I have decided that i will soon open a live account most likely with oanda, however what seems to is that whenever I gauge forums and search for peoples experiences of brokers, there are always some that have some sort of issue with the broker, whilst others have no problems at all. This makes choosing a broker virtually impossible so, instead what i would like to know is what exactly can the regulatory organisations can do for me if things were to go wrong, as I am happy with oanda with thier demo i.e. i like the fexible lots small spreads etc.
I beleive that oanda is registered with CFTC and NFA. But I live in th U.K and they are not on FSA as far I as know, so would this be an issue?
Also I would like to know what peoples expereinces are when closing forex accounts, in particular with oanda is it a hassle, fees, full account balance returned etc. Since that would be another consideration if I were to have problems with my broker. It seems to me as the best way select a broker is perhaps just to simply “go see for youself”, so that is why i am asking these questions. I think best way to do this is to deposit a small amount of money first and see how the broker is live. So thats the reason i am asking how easy is it to close an account if I dont like that broker.
Approx. a year ago I took a break from live trading and closed my acct with O. The neat thing is that the acct info is never deleted so if you decide to refund the acct just deposit money. I am using July, unless the results become discouraging and quit early, to test a strategy using 1%. I could test using just $1.00 USD if I wanted. I like O. but I still feel the need for an MT4 program, especially for sound alerts. I’ve never had a problem with entry, exit, TP or SL execution. My .02 cts.
Oanda is actually incorporated in Delaware and has corporate offices in New York. They do have Oanda Canada though; the company was in part founded by a PhD and professor from Toronto. In the US, they are members of the NFA and they are registered with the CFTC. In Canada, it is the IIROC that does the regulating.
I think it is interesting that both of its founders have PhDs.
The qoute below was taken from oanda risk disclosure statement, It seems although they are regulated youre money is not 100% guaranteed, since the priority is with futures and options contracts. So I guess the best thing to do is only ever have a small amount of money but with enough money for margin.
“Your trading account is not insured under any state or Federal insurance program or by any other entity.
You should therefore familiarize yourself with the protections accorded money or other property you
deposit for foreign currency contracts. The extent to which you may recover your money or property may
be governed by specific legislation or trading rules. Under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, your funds may not
receive the same protections as funds used to margin or guarantee exchange-traded futures and options
contracts, which receive a priority in bankruptcy. Since that same priority has not been given to funds used
for off-exchange forex trading, in the unlikely event OANDA were to become insolvent and you have a
claim for amounts deposited or profits earned on transactions with OANDA, your claim may not receive a
priority. Without a priority, you are a general creditor and your claim will be paid, along with the claims of
other general creditors, from any monies still available after priority claims are paid. Even customer funds
that OANDA keeps separate from its own operating funds may not be safe from the claims of other general
and priority creditors.”
does anyone actually maintain a real balance in any of these brokers? (i.e., 50-100k+)
other than oanda, whose reputation is marred mostly by spread changes during high volume, it seems like there isnt one broker you can trust at all. i’m kind of afraid to give any of these guys more than 10k. seems to me that they are disclosing in advance that they are robbing peter to pay paul. very scary. are there any legit market makers out there? seems like it may be a better choice to trade futures through a CME market maker. you may pay more at least you know theyre legit.
Hi Tmc,
I have the exactly same problem than you, and probably after searching on google on “OandA review” you’ve end up posting here as you just don’t know what to think
This shows that they are regulated, which at least is a good place to start with.
Then, if you have a look at the tool section here, if you look at the informatio regarding OandA, to me they look the more reliable as they have the biggest capital, and more than 1000 employees. So those are indicators that this company may not close tomorrow with your money
Although, I couldn’t confirm those information, so we need to be careful.
I’ve seen this link also: OANDA Reviews | OANDA Ratings | Oanda.com reviews and ratings by Forex Peace Army
So you have 335 guys voting for OandA, giving 3 stars out of 5, which I think is not bad really.
All brokers will have good and bad reviews, you just have to agree this mate.
I was thinking that if for exemple you have 20000£ to invest, just put 10000£ on this account, and leave the remaining 10000£ on your current account as a security, but be careful at the leverage and margin call
I think the only way to protect you against robery is to don’t put all your money on any broker account, and transfer when needed. But careful, sometime the transfer in itself takes time…
But someone’s feedback using OandA for a while would be great !
thanks for the reply. rereading my original post, it comes across a little harsh on oanda. I do think oanda is very trustworthy as far as regulated brokers go. I am just very surprised to find that in the midst of all of this additional regulation, there is not any client principal protection. it makes me wary!
No matter how many good/bad reviews you’ll find it will always come to one conclusion : your own decision.
As mentioned here before there will always be the ones that like this broker and those who do not. The reality is that loosing traders will always blame their broker for their failure.
I can’t tell whether Oanda is really the best one or one of the best. My current experience is only 3 weeks old, since I’ve funded my account.
From my point of view their spread levels are reasonable and one of better in the market. Their trading platform is not top notch compared with others. But it depends what you are looking for. I personally don’t need tens or even hundreds of indicators simple because I won’t use them with my trading style.
But what is good for me will not satisfied other
Hi, im planning to open a live account in Oanda, i just want to know if this a ECN type broker, as per my checking on different sites, its better use ECN/STP broker rather than a market maker.
