Best Retail FX Platform: Oanda

In the run-up to the historic UK referendum on its European Union membership, foreign exchange market participants had only one thing on their minds: echoes of the shocking disruption caused by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in January 2015. 

To prevent a repeat of the market dislocation that had such a major impact on everyone, retail brokers across the board cut the leverage offered to clients on sterling, and in some cases in the euro.

"Oanda has never broken or repriced trades in the past, and we certainly didn't do this during the SNB crisis or Brexit. We believe honouring that commitment speaks to the very core of our brand," says Ed Eger, chief executive of retail broker Oanda, the winner of the Best Retail FX Platform category at the 2016 FX Week e-FX Awards.

"We are very much in the long game – our goal is to help clients make money and hopefully they will remain loyal customers as a result. That's why we forgave all negative balances during the SNB crisis, and we've done it again during Brexit. This is a brand value decision for Oanda," he adds.

Brexit turned out to be one of Oanda's biggest days ever, in terms of client activity. The markets presented a host of opportunities to trade and make money, which many of our clients took advantage of
Ed Eger, Oanda

While the broker says it performed as well, if not better, than many of its peers during the January 15, 2015 event, it still assembled a taskforce a week afterwards to identify key areas for improvement.

"We concluded that while our technology, marketing and market-maker model all worked perfectly in sync, we could have been better prepared from a risk management point of view," Eger acknowledges.

With the post-SNB findings in mind, Oanda reduced the leverage offered to clients to 20:1 on a number of currency pairs to protect clients from incurring significant losses around the UK referendum, even though it turned out to be a relatively smooth ride from an FX point of view, with no major market dislocations occurring on the night of June 23.

"Brexit actually turned out to be one of Oanda's biggest days ever, in terms of client activity. The markets presented a host of opportunities to trade and make money, which many of our clients took advantage of, even with lower leverage," adds Eger.

Lowering latency

Over the last two years the company has invested in its technology infrastructure to reduce latency in the system and achieve institutional-grade execution speeds. This has been rolled out in Australia, China and the UK. By October, the US and the rest of Asia will be covered.

"We've always had one of the fastest retail platforms on the market, but now we're set to put even more distance between ourselves and the competition," Eger adds.