Oanda is a one of a kind broker. They offer many services that are hard to find anywhere else. First, they have some of the tightest spreads of any non ECN commission free brokers. Second, they pay interest on a minute by minute basis. This is the fairest way I have seen a broker handle swaps. For customers with small accounts or those who want the ability to trade smaller lot sizes, Oanda is the best choice. They deal in units rather than lots and effectively allow you to take positions as low as $1. Customers with account balances of 1,500 or more are also eligible to download historical tick data. With the recent addition of trailing stops the only downside to Oanda now is not offering the Metatrader platform.

Please feel free to comment below about your personal experiences with any of the brokers we have reviewed.

The Breakdown

Company Headquarters: USA

Metatrader Trading Platform: NO

ECN Broker: NO

Minimum Lot Size: $100 (.01)

Leverage Offered: 1:50

Spreads on the Majors: 1-2

Regulated By: CFTC and NFA

(Glossary of the following terms are at the bottom of the review)

Glossary

Company Headquarters – This is the location that the Forex Broker has setup and registered their business. This can have implications on deposit currencies allowed, how funds are held and withdrawn, as well as regulating agencies that can monitor their business.

Metatrader Trading Platform – This is the platform that is necessary to participate in automated trading with Expert Advisors. If you plan to trade and EA you must be sure you select a broker that supports it.

ECN Broker – There has been a large increase recently in the offering of ECN Forex trading. This is the ability to trade outside a single brokers price feed. There are many advantages and disadvantages to trading with an ECN broker. You can read more about ECN Brokers in a previous article here.

Minimum Lot Size – In Forex trading leverage is always used. Therefore, position sizing is generally larger than a customers whole account balance. The term Lot is used to describe the size of the trade. A Standard Lot generally refers to $100,000 and is given a number value of 1. A Mini Lot is $10,000 in size and is given a number value of .10 A Micro Lot is $1,000 in size and is given a number value of .01 A Nano Lott is $100 in size and is generally only offered by brokers that offer specific mini accounts. Keep in mind some brokers offer mini trading accounts and the number value for a mini lot becomes 1 and a micro .10

Leverage Offered - Since Forex currency prices change at just fractions of a percentage each day it would not be very exciting to trade without leverage. Brokers offer up to 500 times leverage to allow traders to make larger profits from the small currency price moves.

Spreads on the Majors - The Spread refers to the difference between the Bid and Ask price on the Major currency pairs. The Major pairs are EUR/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF. And GBP/USD.

Regulated By – the Securities and Exchange Commission tightly regulates The US Stock market. In the Forex broker there are many different regulating bodies of different strengths and weaknesses. Many brokers are regulated by different governing bodies and some are not regulated at all.