FOREX.com vs. Oanda: Which Forex Broker is Best? Benzinga - Benzinga

Forex trading is characterized by high liquidity, extreme volatility, low trading costs, and fast execution. Average trade volume per day in the forex market amounts to roughly $4 billion.

In order to wade through this highly volatile market, you’ll need a superior broker. To zero in on the best fit for you, Benzinga has done a comparative analysis of two industry powerhouses: FOREX.com and Oanda.

FOREX.com vs. Oanda: Overview

We break down FOREX.com and Oanda based on spreads and fees, trading platform, research, and other offerings. Here’s a side-by-side comparison to get you started.

Commissions

Spreads start as low as 1 But vary based on trading volume

Best For

Traders of all skill levels
If you need a great mobile experience
Those who like easy-to-consume data and research

Commissions

$5 per 100,000 base currency traded

Best For

Beginners
Cost-conscious traders
Traders who keep a low account balance

FOREX.com vs. Oanda: Spreads and Fees

Forex traders make money through spreads, which is the difference between the bid and ask price. Most people comparing FOREX.com and Oanda will want to know the difference in spreads first – here’s a comparison of the typical spreads.

Currency Pair	FOREX.com’s Typical Spread	Oanda’s Typical Spread
EUR/USD	1.3	1.3
EUR/GBP	1.4	1.5
AUD/USD	1.7	1.3
USD/CHF	1.8	1.6
EUR/JPY	1.6	1.8
USD/JPY	1.4	1.4
GBP/USD	1.8	1.8

FOREX.com’s Fees

Offers fixed spreads, which don’t vary depending on volatility and liquidity, as well as variable spreads, which fluctuate throughout the day depending on liquidity and market volatility.
Charges a commission on CFD trading and on forex trading when the relevant account is a commission account, a commission of $5 per standard lot of 100,000 and a low variable spread, chargeable at the execution of the trade.
A minimum initial deposit of at least 50 of a client’s selected base currency is mandated, although at least a 2,500 deposit for increased flexibility and risk management while trading is recommended.
Inactivity fees are applicable for accounts with a balance of less than $10,000. If there is no trading activity or no open positions for more than 12 months, you’ll pay an inactivity fee of $15.
Doesn’t charge any data exchange fees, but if you hold your position overnight, you’re charged a financing/rollover charge, which is automatically applied to your account each day you hold an overnight position.

Oanda’s Fees

Oanda offers a spread-only pricing as well as core pricing plus commission trading option.

For U.S. clients, the hybrid pricing of core + commission involves a commission of $5 per 100,000 base currency traded.
Oanda does not charge added commissions, and it does not mandate any minimum deposit or trade size.
If there is no trading for a period of at least 12 months, a monthly fee of 10 units of the currency in which a client’s account is denominated will be withdrawn. For accounts denominated in yen and the Hong Kong dollar, 1,000 units of the yen and 75 units of the Hong Kong dollar will be withdrawn.

In the fees race, it’s a tie between FOREX.com and Oanda.

FOREX.com vs. Oanda: Breadth of offerings

FOREX.com’s Offerings

FOREX.com allows trading in 80+ currency pairs, 220+ equities, popular commodities, indices (over 15) and cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple.

FOREX.com’s commodity options include corn, cotton, heating oil, U.S. natural gas, soybean, sugar, wheat, U.S. crude oil, U.K. crude oil and metals such as palladium, platinum, and copper, as well as the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index.

Oanda’s Offerings

Oanda lists 71 currency pairs, including Brent crude oil, copper, corn, natural gas, soybeans, sugar, WTI oil, and wheat. Metals that can be traded include gold, silver, palladium, and platinum.

Through Oanda, you can also trade in bonds (U.S. 2-year, 5-year, 10-year notes, U.S. treasury bonds, U.K. 10-year gilt, and bund.)

Because of its plethora of currency pairs and cryptocurrency choices, FOREX.com emerges as the winner.

FOREX.com vs. Oanda: Trading Platform

FOREX.com’s Trading Platform

The broker offers an advanced trading desktop, web trading, and mobile trading platforms. The desktop platform offers professional analytical tools, integrated trading strategies, and advanced charting features. The mobile app can be downloaded on an iPhone or an Android phone.

It also offers the MetaTrader 4 platform, Reuters news, and FOREX.com global market research. It supports both web and mobile trading.

FOREX.com also offers third-party trading and charting software such as NinjaTrader, Tradable (an application-based trading platform) and TradingView.

Oanda’s Trading Platform

Oanda offers the following platforms:

Web trading platform
Desktop trading platform
Mobile trading apps
MetaTrader 4
Oanda API

FOREX.com wins over Oanda for quantity and quality of trading platform capabilities.

FOREX.com vs. Oanda: Security

Both FOREX.com and Oanda are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association in the U.S., the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), the Financial Conduct Authority in the U.K., the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

FOREX.com’s Security

FOREX.com is also regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Japan and Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA).

All customer deposits through FOREX.com are kept separate from its own operating funds and distributed across a global network of custodian banks, which invariably hold an investment-grade rating and are monitored as per the guidelines set by the Risk Committee of GAIN‘s Board of Directors.

Oanda’s Security

On the other hand, Oanda’s protection in the eventuality of a default is limited. In the U.K., client funds are protected up to £50,000, while in Canada, up to CAD $1 million is protected. In other countries it operates in, there is no protection.

Because of its excellent security, FOREX.com jumps ahead of Oanda.

FOREX.com vs. Oanda: Research

FOREX.com’s Research

The broker provides a plethora of research content through all of the trading platforms it offers. Real-time news, advanced charting, technical and fundamental research, economic analysis, live trading webinars, etc. are offered. It also allows social trading, or copy trading, and provides backtesting in a bid to generate trade ideas.

FOREX.com provides top stories and commentary on commodities, currency pairs, monetary policy, economic data, and geopolitical news. The firm also offers a global economic calendar with the schedule of events/data, estimates and comparable previous period numbers with data prioritized as high, medium and low in terms of sensitivity to market movement.

Live trading sessions are 30-minute webinars presented by the firm’s team of global analysts, which gives real-time insight, market commentary, actionable trade ideas as well as Live Q&A sessions.

Oanda’s Research

Meanwhile, Oanda offers Market Pulse, a site which provides news and analysis on forex, commodities and global indexes. The goal of this site is to provide timely and informative commentary on major macroeconomic trends, technical analysis and worldwide events that impact different asset classes and investors. The site also carries a global economic calendar, with a mention of volatility that can be expected from the data release.

Through its Oanda Algo Lab, the firm allows coding, backtesting and deploys its own automated forex and CFD trading strategies.

If you’re an experienced trader, you can make use of Oanda’s pattern matching engines and volatility analysis.

The firm does not currently allow social trading.

FOREX.com and Oanda tie in terms of their research offerings.

Final thoughts

Although both firms are comparable on most metrics, the number of asset offerings and security of client funds, FOREX.com noses ahead. Both FOREX.com and Oanda offer low cost and variety in terms of their trading platforms, as well as a wealth of information and data for research offerings and educational content.

The choice boils down to how comfortable you feel with each product and service, as well as your investment needs.

Brokerage	Best for	Commissions	Account Minimums	Open an Account
FOREX.com Read full review	Beginners Advanced traders Cost-conscious traders	$5 per standard lot of 100,000 and a low variable spread	At least 50 units of the selected base currency	Open a FOREX.com account
Oanda	Beginners Cost-conscious traders	A commission of $5 per 100,000 base currency traded (hybrid pricing of core plus commission)	$0	Open an Oanda account