Forex Blog: Currency Trading News & Analysis.

Oanda FXTrade

Oanda FXtrade. With the precision and accuracy offered by today’s computing systems and real-time market reporting systems, it’s interesting to note that many forex trading companies still rely on dealing desks and other manual intervention to execute trades and perform other trading activities, often resulting in delays that can cause a variation of spreads or other anomalies that stray from real-time data. OANDA is a company that seeks to move away from those difficulties by offering a fully automated trading environment, featuring real-time spreads as well as near-instant executions and continuous interest payouts. OANDA has continually introduced new innovations to the forex arena, and continues to strive to remain at the cutting edge of forex trading technology.

About OANDA

OANDA was co-founded in the mid-1990s by Dr. Michael Stumm, professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto computer engineering professor Dr. Michael Stumm, and Dr. Richard Olsen of The Olsen Ltd., a leading econometric research and development firm. In 2001, OANDA launched its trading platform, FXTrade, which was one of the first fully automated online currency trading platforms then available.

OANDA reports it handles more than a million queries each day, and estimates that more than 20 percent of the world’s online spot forex transactions occur through its servers. As an account service provider (ASP) company, OANDA serves more than 75,000 ASP clients globally.

The OANDA corporate team includes a four-member board of directors and a seven-member management team.

Key Registrations

Incorporated in the State of Delaware, OANDA is registered as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and is a member of the National Futures Association (NFA ID #0325821).

Funds are held at top-tier banks, such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, and the Royal Bank of Canada, and are withdrawn only as the result of customer request during trading and account activity.

Contact Information At A Glance

In addition to its online solution database, OANDA offers the following contacts for support and account issues:

  • Chat (link in middle of page under “live help”: http://www.oanda.com/corp/contact/
  • Email: info@oanda.com
  • Phone: +1.212.858.7690 (U.S.) +1.416.593.9436 (Canada) +65-6227-3808 (Asia) +971 (0)4 325 8320 (Middle East)
  • Fax: +1.212.208.4356
  • Trading desk email: frontdesk@oanda.com
  • Sales team online contact form: http://www.oanda.com/site/contact/sales

OANDA’s customer service representatives are available 24 hours a day from Sunday at 4 p.m. EST to Friday at 4 p.m. EST through chat or telephone.

Vital Trading Information About OANDA

OANDA uses a proprietary 100 percent automated trading system, affording real-time executable and transparent pricing, instant settlement and deal confirmation, and continuous interest payments. There is no dealer intervention. Trading activities are performed via OANDA’s trading platform, FXTrade. For a tour and demonstration of the platform and its performance and use during trading activities, OANDA offers video-based tutorials: http://fxtrade.oanda.com/forex_trading/fxtrade/take_a_tour/

Minimum Deposit Amounts

OANDA does not have a minimum deposit requirement, and allows trades in any size without lot size requirements.

Account Set-Up

Account set-up takes about 10 minutes or less and can be initiated via an online form located here: https://fxtrade.oanda.com/your_account/fxtrade/register/individual/beforeyoubegin

During online registration, users will need to provide data including account currency type and personal and financial information, as well as answering regulatory compliance questions. Once the online form has been submitted, users will be asked to forward scans of government-issued identification and proof of residence to OANDA’s offices for account confirmation. As soon as the account is confirmed, login information will be provided and you will be asked to wire funds to open your account.

Demo Accounts

OANDA calls its demo account FXGame, and offers it to all potential traders free of cost, with no time limits or expiration dates. Users interact with the same features as are available with active accounts, including the same user interface features. The game allows users to trade under real market conditions using live, “actual market” prices and spreads, to fully synthesize the trading experience and give both novice and experienced traders a feel for the features offered by the actual OANDA trading platform, and an opportunity to safely try out new strategies before implementing them with real cash. FXGame also allows users to access news, analytical tools, charts and other tools and data available to users of the actual trading platform.

Dealing Desk

OANDA does not employ a dealing desk.

Trading Spreads

OANDA’s FXTrade platform offers all traders the same spread, regardless of the size of the account or trade, or the type of customer (individual, institutional, etc.).

OANDA spreads are based on real-time market values and events and are widened during non-trading hours, such as weekends and certain holidays, as well as during periods of high volatility, such as during news release events. A table of real-time spread values is located here: http://fxtrade.oanda.com/forex_trading/why_trade_with_oanda/spreads/
Minimum margins vary from 2 percent to 4 percent, based on the pairs of currency being traded.

Trailing Stops

Trailing stops are fully supported by the OANDA trading platform, and are defined during account set-up in the user preference options. Trailing stops can be set with a lower limit of 10 pips and an upper limit of 1,000 pips.

Bottom Line

Offering fully automated, real-time currency trading with no restrictions on account or trade size, OANDA has quickly risen to become a favorite among both large-scale and small-scale traders, including individual forex traders. Its state-of-the-art platform and continual search for new technological applications to make trading easier and more transparent keep it among the top account providers for online interactive forex trading.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Sponsored Offers

7 Comments of “Oanda FXTrade”

  1. Christhoff Says:

    I would like to know if there are any additional costs ( commission?) on the real Oanda platform? I’m using the demo oanda platform and my performance looks too good to be true. It is hard for me to believe that everything is excatly as if it was real money on the demo platform and that all the cost are included. Please help me out on this point,
    thank you.

    Chris

  2. berkek Says:

    @Christhoff,

    I do have the same question… Does realized P&L in demo account show the final P&L as if it was real account?

  3. Chris Says:

    There is no doubt that Oanda is one of the very best trading platforms. There are things to watch though. Around news releases they do increase their spreads often to 10 pips on the majors sometimes more. This can catch the unwary and trading around news should be avoided. They have just changed their platform functionality. I am sure it is better than the old way. That is a shame as I had just got used to their old functionality and was making it work for me and now I have to get used to their new functionality. Their conectivity is generally very good though there are time when conectivity is lost. Thus it is vital always to have stops in place and where appropriate a take profit. The functionality of Oanda in acheiving this is very good and they do have a very user friendly automatic system. In other words when you place a trade, a stop and take profit can automatically be set. Also having entered a trade, moving stops and take profits is very user friendly. In summary they really are one of the best, fairest, and most transparent brokers. I have found that there is virtually no slippage on trades and the price that is shown is the price you get. In aanswer to Chrishoff question, the demo or FXGame account performs in exactly the same way as their real money account. I use their FXGame account to test ideas knowing that if I can get them to work on the FX Game account, they will work on a live real money account.

  4. Traded12 Says:

    Real time trades just like the practice account. I have been with them for years. I use the practice accout to test new trading ideas and sometimes have both live and practice open side by side and there is no difference.

  5. Bonnie Smith Forex Says:

    Best trading platform, fast execution, and no requotes

  6. Bonnie Smith Says:

    Oanda platform provides real-time market reporting systems.

  7. Bonnie Smith Says:

    Oanda is very good forex trading platform and real-time market reporting system.

Have Questions? Want to Share Your Review?

Be heard. Please share your reviews today!

© 2004 - 2024 Forex Blog.org. Currency charts © their sources. While we aim to analyze and try to forceast the forex markets, none of what we publish should be taken as personalized investment advice. Forex exchange rates depend on many factors like monetary policy, currency inflation, and geo-political risks that may not be forseen. Forex trading & investing involves a significant risk of loss.