Well-known all around the world, Oanda has been providing access to financial markets to its clients from the UK for a couple of decades now. Indeed, this broker is very reputable, but what about its trading conditions and fees? Is it suitable for beginners or is it for professionals only? In this article, we provide a brief overview of Oanda to help you make a balanced decision.
Oanda overview
Oanda has been around since 1996. Trusted by several generations of traders, it has very solid reputation both in the UK and in many other countries, including the US, Canada, Germany, and Italy. One of the most attractive features of this broker is that it is regulated by a variety of national regulators, including ASIC (Australia) and IIROC (Canada). In the UK, your relations with this broker are monitored by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), and the company is always ready to comply with their decisions no matter what. Just bear in mind that you won’t be able to claim any moral damage, even if a huge sum freezes.
All in all, Oanda is a very secure and transparent broker: all rules and regulations are openly listed on their website, so you won’t have to waste time looking for them. However, the site itself is somewhat outdated, and navigating it may prove inconvenient at best. While the site has a separate section with analytical tools for traders, there are not many materials for novice traders: only technical analysis options, news, and economic calendar — no FAQs, no educational videos or articles, not even a glossary. That means you have to look for this information somewhere else.
Trading conditions
Alright, let’s see what Oanda UK has to offer in terms of trading conditions. First of all, there is no minimum deposit for Standard accounts — the Premium account requires $20,000 to start trading. Leverage is only up to 1:200, which may be insufficient for some experienced traders. Spreads depend on the instrument you’re using, but the minimum for currency pairs is 0 pips, which is also good news. The broker allows you choose from many trading tools, including indices, commodities, even crypto. Anyway, currency pairs seem to be the most popular of them all.
There are no fees for deposits, and almost no fees for withdrawals: you’ll have to pay only for withdrawals to credit cards (from 15 USD). The broker has no hidden fees or commissions, so don’t worry about wasting money without knowing it.