FXCM vs OANDA 2024

Trust Score is a data-driven rating system that provides an at-a-glance rating of a broker’s overall trust by tracking 60+ brokers and over 100 regulatory jurisdictions across the globe. To make things clearer for everyday traders, we’ve created a five-tier system for regulators and Trust Score rating labels. Learn more about Trust Score, and check out our country guides to see the most trusted brokers in your country of residence.

FXCM has a Trust Score of 95, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

OANDA has a Trust Score of 93, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

Founded in 1999, FXCM (a Jefferies Group company) is a long-standing brand that caters to global forex and CFD traders. FXCM offers multiple trading platforms for algorithmic trading and social copy trading, along with a proprietary platform suite (and access to MetaTrader 4). FXCM is also a great option for beginners due to its wide range of educational materials and easy-to-use platforms (including integration with the popular TradingView platform). Though the range of markets available at FXCM has increased following the addition of its share trading feature, it's worth noting that pricing at FXCM is just average.

Founded in 1996, OANDA is a long-standing, highly trusted broker licensed in an impressive seven Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions. Forex and CFD traders will find plenty to like at OANDA, including strong market research and support for a range of third-party plug-ins and platforms (like MetaTrader 4 and the wildly popular TradingView). The OANDA Trade platform is available for web, desktop, and mobile. Though the desktop platform is good – not great – the mobile app is easy to use and boasts a great balance of features. The only downside with using OANDA is its comparatively small range of markets and industry-average spreads.

Tier-1 is reserved for the strictest, most stringent regulatory jurisdictions in the world. Tier-1 regulators impose additional capital requirements and require a tougher initial screening process. FXCM holds regulatory licenses in the following Tier-1 jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised), Canada (CIRO Authorised) and United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised). OANDA, on the other hand, is licensed in these Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised), Canada (CIRO Authorised), Japan (SFC Authorised), Singapore (MAS Authorised), United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised) and USA (CFTC Authorized). Neither have Hong Kong (SFC Authorised), CBI Authorised (Ireland), New Zealand (FMA Authorised) and Switzerland (FINMA Authorised)

Tier-2 and tier-3 licenses are still important in evaluating the overall trustworthiness of forex brokers. As far as tier-2 licenses go, FXCM is Cyprus (CySEC Authorised), Israel (ISA Authorised) and South Africa (FSCA Authorised), while OANDA is none.. Neither have China (CBRC Authorised), India (SEBI Authorised), Russia (CBR Authorised), Thailand (SEC Authorised) and UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised). When comparing tier-3 licenses FXCM is none, while OANDA is British Virgin Islands (FSC Authorised).. Neither have Bahamas (SCB Authorised), Belize (FSC Authorised), Bermuda (BMA Authorised), Cayman Islands (CIMA Authorised), Mauritius (FSC Authorised) and Vanuatu (VFSC Authorised).

Whether your broker develops its own proprietary platforms or provides access to popular third-party platforms, you should make sure you can use your preferred type of trading platform. In our testing, we found that FXCM offers a Proprietary Platform, Desktop Platform (Windows) and ZuluTrade, whereas OANDA supports a Proprietary Platform and Desktop Platform (Windows). Neither have cTrader and DupliTrade

For MetaTrader FXCM provides MetaTrader 4 (MT4), while OANDA provides MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). If MetaTrader is a must for you, read our guides on the best MT4 brokers or best MT5 brokers.

FXCM requires a minimum deposit of Starts from $50, while OANDA requires a minimum deposit of $0. You'll also want to make sure that your broker accepts the funding options and deposit methods that work best for you. In our testing, we've found that both FXCM and OANDA offer Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit), PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) for deposits

When choosing a forex broker, it’s important to consider each broker’s available investment products and tradeable asset classes. We’ve researched each broker’s individual offering of investments to help you pick the right broker for what you want to trade. During our testing, we found that FXCM delivers a more diverse selection of investment options than OANDA, offering tradeable asset classes and investment types such as Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Spread Betting, Social Trading / Copy Trading, Metals, Energies, Agriculturals and U.S. Stocks (CFD). Neither have ETF.

We also keep track of each broker’s total number of tradeable symbols; FXCM offers 440, and OANDA offers a total of 3928 tradeable symbols.

Crypto trading has become popular among forex traders across a range of international jurisdictions. As a result, many forex brokers now offer crypto products to their clients; most crypto assets are offered either as an underlying physical asset (such as when you own actual bitcoin assets, for example) or as a derivative product like a CFD. If you are looking to trade physical cryptocurrencies, you’ll find that FXCM offers clients access to trading physical cryptocurrencies while OANDA does not.

Market research plays a huge role in any forex trader’s ability to conduct analysis within the global forex market. We test each broker’s research offering to help you decide which broker is right for your technical or fundamental analysis needs. FXCM delivers the following research tools: Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources), Trading Central (Recognia) and Social Trading / Copy Trading. OANDA, on the other hand, provides the tools listed here: Autochartist, Daily Market Commentary, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) and Social Trading / Copy Trading

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