For professional traders there are really only two ways to do this: have a good trading strategy ... and trade at the lowest possible cost. Hence, quality of execution and tight spread are critical.

OANDA FXTrade regularly has a spread of 1.2 on EUR/USD. That's about half of what many other brokers charge. And with such tight spreads, there's no need to worry about depth of book: they apply to any trade size between $1 and $10 million.

Our obsession with tight spreads is not casual. OANDA has been a pioneer in reducing costs to increase our clients' return:

• We were the first to introduce pipettes, in order to capture every increment of cost saving, and
• We have fully automated trading from front to back, with unique market-making and risk-management technologies. There is no middleman to pay and no re-quoting: the spread you see is where you trade.

The FXTrade challenge

Every broker and market maker will claim that they have the tightest spreads and "best execution." You should see for yourself.

Open an account on our demo platform (FXGame) or a small account on FXTrade. Make trades that exactly mirror the trades you're making elsewhere, but in smaller proportions — possible only on FXTrade because $1,000 trades get the same spread as $1M trades. Then see which platform gives you the better return.

• The tightest spreads on the 'Net

  Through automation we have removed the middleman. FXTrade puts you directly in touch with the forex marketplace. Efficiency is what drives us, because the narrower the spread, the better your trade, the lower your total cost of ownership, and the higher your ROI over time. Read more on Spreads

• No discrimination based on the size of your transaction

  Tired of being second-guessed and re-quoted away from the exact trade you want? At FXTrade, the spread you see is where you trade.

• Multi-currency accounts

  OANDA supports seven major currencies, which means that in many cases there's no need to exchange your funds before you can start trading.

• Continuous interest payments
  (a feature unique to FXTrade)

  We apply the interest-rate differential to all trades second-by-second; intra-day traders can earn interest without having to hold a position overnight. Read more on Continuous interest payments.

• Real-time, executable pricing

  OANDA is a market maker, not an auction house or matching engine. Because there is no third party, you get real-time pricing, and instant trade confirmation and settlement.

• No limits on trade size

  Trade in units, not lots. You can tailor your trade to your own need, with trades as low as US$1 and up to US$10 million or any amount in between. (Enter larger positions by issuing multiple orders.) Allows new strategies for managing risk and testing of new trading strategies in a realistic setting.

• Leverage and opportunity

  FXTrade supports more than 30 currency pairs, including many exotic currencies. And when you open your account you can select a margin ratio—up to 2% (50:1 leverage)—and change it whenever you like. Read about Trading on Margin

• Settle now, not later

  Why wait a day or longer for your trades to settle? With FXTrade instant settlement simplifies your bookkeeping and minimizes counterparty and operational risk. And it means you can get into new trades faster.

• Say good-bye to the rollover swap

  The end-of-day rollover swap is an outdated process that can distort or de-rail your trading strategy. If it's affecting your strategy, it could be costing you money.

• Automate your trading

  Take advantage of our Application Programming Interface (API) to get the latest rates in real time, switch between sub-accounts, issue trade orders, set and modify stop-loss/take-profit/limit orders, and get a history of transactions.
  Read more on API

• Manage your accounts in real time

  When a currency pair is bought or sold, you get not only instant confirmation and settlement, but

  • a real-time trade blotter summarizing your activity;
  • a real-time P&L (updated automatically on the interface); and
  • real-time graphs that track prices at intervals from five seconds to one day (viewable in multiple pairs).
    
    
• Use news and tools at your fingertips

  FXTrade incorporates–free of charge–real-time news feeds and trading indicators and analysis from respected industry sources.

OANDA is registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and is a member of the National Futures Association (NFA).

OANDA continuously meets stringent financial requirements, including minimal capital requirements based on customers' open positions. OANDA compiles financial data every day and submits it to the CFTC and the NFA on a weekly and monthly basis. Both the operational and the financial aspects of OANDA are audited by the NFA and by private financial auditors.