company reviews
OANDA

About company:

 

OANDA is considered one of the pioneers of the online trading market in the world. The company was founded by professor of computer science Michael Stumm and econometric researcher Dr.Richard Olsen in 1996.

 

Trading platforms

There are two trading platforms available for trading - MetaTrader4 (MT4) and FXTrade WebTrader.

 

FXTrade has a simple yet efficient interface, and more importantly, fast execution speed. According to the OANDA website, trades on the platform are executed in less than 1 second. The terminal is equipped with charting functions, traders can also check their trading strategies, read financial news and market analysis from leading news providers.

 

In addition, OANDA offers the popular MetaTrader 4 platform, which is highly regarded in the industry for allowing traders to fully automate their trades.

 

Tech-savvy traders can build their own automated trading system using the OANDA FXTrade API.

 

Trading conditions

The line of trading assets includes currency pairs, indices, commodities and bonds, CFDs and precious metals.

 

The good news is that OANDA does not set a minimum deposit for opening an account, leaving traders to decide. This is especially attractive for those merchants who are not willing to invest large sums of money. The company has a single trading account.

 

Commission and spreads

This broker offers floating spreads. For EUR / USD, the spread is 1.4 pips overall, which is the industry average. Index spreads start at 0.5 pips.

 

Customers can, however, benefit from free trading fees and OANDA does not charge fees for its trading services or account maintenance. The broker earns from the spread.

 

Education and analytics

Traders can learn through video training, sign up for online seminars, read the latest financial news, expert trend analysis. In addition to this, an economic calendar and a number of Forex articles are available, which will be of interest to both beginners and professional traders.

 

Customer support

Support is available 24/7 from Sunday (1pm EST) through Friday (6pm EST). For more efficient communication, clients are invited to choose a product with which they have difficulties in their work, and then the trader will be automatically connected with the necessary specialist.

 

You can ask your questions by phone, e-mail, fax, chat or visiting one of the offices in the USA, Canada, UK, Tokyo, Australia, Singapore.

 

Reliability

OANDA is regulated in six different countries by local authorities - NFA, CySEC, ASIC, CFTC, MiFID, FCA.

 

Conclusion

The broker's popularity among traders is explained by the possibility of automatic trading, the absence of requirements for the minimum deposit and trading volume.

 

Broker pluses:

 

variety of trading platforms; no requirements for a down payment; no restrictions on the minimum transaction size; no commission for maintaining the account.

 

Cons of the broker:

 

is a market maker; small leverage.

 

 

OANDA is a company whose task is to provide intermediary services to traders. Brokers / Crypto exchanges provide access to currency / cryptocurrency trading, first of all. Also, many of them, if we are talking about brokers, give the opportunity to make transactions with company shares, bonds, commodities, precious metals, indices, cryptocurrency and other assets. A private person can make transactions with all these instruments only on a trading platform, access to which is provided by a broker or a crypto exchange.

 

In addition, thanks to such companies, an individual can operate in the market with amounts significantly exceeding the amount of his own funds. This is called the provision of leverage. For example, having a deposit of 1,000 USD with a leverage of 1:400, a trader can make transactions for 400,000 USD.

 

As well, the broker / crypto exchange opens access to analytics, auxiliary tools, trading signals. Without all this, modern trading is impossible.

 

What is the benefit of a broker / crypto exchange?  

 

OANDA profits from traders' trades, usually in two main ways

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First – most common. Using spreads. This word refers to the difference between the best prices for buying and selling a certain asset at a particular moment. Moreover, in a transaction between a trader and a broker, the price is one, and between the broker and market users - another. The mediator takes the difference.

 

The second method is easier to understand. This is a fee for each operation performed. Most often it has a standard value, but can also be measured as a percentage.

 

Therefore, the company is interested in attracting as many clients as possible and that they conduct active trading.

 

The ways to deceive customers 

 

How honest brokers / crypto exchanges should work and how they work, we found out. And now let's look at how scammers act, they are also called kitchens.

 

The most common way to cheat – is to twist quotes. Broker / crypto exchange gives the trader quotes that differ from the real market. There is a substitution of data in order to make operations unprofitable. The deposit is reduced, and then completely reset. At the same time, the trader thinks that his operations were made on the market, but in fact – just on the site of scammers.

 

Bonus – traps. They are generously distributed for anything: registration, account replenishment, etc. Only after that, in order for the client to withdraw his own money mixed with bonus money, it will be necessary to fulfill a number of actually impossible conditions. For example, to conduct trading operations in the amount of ten times more than the size of the deposit.

 

The User Agreement may also mask a clause that allows the broker / crypto exchange to dispose of the client's money. Inattention when reading such an agreement most often turns into a complete loss of the deposit.

 

Where do brokerage companies and crypto exchanges register?

 

One of the key points – it is the place of registration and regulation of the company's activities.

 

First let's talk about registration. As a rule, traders are more trusted by companies either from their own country or from an economically developed country, for example, a member of the European Union. Of course, compliance with UK law is reassuring, and compliance with the laws of an unknown island in the Indian Ocean does not mean anything to most at all.

 

On fact, most brokerage companies are registered offshore, and we are talking not only about small offices, but also about world leaders. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Marshall Islands, Mauritius are popular offshore zones among companies. Registering there, companies pay significantly less taxes than in the place of actual location, which is sometimes carefully hidden.

 

If a trader has claims against such a company, then it is likely that he will have to deal with it in accordance with the laws of the same conditional Belize. It is possible to be physically present there at court hearings. And this is extremely expensive and difficult.

 

No is it worth running like fire from just the word «offshore»? As an answer, we will cite the names of companies that are not related to brokerage, but with an impeccable reputation and also save on taxes with the help of offshore registration: Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft, General Electric, Intel.

 

And here we come to the second important point – this is the regulation of the broker / crypto exchange. First of all, it is carried out at the level of the state where the company is registered. Each country has its own regulatory body for brokering. So, in Russia it is the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The trader can find permits on the websites of such authorities. But there are also supranational structures. For example, the International Financial Commission, which is an independent self-regulatory organization,   specifies disputes between its members – brokers and their clients.

 

If there is no information on the broker's website / crypto exchange about the regulation of its activities or license, then it is almost certainly a scammer. Or on the site there is data on some license issued by him, but this information is not confirmed anywhere else. Most likely, these are also scammers.

 

What else to look out for?

 

When choosing a brokerage company, or crypto exchanges, study its history. Look at the links to its experts. If one of the leading TV channels in the economic news for 5 years in a row refers to the opinion of the analyst of the broker in question – this is good. If the broker / crypto exchange assures that it has been working for 15 years, but there is no information about it on the Internet at all – this is bad.

 

It is important to pay attention to reviews about the company. And read them not only on the website of the broker itself / crypto exchange. In the kitchen, they will certainly be only praiseworthy. It is better to view as many sites as possible.

 

Pay attention solely to the specifics in the offers on the websites of brokers / crypto exchanges. Honest companies openly write about interest, spread size, minimum deposit, etc. Scammers lure loud streamlined phrases about a rich tomorrow, a stable income, mislead with incomprehensible terms about multi-sites, superfunctions and so on.

 

Specify the company's connection with well-known brands, financial institutions, public organizations. For example, it can be sponsored. Large brokers / crypto exchanges sometimes hold social promotions. Scammers will definitely not do this.

 

Therefore, the process of choosing a broker / crypto exchange is complicated. But if you approach it carefully, it will allow you to enter the world of trading, which has made millions of people rich around the world

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