OANDA (canada)

Just got my cheque back from MF global canada and I'm looking for a fx broker in canada to trade with. Contacted Oanda to apply for an account and found that they limit the amount a client can trade based on their own risk management model. What kinda broker is that? I'm not asking them to advise me on trading nor borrowing from them? They said they are following regulation. Does anyone know of any other regulated brokers?

Canadian regulated brokers have to follow the "know your client" rules for Canadian residents.

Basically, if you don't earn much and don't have a lot of assets, they will limit how much you can deposit so you don't hurt yourself trading.

I use them myself and they've been great, worth the extra hassle to get CIPF protection on your account.

But the problem is that i have 250k in cash and they only allow me to trade 10k becasue my income is low, i dont understand what kind of risk model is that. I dont see that bank is doing that to their customer. Also knowing your customer doesnt mean you control what you customers do, you would advise but not limit. It is really their responsiblity to "control" their client, but rather give them advice. Is not like their customers are borrowing from them. I think they are over doing it and asking theirs customers to walk away instead.

Huh... and writing down the 250k of liquid assets in your application didn't loosen that limit?

From what I understand, regulations base risk assessments around debt to income ratios, assets, and given experience.

Perhaps you could give them a call? I got mine raised after talking to them and detailing what I needed.

I am also agree with "Jack_Larkin" suggestion "calling them" would be right decision in such situation. Because OANDA is a prominent forex broker.

Don't bother with any Canadian Broker, period. Whether MT4 or otherwise, they're all a mild joke; throw in the 'nannying' of telling you how much you can trade, and then further crippling your trade ability with severely limiting leverage and margin requirements, ie. on a $10K Oanda account, you can't have more than $2.2K invested in EURUSD, and, if it moves you into drawdown territory, they may liquidate you.

Not sure if you're playing with $250K or not, but Citibank is one to look at (no, unfortunately your deposit doesn't get insured under their FDIC program), but, they are in the top-3 of liquidity providers - a $50K account gets you a 1 pip spread on EURUSD, and respectable MT4 performance. Beyond MT4, $50K accounts don't really have a place in the world of MT4: there are many respectable and well run futures brokers in Chicago, but that does require a mild step up in trading platforms, IMO, all for the better.

What the heck are you talking about?

Try to actually contribute, don't speak out of your ass...


In a USD denominated account, Oanda Canada requires 3.5% for margin. That means a $10k USD account can hold a position worth ~$285,714.29.. (this is ~30:1 leverage)

Oanda doesn't set this, it's done by regulations..

I know this because I trade with Oanda and my account acts exactly as stated.

Source: (click the USD based account tab)
http://fxtrade.oanda.ca/help/policie...n-requirements

Have you considered InteractiveBrokers?

Agreed about the leverage restrictions in Canada, but to me the biggest problem is the uneven leverage across pairs, not the degree of leverage it's self.

I actually wouldn't want 100:1 anymore, 50:1 is perfectly fine for retail trading, and if I had +250k in my trading account at this moment I would be using only 20:1 leverage.

It puts you into a position of trading based more on the pairs that give you the best leverage as opposed to simply being able to focus on the best pairs to trade.

A good example is Usd/Cad vs. Eur/Nzd, the Eur/Nzd is the way easier pair to go with at the moment, but the Usd/Cad pair is about 50:1 and the Eur/Nzd is about 15:1, so if you want to trade it with a Canadian account you have to tie up alot more of your account on a single trade to make it worth your while.