Like any other broker providing the best service for retail traders, OANDA offers a swap-free account with competitive features. What are they?

OANDA is one of the most popular regulated forex brokers in the world that caters to the trading needs of a significant number of traders. OANDA offers five different account types with each of them having specific features and benefits that set them apart. The five account types are Standard account, Core account, Premium account, Premium core account, and Swap free account which will be the focus of this article.

OANDA Swap Free

By definition, a swap-free account is a type of account that is designed for traders that are of the Islamic faith and it has a fixed fee rather than a swap. The fee is not an interest and it is dependent on the direction of the order initiated by the trader.

The OANDA swap-free trading account is an account type for traders that do not want to pay or receive overnight swaps or interest on their executed trades. For traders to access the OANDA swap-free trading account, they will need to open a standard account after which they can request a switch to a swap-free account.

What differentiates the OANDA swap-free account from its other types of accounts? Operating a standard account means the trader is likely to be charged or credited swap or interest on any open leveraged positions that the trader maintains till the end of each trading day. These costs are referred to as overnight fees, otherwise known as swap fees. This is where the swap-free account comes in as it is ideal for traders who do not wish to be charged the swap or interest.

 

Features of OANDA Swap-free Account

The swap-free account allows traders to take a position on 26 financial instruments that are quite popular including forex pairs and indices like EUR/USD, the UK 100, and Germany 40. The table below further describes the main features of the OANDA swap-free account.

🔢Minimum EUR/USD spread 1.6 pips
💹Maximum trade size 10 million
💸Commission $0
💲Account base currencies available USD
📊Scalping allowed
💱Hedging allowed
🤖EAs allowed

Trading on a swap-free account does not incur any administration charge for the first five days that the trade remains open. However, from the sixth day, the administration charge starts getting applied for each day that the trade continues to stay open until the trade is finally closed. This takes weekends into account as well.

The administration fee is charged per lot traded except for the Japan 225 index which is charged per 100 lots traded. The admin fee varies from one instrument to another, and the table below shows the 26 financial instruments available on the OANDA swap-free account with the corresponding minimum spread and admin fee charged.

Financial Instrument Minimum spread Admin fee per lot in USD
GBP/USD, EUR/GBP, AUD/USD, USD/CHF, EUR/CHF, AUD/JPY 1.7 pips $7
EUR/USD, USD/JPY 1.6 pips $7
EUR/JPY, NZD/USD, USD/CAD 1.8 pips $7
GBP/JPY 2.2 pips $7
GBP/CHF 2.3 pips $7
CHINA A50 12 pips $4
AUS 200, UK 100, FRANCE 40, EUROPE 50, US NAS 100 1.6 pips $4
US WALL ST 30 2.6 pips $4
HONG KONG 50 6.6 pips $4
GERMANY 30 1.7 pips $4
JAPAN 225 8.6 pips $4
US RUSS 2000 70 pips $4
SINGAPORE 30 3.6 pips $4
US SPX 500 1 pip $4

For the record, the admin fee is charged daily starting on the sixth day of the trade. And for Japan 225, the fee is charged per 100 lots.

Opening a swap-free account at OANDA is quite straightforward and it does not take long to be approved so traders can start trading almost instantly. OANDA swap-free account does not require full account verification unless the gross account deposits exceed $9,000. Even though the number of instruments available is not as much as that of the other account types, the instruments are still among some of the popular instruments for trading.

Therefore, with a swap-free account, a trader can minimize trading costs while getting access to financial instruments with significant volume and liquidity. This allows them to have substantial opportunities to make profits without paying too much to execute their trades.

As earlier stated, swap-free is not the only account type offered by OANDA and traders will be given a chance to go through the features peculiar to each account type before making a choice. Nevertheless, the swap-free account offers a different kind of advantage that the other account types do not have. Thus, it might be worth checking out. For more details on OANDA broker, you can check the table below:

Website
Established
1996
Leverage
1:20
Min Deposit
$0
Regulation
CFTC/NFA, FCA, FSA (Japan), FSC (BVI), Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Japan), MFSA, 12, 2020, MAS, ASIC, AFSL No, IIROC
Islamic Accounts available
US traders are welcome
Negative balance protection
Segregated accounts
Compensation scheme
VPS Affiliate program
Trading via API
Education
Webinar
Swap
Wire transfer
Skrill
Neteller

Traders looking for brokers with accurate precision, OANDA can be an option. That is because OANDA is a broker that provides quotes with 5-digit accuracy and active price movements that follow market developments. Order execution speed is also faster in this broker.

It provides benefits for novice traders, as they can trade with smaller volumes using the calculation system based on currency value, unlike other brokers adopting the lot system.

Founded in 1996, OANDA was built by Dr. Michael Stumm who is a lecturer in Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada, along with his colleague, Dr. Richard Olsen of The Olsen Ltd., which is one of the leading econometric research institutes. They have a head office in San Francisco, United States.

OANDA branch offices can be found everywhere. Some of these offices are located in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, and Canada. With this number of offices spread, OANDA has increasingly attracted the attention of clients worldwide.

OANDA's company is registered under several well-known jurisdictions in financial trading. They are regulated by CFTC and NFA in the US, FCA in the UK, ASIC in Australia, and many others. Traders do not need to worry anymore about security when trading in OANDA. However, these advantages make trading rules at OANDA more stringent compared to other brokers.

For example, OANDA only allows maximum leverage of 1:20, because the rules in the US and Japan do not allow leverage above that. Besides, the registration procedure is more complex due to various additional requirements that are not submitted by other forex brokers. On top of that, hedging is not allowed in one trading account as the client must open an additional account to hedge.

Nevertheless, OANDA is known for being a leading broker with many advantages offered. OANDA faces increased market risk during periods of price volatility, such as economic and political news announcements. When market spreads increase or decrease, their pricing engine widens or narrows spreads accordingly. That way, traders can get the latest conditions from price movements in the market more quickly.

Prices move very fast in the market. Especially when news releases have a large impact on market volatility. This condition is often exploited by brokers to take advantage of clients with Requotes. However, traders do not need to worry about additional costs when trading with OANDA.

The company never withdraws Requotes so traders can get maximum profit. When traders are unavailable to monitor open positions, they can set take profit orders to lock in profits and Stop Loss orders to help protect against further losses.

As an experienced and well-known online forex broker, OANDA is committed to maintain an efficient trading environment that reduces latency and provid tools to help clients manage the degree of acceptable slippage.

With a fast & reliable trading platform by OANDA, clients' trades are executed in 0.012 seconds. This suits traders who choose brokers based on execution speed.

Because of this exceptional execution service, it is not surprising that OANDA won many awards, including the winner of the world's Best Retail FX Platform at the prestigious e-FX awards. The broker is also voted number 1 for Consistency of filling trades at quoted prices, Execution speed, and Reliability of platforms.

There is no minimum deposit or minimum balance required to open an OANDA account. Deposit and withdrawal can be done easily. OANDA provides a variety of payment method facilities, including Paypal, Wire Transfer, Credit Card, and Debit. Traders can adjust it to the region where they live.

OANDA provides more than 100 trading instruments, including 71 currency pairs, 16 indices, 8 commodities (Brent Crude Oil, Copper, Corn, Natural Gas, Soybeans, Sugar, etc.), 6 Bonds, and 23 Metals.

The fxTrade and MetaTrader platform are available at OANDA. These platforms can be used for Desktop and Mobile. Another plus is they have an OANDA Technical Analysis that exists in collaboration with a technical analysis provider called Autochartist.

With these platforms, clients can monitor price movements easier and automatically recognize patterns created on charts, as well as receive alerts when the awaited patterns appear. Access to this technology can be enjoyed free of charge.

In conclusion, OANDA is an ideal broker for traders in need of fast execution backed by many years of experience. The company is also a good alternative for those looking for a well-regulated broker with flexible trading and deposit conditions.