forex/Oanda Review - A Review of the Oanda Forex Brokerage

Best Features

• No Minimum Opening Deposit
• Custom Lot Sizes
• Trade Directly on the charts
• Custom News Feed
• Demo Accounts Never Expire
• Sub Accounts

Least liked features

• no hedging

Demo Accounts

The Oanda demo account is virtually identical to the live account. The price feed is exactly the same as the live account and demo accounts never expire.

Customer Service

Oanda provides customer service by email, chat, and phone. Oanda seems to typically be responsive to request for service via any of the 3 methods. Emails sometimes take up to 24 hours to be returned depending on the issue.

Spreads

Oanda provides variable spreads, which means that spreads can change depending on market conditions. Most of Oanda’s spreads are extremely competitive during normal market conditions. The only time that the spread jumping will usually prove to be a problem is if you are trading directly around a major news release. For example, the EUR/USD typically trades with a spread of 0.9 – 1.9 pips under normal market conditions. During a news release the spread for the EUR/USD can go as high as 10 pips.

Leverage

Oanda only allows 50:1 leverage. Many traders might consider this a disadvantage, but I consider it to be like selling a gun with a safety on it. 50:1 leverage is sufficient for forex trading. Leverage set at 100:1 and higher can be dangerous and cause you to make oversized trades just because you can.

Currency Pairs

• AUD/CAD
• AUD/JPY
• AUD/NZD
• AUD/USD
• CAD/JPY
• CHF/JPY
• EUR/AUD
• EUR/CAD
• EUR/CHF
• EUR/CZK
• EUR/DKK
• EUR/GBP
• EUR/HUF
• EUR/JPY
• EUR/NOK
• EUR/NZD
• EUR/PLN
• EUR/SEK
• EUR/TRY
• EUR/USD
• GBP/CAD
• GBP/CHF
• GBP/JPY
• GBP/USD
• NZD/CAD
• NZD/JPY
• NZD/USD
• USD/CAD
• USD/CHF
• USD/CNY
• USD/CZK
• USD/DKK
• USD/HKD
• USD/HUF
• USD/INR
• USD/JPY
• USD/MXN
• USD/NOK
• USD/PLN
• USD/SAR
• USD/SEK
• USD/SGD
• USD/TRY
• USD/TWD
• USD/ZAR

As an added bonus, Oanda also allows you to trade gold and silver against the dollar. The symbols are XAG/USD (silver) and XAU/USD (gold).

Charting

Oanda comes with a decent charting package. A reasonable amount of technical indicators are available and you can trade directly on the charts. Oanda allows you to set limit orders and move stops visually. This works extremely well for technical trading.

Opening an Account

Opening an account was simple. Oanda takes 1-2 business days to check your identity, but after that you are ready to go.

Overall Grade: A

Oanda provides good customer service, excellent reliability, and a reasonably good platform to trade with. They even provide a newsfeed service for free with your account. This is an excellent broker, particularly if you are just getting started.