OANDA review

Regulated by

CFTC/NFA; FCA; ASIC; CIRO; MAS; JFSA and other regional regulators

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

NFA BASIC, ID 0325821

Client money segregated

Yes, where required by the applicable entity

Held at

Major regulated financial institutions; entity-dependent

Negative balance protection

Yes in applicable jurisdictions such as UK/EU retail; not universal

Compensation scheme

Jurisdiction-dependent; eligible UK clients may receive FSCS protection

Audited by

Independent external/statutory auditors

Not available to

Jurisdiction-dependent; services are provided only where the relevant OANDA entity is permitted to operate

Check the licence on the regulator's own site, not on a link somebody sent you.

OANDA holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA, MAS, CFTC/NFA and CIRO. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore applies some of the tightest conduct requirements in the region, and fewer firms hold its licence.

Check the licence yourself: NFA BASIC, the FCA Register, ASIC Connect, the MAS Financial Institutions Directory.

Legal entity

OANDA Corporation

Company number

NFA ID 0325821

Headquarters

New York, United States

Founded

1996

Publicly listed

No

Parent company

OANDA Global Corporation

Employees

500+

Also trades as

OANDA

Deposit methods

Bank transfer, ACH, debit card and jurisdiction-specific electronic payment methods

Withdrawal methods

Bank transfer, ACH, cards and supported original funding methods

Deposit time

ACH/cards can be fast; bank transfers typically 1-3+ business days

Withdrawal time

Typically 1-5 business days depending on method

Minimum withdrawal

Method-dependent

Local payment methods

Extensive region-specific banking methods

Spread from

0.0 pips

EUR/USD spread

Approx. 1.0-1.2 pips on spread-only pricing

GBP/USD spread

Approx. 1.3-1.6 pips on spread-only pricing

Commission

Approx. $5 per side / $10 round turn on US Core Pricing

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Approx. 1.0 pip on Core Pricing, depending on prevailing raw spread

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: financing may be charged or credited

Inactivity fee

Entity-dependent; historically charged after prolonged inactivity in some regions

Deposit fee

Generally none internally

Withdrawal fee

Method/entity-dependent

Currency conversion

Applicable depending on account/product

An offer that beats the market by a wide margin is the most reliable warning sign there is.

A quoted spread from 0.0 pips is a raw-spread figure, which almost always means a separate commission per lot. Compare the two together - a "zero spread" account with a high commission can cost more than a wider spread with none.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

OANDA lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Markets

Forex, Indices, Commodities, Metals, Shares, Cryptocurrencies and other CFDs depending on jurisdiction

Currency pairs

68+

Total instruments

Hundreds to thousands depending on entity

Crypto CFDs

Yes in eligible jurisdictions; US crypto access structured separately

Maximum leverage

1:50

Execution model

Market maker / principal

Execution speed

Low-latency; exact figure varies by entity/platform

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop and platform-specific orders

Servers

Global institutional infrastructure

Leverage is capped at 1:50, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

OANDA covers forex, indices, commodities, metals, shares, cryptocurrencies and other cfds depending on jurisdiction. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: bank transfer, ach, debit card and jurisdiction-specific electronic payment methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Platforms

OANDA Web, OANDA Mobile, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView

Own platform

Yes

Mobile app

Proprietary plus MetaTrader

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes

Copy trading

Region/platform-dependent

Indicators

Extensive proprietary, TradingView and MetaTrader libraries

Third-party tools

TradingView, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5

API access

Yes, REST API and institutional connectivity

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

MetaTrader 5 handles more asset classes and order types than MT4, but expert advisors are not compatible between the two - an MT4 EA will not run on it.

TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.

Minimum deposit

$0

Account types

Standard, Core Pricing, Premium/Professional, Corporate, Joint, Demo, availability varies by region

Account currencies

USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, CHF, HKD, JPY, SGD and entity-dependent currencies

Islamic account

Region-dependent

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

From 1 currency unit on OANDA's proprietary platform

Time to open

Typically minutes, subject to verification

Support hours

24/5

Contact channels

Live chat, email, phone, Help Portal

Languages

Multilingual

Telephone

N/A

Email

N/A

Live chat response

Typically within minutes

Education

Extensive: courses, webinars, platform guides and trading education

Research

Extensive: MarketPulse, technical/fundamental analysis, news and institutional FX data