Oanda Review

As one of the most respected retail forex brokers out there, Oanda is certainly worth a look for most serious traders. While trading short-term with Oanda, I found that the execution was excellent during all market conditions. Having said that, however, Oanda does seem to "massage" their spreads into getting wider than most during news times. I am not particularly fond of news trading however, so this is not a big deal for me. I would not recommend Oanda to any news traders out there though. Short-term trading is also hindered by the fact that many intraday moves tend to be technical in nature, and technical analysis is made difficult by Oanda's poor charting capabilities. An external charting package is highly recommended.

Swing trading is what this broker was made for. By paying hourly swap instead of daily, and by giving smaller account holders the flexibility of trading single units, there is really not much more a swing trader could ask for. I would still recommend some external charts, but most professional traders would opt for that anyway, no matter who their broker is.

The platform itself has its ups and downs, with reliability being the main complaint. It can crash at times and become disconnected from the server more often than some more robust platforms. On the upside, it runs in your browser so it is completely Mac-compatible. Very detailed reporting is also available. Traders can easily calculate their exposure to each currency in their portfolio, for example.

PROS:
Single unit trade sizes allow for flexible position sizing and precise money management;
Browser-based platform works on any operating system;
Low spreads during normal market conditions;
Pays interest on account balance;
Server-side trailing stops;
Hourly swap payout;
Well capitalized;
NFA regulated;

CONS:
Poor charting;
Not many pairs to trade;
Very wide spreads at news times;
Questionable platform stability;

Quick Facts:
Headquarters in Toronto, Canada;
NFA member since 2003 (ID 0325821);
Over $170 million in capital as reported to the CFTC;
Target spread on EUR/USD 0.9 pips (0.00009);
Server-side trailing stops allow for them to be honored even when platform is closed;
50:1 maximum leverage (in most cases, this is not a bad thing);

For more information, please visit this full Oanda review.