Oanda Corporation

OANDA Corporation
Private
Industry Financial Services
Currency Trading
Founded 1995, incorporated in 1996
Forex division est. 2001
Headquarters Toronto, Canada
Key people
 Richard Olsen, Co-Founder
Dr Michael Stumm, Co-Founder
Edmond Eger III, CEO
Website www.oanda.com

Oanda is a Canadian-based foreign exchange company providing currency conversion, online retail foreign exchange trading (forex), online foreign currency transfers, and forex information. In the US it is a non-bank Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) specialized in spot forex trading and a registered FCM with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and a member of the National Futures Association (NFA).

History

OANDA was co-founded by Dr. Michael Stumm, a professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Richard Olsen of The Olsen Ltd., a leading econometric research and development firm.[1] [2]

Oanda is an outgrowth of the Swiss Olsen Group and was created to serve as an internet trading platform to automate techniques based on the group's research in foreign exchange trading.[3] Much of OANDA's technology is based on algorithms published in the book High Frequency Finance,[4] which was co-authored by Dr. Richard Olsen, a principal of OANDA and co-inventor of these algorithms.

In 1996, OANDA Corporation, the US subsidiary, was incorporated in the state of Delaware, and initially provided online access to live currency information that was previously inaccessible to the public at large. At its inception, oanda.com offered free currency conversion tools, tables of historical data, news, and analysis through a multilingual interface.[5]

In 2001, Oanda launched fxTrade, an online forex trading system.

In August 2006, 3 members of OANDA's technical team left due to dissatisfaction with their pay and constant pressure.[6]

In 2008 Oanda launched fxGlobalTransfer, an automated online foreign currency transfer service designed to send funds globally. The same year, Oanda launched fxPedia, an online wiki of forex information and commentary, and fxConsulting, a consulting service for corporate hedging.

In 2011, Oanda added the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform for clients who use algorithmic trading strategies.[7]

In December of 2012, Oanda discontinued fxGlobalTransfer for third parties.[8] Later in the month, OANDA launched MT4 mobile applications for iPhone and Android smartphones and tablets.[9]

In September of 2013 Oanda acquired one of the popular social trading networks Currensee.[10]

On December 2, 2013, Oanda appointed Edmond Eger III as a new CEO in place of K Duker.[11]

Operations

The companies main product is the electronic trading platform (fxTrade[12]), currency conversion tools, a foreign exchange wire service (fxGlobalTransfer), a corporate hedging consulting service (FXConsulting), discussion forums, tables of historical currency data, as well as forex news and analysis.[13]

The company provides a number of additional Foreign Exchange services besides fxTrade, their forex trading platform. They provide conversion tools and currency charts and indexes and information for travelers.[14]

Mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot mentioned OANDA's fxTrade platform as one example of how the foreign exchange market works when small investors and big investors are set on an equal footing, having removed the unfair commission structure.[15]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.oanda.com/corp/story/
  2. ↑ http://www.eecg.toronto.edu/~stumm/
  3. ↑ "Research-coming from a trading floor near you", Michael Halls, Global Finance, published June 2003, accessed December 30, 2006.
  4. ↑ Dacorogna, Michel M.; Gençay, Ramazan; Muller, Ulrich A.; Pictet, Olivier; Olsen, Richard (2001). An Introduction to High-Frequency Finance. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-279671-3.
  5. ↑ Alaton, Salem (March 8, 2001). "Need some yen in a hurry? Try the Web; New services to let travellers order foreign; currencies on-line for overnight delivery". The Globe and Mail.
  6. ↑ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/how-do-you-run-the-worlds-most-innovative-online-forex-trading-firm/article7795376/
  7. ↑ OANDA Builds Bridge to MetaTrader 4.
  8. ↑ http://fxglobaltransfer.oanda.com/
  9. ↑ Trevor Young, OANDA and MT4: a superior match for algorithmic traders.
  10. ↑ "Oanda Announces Acquisition of Social Forex Trading Network". ForexBrokernews.com. 2013-09-24. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
  11. ↑ "OANDA Corporation Appoints New President and Chief Executive Officer". ForexBrokerNews.com. 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  12. ↑ fxTrade is unusual among trading programs in that it is written in Java, allowing it to run on many computers whose Web browser supports a Java language plug-in, with reduced dependency on the underlying operating system. fxTrade is installed over the network each time it is started, so the user is always using the latest software version.
  13. ↑ OANDA web site, plus Quick access: find statistical data on the Internet, Di Su, "Information Outlook", published May 1999, accessed December 30, 2006.
  14. ↑ Oanda Review in Daily Forex - Forex Trading by DailyForex
  15. ↑ Benoît Mandelbrot; Richard L. Hudson. The (Mis)Behavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Reward. Basic Books. p. 257. ISBN 0-465-04355-0.

External links