Abstract：Is Oanda safe? When reviewing Oanda, one of the primary concerns for beginners is the platform's safety and security. This is a question that almost all newcomers to investing prioritize. To address this concern, we will explore it from two crucial aspects: regulations and protection measures.
Oanda Regulations
- OANDA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD is regulated by Australia Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), with license no. 412981.
- OANDA Europe Limited is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom, with a Market Making license numbering at 542574.
- OANDA Japan Inc is regulated by Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan, with a Retail Forex License license numbering at Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Kinsho) No. 2137.
- OANDA CORPORATION is regulated by the National Futures Association (NFA) in the United States, with a Market Making license numbering at 325821.
- OANDA (Canada) Corporation ULC is regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) in Canada with a Market Making license.
- OANDA ASIA PACIFIC PTE. LTD. is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) with a Retail Forex License.
These regulatory bodies are authoritative in the industry, to some extent guarantees Oanda's stringent compliance to industry standards. When there are disputes, there will be intermediary reconciliation from these institutions.
You can always verify Oanda's regulatory status and explore its more details on WikiFX. WikiFX has the world's largest database of forex brokers, covering essential aspects such as company qualifications, regulatory status, historical performance, user reviews, and risk ratings, all rigorously verified. With over 60 regulatory agencies included, WikiFX provides a comprehensive resource for assessing the credibility of brokers like Oanda.
Security Measures
OANDA implements several security measures to protect customer funds and sensitive information.
- 2FA: OANDA employs two-factor authentication (2FA) which requires dual access permission when logging in accounts, ensuring that only authorized individuals are allowed to access accounts, adding additional layers of security.
- Guaranteed stop loss orders: Stop loss orders automatically close position when losses of a transaction reach a predetermined level. This helps traders manage risks effectively and minimize further losses during unexpected market fluctuations and turbulence.
- Strigent privacy policy: OANDA provides a comprehensive and strigent privacy policy that outlines the proper use of customer data and confidentiality maintanence, avoiding the abuse of these significant personal information.
Regarding the question “Is OANDA safe?”, above evidences strongly supports a positive answer. Though the broker does not mention any account insurance program like many other reputable brokers, its solid regulation by six major financial authorities ensures compliance with industry standards and provides a framework for dispute resolution. Additionally, OANDA's security measures enhance customer protection and safeguard sensitive data.
User Experience Investigation
Reviewing consumer comments from several sites will enable us to determine whether Oanda is a safe or fraud platform since they highlight both good and negative interactions.
WikiFX Score
WikiFX evaluates brokers using a rigorous grading system covering five main categories: regulatory compliance, licencing, company operations, features, and risk management. We exhaustively search these components using this method to better understand OANDA's performance.
- Regulation: OANDA's 9.52 for regulation shows its respect to internationally acknowledged financial rules, like the ASIC in Australia, FSA in Japan and NFA in the United States, etc. This indicates a significant determination to preserve regulatory compliance and investor protection.
- License: With a 9.51 in licensing, OANDA demonstrates that it guarantees a safe trading environment for investors by following the necessary legal standards by credible authority bodies.
- Business: OANDA highlights its broad range of investing options including forex, indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies and bonds with great operational efficiency earning an amazing 9.25 in business operations.
- Software: OANDA won 9.04 rating for software, with the robust MT4 trading platform available, together with its proprietary OANDA platform and the renowned analysis platform of TradeView, promoting customer experience.
- Risk Control: However, it's quite unfortunate that the broker rates 0 for risk management, indicating a significant gap in protecting client investments and ensuring low-risk trading practices. This will be a huge issue for traders looking for a secure trading environment.
It's necessary for traders who want to trade with Oanda to take rigorous risk management strategies, which requires a level of market understanding and trading experience.
Overall Rating: 8.36/10
To gain a comprehensive rating and multi-dimensional assessment, you can explore the broker's score on our WikiFX website at https://www.wikifx.com/en/dealer/0001134561.html
Oanda Reviews on WikiFX
WikiFX exposure section is a prism to reflect a broker's performance where traders can release their opinions and feelings trading with brokers. Oanda's integrity is recognized by 6 investors expressing their satisfaction with the broker's services, trustworthiness and excellence with positive reviews.
However, it always happens that you cannot satisfy everyone in 100%, so does Oanda. There are 108 traders gave different voice and reported negative reviews on WikiFX, most of the complaints are about withdrawal difficulties, which obviously will lead to tremendously poor customer experience if not tackled timely and appropriately. It's believed that the broker still has a long way to go to improve their withdrawal process and efficiency in view of these negative feedback.
Below we picked some typical examples of issues trading with this broker, you can take a look for reference to see the possible problem you might encounter or visit WikiFX directly for more details of this broker to make your own judgement.
You can also report the issues you encounter during trading in our Exposure section. Our team will work exhaustively to resolve any issues for you.
Exposure 1. Unable to Withdraw
An investor from Vietnam reported that Oanda allowed him to withdraw after he gained 50% profits for the first time with an initial capital of 10 million. To make more money, he invested an additional 130 million and earned an extra 50 million for this transaction. However, when he tried to withdraw funds from his accounts, the platform told that his needs to deposit an additional 112 million to reach the withdrawal threshold, which is a huge amount comparing to the first transation.
Till today Jan 6, 2025, the issue is still not resolved yet between Oanda and the user.
Exposure 2. Severe Slippage
A Japanese investor reported that he set stop loss at 97.717 for AUDJPY, but due to system slippage, his order stopped loss at 97.967 while the highest price that night was around 97.81 on Oanda but other platforms show 97.55. We have no idea how much money the user loses finally, since he did not mention the amount of his invested fund.
Due to the constantly-changing market, a minor mistake can result in huge divergence. Issues like system slippage sometimes bring huge losses for traders as well.
The Bottom Line
In a word, scoring a total of 8.36 on WikiFX means extraordinary jobs of the broker, such performance plus decent regulation by 6 regulatory bodies in different countries by ASIC, FCA, FSA, NFA, CIRO and MAS implies a high level of risk control. This is an immense advantage over many peer brokers. Meantime, somes shortcomings like administrative inefficiencies are revealved due to complaints about withdrawal problems and other issues. Besides these problems, Oanda is a trustworthy and legitimate broker with client protection and safe trading overally.
