Here are few the best features:
No Minimum Opening Deposit
Custom Lot Sizes
Trade Directly on the charts
Custom News Feed
Demo Accounts Never Expire
Sub Accounts
Least liked features
no hedging
Demo Accounts
The Oanda demo account is virtually identical to the live account. The price feed is the same as the live account and demo accounts never expire.
Customer Service
Oanda provides customer service by email, chat, and phone. Oanda seems to be typically responsive to request for service via any of the three methods. Emails sometimes take up to 24 hours to be returned depending on the issue.
Spreads
Oanda provides variable spreads, which means that spreads can change depending on market conditions. Most of Oanda’s spreads are extremely competitive during normal market conditions. The only time that the spread jumping will usually prove to be a problem is if you are trading directly around a major news release. For example, the EUR/USD typically trades with a spread of 0.9 – 1.9 pips under normal market conditions. During a news release, the spread for the EUR/USD can go as high as ten pips.
Leverage
Oanda only allows 50:1 leverage. Many traders might consider this a disadvantage, but I consider it to be like selling a gun with a safety on it. 50:1 leverage is sufficient for forex trading. Leverage set at 100:1 and higher can be dangerous and cause you to make oversized trades just because you can.
Currency Pairs
AUD/CAD
AUD/JPY
AUD/NZD
AUD/USD
CAD/JPY
CHF/JPY
EUR/AUD
EUR/CAD
EUR/CHF
EUR/CZK
EUR/DKK
EUR/GBP
EUR/HUF
EUR/JPY
EUR/NOK
EUR/NZD
EUR/PLN
EUR/SEK
EUR/TRY
EUR/USD
GBP/CAD
GBP/CHF
GBP/JPY
GBP/USD
NZD/CAD
NZD/JPY
NZD/USD
USD/CAD
USD/CHF
USD/CNY
USD/CZK
USD/DKK
USD/HKD
USD/HUF
USD/INR
USD/JPY
USD/MXN
USD/NOK
USD/PLN
USD/SAR
USD/SEK
USD/SGD
USD/TRY
USD/TWD
USD/ZAR
As an added bonus, Oanda also allows you to trade gold and silver against the dollar. The symbols are XAG/USD (Silver) and XAU/USD (gold).
Charting
Oanda comes with a decent charting package. A reasonable amount of technical indicators are available, and you can trade directly on the charts.
Opening an Account
Opening an account was simple. Oanda takes 1-2 business days to check your identity, but after that, you are ready to go.
Overall Grade: A
Oanda provides good customer service, excellent reliability, and a reasonably good platform to trade with. They even provide a newsfeed service for free with your account. It is an excellent broker, particularly if you are just getting started.
