD trading, the levels are defined by both the instrument you trade and regulatory restrictions likewise.

Deposit

OANDA has no deposit fees.

Various payments options are supported, but vary according to enitity regulation, including Bank transfer, Credit or Debit cards, electronic wallets, PayPal.

A bank transfer can take several business days, while alternative payments are almost instant.

Deposit Method	Funding Time	Fee
Credit Card	Instant	Free
PayPal	1 Business day	Free
Wire Transfer	Few business days	Free

Minimum Deposit

There is no minimum deposit requirement for Standard account, Premium account requires 20,000$.

Withdrawal

You can make one free withdrawal for Credit Card per month, PayPal is Free of charges, and Bank Transfer will incur a fee depending on your region. Typically, withdrawal requests are approved within 1 business day.

Withdrawal Method	Withdrawal Time	Fee
Credit Card	3 business days	0$
Wire Transfer	3 business days	0$
PayPal	1 business day	0$

Bonus

There is no welcome Bonus or any other trading bonuses available at OANDA offering. The only benefits are included for Premium clients as apart of the trading Account.  

Trading Platform

OANDA develop its own proprietary Platform supporting all devices and available as Web Platform, Desktop Platform accessible across Windows or Mac and supporting fully automated trading.

Mobile Trading platform OANDA App for Android and iOS is in the package too.

MT4

OANDA traders still can still use popular MT4 with full range of its capabilities, automated strategies and EAs.

API

There are two different options OANDA APIs, Exchange Rates API for Foreign exchange services, and APIs for CFDs trading which is available for Premium Account.

Research and Tools

OANDA research tools are available directly on the platform, and some are presented at the website. Economic Calendar, Real-time News and Market Analysis, Autochartist, Dow Jones, etc also with trading analysis application.

We didn’t find serious cons in OANDA research, there are both quality in-house developed research tools and advanced third party providers materials.  

OANDA Research tools available through:

• OANDA platform
• OANDA website – Tools

Education

OANDA education content is good, you can access it through the website Learn section. Video tutorials, Demo account, Live Webinars and recorded sessions, with quality read Articles defined by topics.

At OANDA you can learn though the following ways:

• Demo account
• Educational videos
• Attend Live Webinars
• Learning articles

Demo Account

Demo Account is Free use and available through the OANDA Trade or MT4 platforms.

Customer Service

OANDA customer service is well organized, separate support is for currency conversion OANDA and another one for trading. We got relevant answer through e-mail, but couldn’t connect to Live Chat.

OANDA Customer Support is available 24/5 in various languages:

• Live chat
• Telephone
• Email

OANDA e-mail response is fast speed, the agents are helpful.

Question Asked	We asked about Spread Betting conditions.
Time of Reply	We got response within 1 day.
Quality of Reply	The answer was relevant and informative.

Conclusion

OANDA is a safe broker to trade. There are many world entities OANDA serves around the world and we would recommend trading with the UK, ASIC or Singapore.

For the downsides, the range of instruments is rather limited to trade CFDs on Forex, Commodities and Indices, there is no Shares.  

We recommend OANDA for traders who prefer CFDs trading of Currency Pairs and convenient Currency Exchange.