IC Markets or OANDA?

Hello, guys.
I am looking for a new out-of-the-EU broker, as ESMA’s rules, applied to EU brokers and traders, are not at all favouring. 30:1 leverage for non - pro traders and 200:1 leverage and $ 500 000 for pro traders … you know the story.
So, after a long, thorough and eye-stabbing reasearch, I pitched on the Australian IC Markets and the Japanese OANDA, but I am a bit confused which one to choose.
It seems to me that OANDA have very wide spreads (20 on EURUSD, 30 on AUDUSD and so on) in comparison to IC Markets, but with IC Markets I am not sure whether to choose True ECN account with min 0 spread and $ 3.50 commission per lot or standart account with min 1 spread and $ 0 commission. So I will be glad if you give me some feedback on both brokers, incl. any withdrawal problems (incl. obligation to withdraw only the amount deposited), customer service failures, network crashes, slippages, gaps.
Thank you very much in advance.

Why would you want to register with the Japanese branch of Oanda?
In Japan the max leverage is 25:1… and they are planning to lower it to 10:1
US brokers will not be a good option because they don’t have CFDs and the leverage is x50, not to mention that the amounts you need to deposit are huge.
But back to the point - Oanda have an EU office (in London). So, they might be obligated to register you as a trader with that office, regardless of your wishes. Contact their support and check.
The only options you have are to go with the Aussie brokers OR with a Switzerland (they are not in the EU) based and regulated broker.

Thank u for your reply, bradley79.
I already checked some swiss brokers and went over the web pages of those who had the best reviews. They are voluntarily applying ESMA’s rules, despite not being obliged to. So, an Aussie broker it will be :slight_smile:

@S.DaRk.Petkova I’ve been with ICmarkets for years and they eventually burned me. I’m from Australia and I was under their ASIC regulatory and ASIC couldn’t care less about my case. If you are from overseas, You would normally fall under their Seychelles or Cyprus regulatory .I don’t know about other Australian brokers but I would advise to stay away from this one .

This is my first hand experience and we have exchanged tons of documents during our dispute. If you fall in their trap, you will be blown away by their logic and responses that they will get later.

There is a scam section here too, if you feel you were scammed. Care to share any details about your experience and what happened, what they did or didn’t do? This is also an old topic, and @S.DaRk.Petkova hasn’t been on the site since 2018.

@BillyBobPimpton Thanks for your comment mate. My bad I thought it was posted this July and was trying to warn the poor guy not to fall in their trap.

It’s a long story, They play with many odds, increased the swap rates then reduced my account leverage from 1:500 to 1:10.

I posted my detail story on the link bellow

Not a problem. Just making you aware the member probably won’t reply. But thanks for sharing your story. I read in the other thread. Amazing.

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Dude, save yourself the trouble and go offshore. There are offshore brokers that have been doing business and still serving traders for more than 10 years. I use Forexchief, and I looked out how much they value their reputation before using it. They solve issues fast and most times in favor of traders because they hate bad reviews. A broker who cares about its reputation would make traders happy.