Frequently Asked Questions

The OANDA Prop Trader Program lets traders who pass an assessment gain access to an OANDA Prop Trader account and share in the P&L they produce. OANDA Prop Traders are signal providers to OANDA’s proprietary trading models. OANDA’s proprietary trading models use the trading signals produced by OANDA Prop Traders to make decisions about placing trades in the market. OANDA’s proprietary capital is at risk, so OANDA asks potential OANDA Prop Traders to complete a Challenge to qualify for the program and demonstrate an ability to generate profits and manage risk. Although the capital provided in the OANDA Prop Trader account is virtual and the trades placed by signal providers are virtual, signal providers are entitled to a share of any profits that they make in the virtual account. OANDA Prop Traders are given access to our technology and market relationships to help them use their trading skills to generate profits. 

Anyone aged 18 and over from our approved list of countries can take a Challenge and qualify to be an OANDA Prop Trader. To qualify, we ask potential traders to pass a two-phase Challenge using a demo account. In the Challenge, traders will have to trade following a set of rules and also meet a number of objectives.

If you pass the Challenge, the second step is a verification stage, where we’ll ask you to provide your ID and conduct a liveness check. You must own an active OANDA Global Markets account, which is where the P&L share will be paid.

If you do not have an account with OANDA Global Markets, we will send you the link to apply for the required account after you pass the challenge. For more information, please refer to the terms and conditions.

We’re keen to welcome traders from all over the world. At present, the OANDA Prop Trader Challenge and Prop Trader program are available in the countries stated in the Terms and Conditions.

Proprietary or prop trading is a practice where traders engage in trading activities using the capital of a prop trading firm rather than their own financial resources. The trading done and capital used can be either virtual or real depending on the operations of the prop firm.

A prop trader is someone who engages in prop trading, using real or virtual capital provided by a prop trading business. Prop traders usually have a high level of autonomy in making their trading decisions, but a firm’s own capital may be at risk, there will often be higher levels of scrutiny around their trading activities, with stringent conditions imposed. Prop trading firms will usually set a loss threshold (known as a maximum drawdown limit) – if the prop trader’s trading account drops below a predetermined threshold, it will be suspended. Find out more here.

A prop trading firm allocates an agreed amount of capital to a trader to trade with. Prop traders face the same challenges as standard traders and like standard traders, they can use different strategies for trading.

In a standard brokerage trading setup, a trader uses their own funds to place trades, and the firm would derive its income on a commission or percentage basis from acting as a broker on behalf of its clients. 

In the case of prop trading, the firm is using its own funds, so it earns 100% of any profits or losses that it makes on trades placed in the market. Props traders earn an agreed share of any profits that they make in their own portfolio of trades.

The OANDA Prop Trader Challenge is a demo environment that gives traders the chance to test out their strategies and skills.

The Challenge is in two phases, each with different objectives and profit targets. If you pass both phases of the Challenge, you’ll move onto a verification stage where your identity is confirmed, before being given access to an OANDA Prop Trader Account.

To successfully complete the Phase 1 Challenge, you’ll need to achieve an 8% profit target, calculated from the unrealised P&L of the account as per MT5. For Phase 2 of the Challenge, it’s a 5% profit target (calculated in the same way).

We charge a fee to participate in the Challenge, and this varies depending on the size of the account that the trader wants to trade with and the profit share. There are eight tiers, each with their own fee, available level of virtual capital and profit share:

To successfully complete each Phase of the Challenge, you’ll have to meet a number of conditions,

The full details of the challenge rules and conditions can be found here.

We charge a fee to cover the administration costs of evaluation and assessing your trading. The OANDA Prop Trader Program is a highly valued service for dedicated, talented and serious traders – with the trading systems and potential for profit for traders, we think that our fees represent excellent value. If you pass the Challenge and become a signal provider, you will get 100% of the fee you paid for the challenge you passed refunded to you on your first payout.

You can pay for the OANDA Prop Trader Challenge via a credit or debit card, Apple Pay (depending on jurisdiction), Google Pay and cryptocurrency

There is no limit on how many times you can take the Challenge. Feel free to take on multiple challenges.

We do not allow copy trading between multiple or into any accounts involved in the OANDA Prop Trader program. Please note that if we identify copy-trading behavior on your Challenge or trading account, this will be considered a trading rule violation and your account(s) be disabled.

OANDA Prop Trading has restrictions on trading during major financial news events. Participants should avoid executing any new trades or closing existing trades within a six-minute window: three minutes before and three minutes after the release of major news announcements. It’s important to note that executing a trade refers to either opening or closing trades from both pending orders or market orders and EAs (Expert Advisors).

Exceptions to the news trading rules may be applied in some cases on review, for instance where open positions are closed due to triggered SL/TP orders.

News trading is a forbidden trading practice as per our terms and conditions (available here). Engaging in news trading can lead to profits realized from such trades being removed from the account, and/or termination of account access.

Trades open during this window will be closed with PL realized on the account
and this will be flagged as a soft breach. 

Here’s a reference list of major economic events.

OANDA Prop Trader has daily max profit or consistency rules during the trade assessment phases (Challenges). These rules do not apply once a Prop  Trading account is allocated. The rules during the assessment phases are designed to foster stable and sustainable profits while adeptly managing risks. 

We are looking for profitable traders who can deliver consistent and steady results with proper risk and money management controls. Relying on occasional big wins on the back of a handful number of trades during volatile markets could be a result of pure luck and may not be consistent. It's all about building habits for long-term success. By avoiding unnecessary risks, you maintain steady growth, leading to better financial outcomes and a more stable trading journey.

During the two assessment phases, the following conditions apply:

Phase one: 5% daily max profit 

Phase two: 2% daily max profit 

If an account reaches the max profit during a particular day, all positions will be closed and profit and loss carried from all open positions will be realized on the account. Trading on the account will be disabled until the next day.

You can take multiple Challenges and have multiple challenge accounts. After passing the Challenge, you will only be able to have one Prop Trader account at any given time.

We’ll start processing your OANDA Prop Trader Challenge Account as soon as we receive payment. When we create your OANDA Prop Trader Challenge account, you’ll receive your OANDA Prop Trader Challenge notification via email, and your login credentials for the trading platform will be found directly in your Prop Trader dashboard. Please check your mailbox, including your spam and junk folders. It’s important that you safeguard your login credentials and don’t share or authorize their use with anybody else.

If you are unsuccessful in completing a Challenge on your initial try, you will be eligible for a 20% discount to make a subsequent attempt on the same challenge.

For example: trader A buys a $1,200 Challenge and fails to pass. If they apply the 20% discount code when purchasing a new challenge, a $240 discount applies to their challenge fee.

The discount is not cumulative and remains at 20% regardless of the number of unsuccessful Challenge attempts made by a trader.

So, if trader B fails a $699 challenge the first time, their second purchase of a $699 Challenge would cost them $560. If they don’t pass the second time and decide to buy a third $699 challenge, it will cost them another $560.

The discount applies however far through the Challenge the trader gets, whether they fail during phase one or phase two, or after gaining access to the OANDA Prop Trader account.

After you’ve passed all the trading objectives in the OANDA Prop Trader Challenge, we’ll let you know you’ve been successful. Your account will be placed into read-only mode and we’ll automatically be alerted that you’ve passed your OANDA Prop Trader Challenge. We’ll then evaluate your trading results within 1-2 business days and you will proceed to the verification stage.

You will need to go through a verification process and also set up an OANDA Global Markets account.

To issue your contract to become an OANDA Prop Trader following our review of your trading, we’ll need to verify your identity via a series of checks.

It’s important to keep everyone participating in the OANDA Prop Trader program safe. Our checks help to increase that safety and reduce the risk of fraud. That’s why they’re also a legal requirement in many countries and territories across the globe.

In order for you to become an OANDA Prop Trader, you’ll need to log in to your dashboard and complete Know Your Customer (KYC) verification. We will ask for your ID and proof of address at this stage, as well as a liveness check.

The forms of ID that we accept may vary according to your country of residence, but will usually be from the following list:

• Passport
• Government-issued ID card
• Driving license
• Official or government-issued residence permit

You can find a full list of accepted ID forms for your country on this link.

Additionally, it’s important to note the following:

• The document must be valid for at least one month from the upload date
• The document must not be damaged, scratched, stained or torn.
• The applicant's full name, date of birth, MRZ (Machine-Readable Zone is a codified element of identity documents), and other important information must be present and legible
• All the documents in the application must belong to the same person

In order for you to receive payouts, we will ask you to create an OANDA Global Markets account. If you do not have an existing account, you will receive the application link to apply when you pass the challenge

In the OANDA Global Markets application, we will ask for your:

• Country of residence
• Full name in English as per your ID card or passport
• Date of birth
• Country/region of birth
• Email address
• Mobile phone number
• Residential Address
• Employment status and financial details

Once your application is submitted and approved, you will receive an approval email from OANDA. Processing time typically takes 1-2 business days and can vary depending on additional information. required. 

You will need to provide your OANDA Global Markets account details to complete the process of becoming an OANDA Prop Trader.

After you complete your verification and accept the applicable terms and conditions (referred to as the signal provider terms and conditions and privacy policy) , you will receive your OANDA Prop Trader credentials and you can start trading as a signal provider.

A signal provider is a term used to describe a trader who grants access to the data on their trading platform. These trading signals allow other traders to copy them on their own trading accounts.

A trading signal is a notification of a trading opportunity that enables other traders to copy the trades of a signal provider, usually via a copy trading system. 

OANDA Global Markets Limited is a private limited company registered in the British Virgin Islands (company registration number 2026433). OANDA Global Markets Limited is authorized and regulated by the British Virgin Island (BVI) Financial Services Commission.

The OANDA Global Markets account is the account that will be used to receive your payouts, which is the only role it plays in relation to the OANDA Prop Trader program. Any trading you may choose to do on a self-funded basis in that account has no impact on your performance in the OANDA Prop Trader program. 

We do not allow multiple signal provider accounts, you can only have 1 active signal provider account. If a trader successfully completes multiple OANDA Prop Challenges, the virtual capital of plans with the same profit share percentage will be merged into a single account up to a maximum of $500,000. If a trader completes a Challenge that would result in the virtual capital allocation being greater than $500,000, the capital will not be merged into or allocated to a virtual account until such time as the trader no longer has an active allocation, and a new virtual allocation will be created.

Please note, that only accounts with the same profit share percentage can be merged.

The allocation of virtual capital depends on the fee at your chosen tier of the Challenge Phase:

The Black Challenge brings a virtual allocation of $500,000, which is also the maximum amount of virtual allocation for a given participant. Please note that if you pass multiple Challenges, the virtual capital will be merged in a single account up to a maximum of $500,000.

No. The capital that you trade as a signal provider is a virtual allocation of OANDA’s capital and as such, it cannot be withdrawn. However, you are entitled to a share of the profits that you make in your virtual account.

Yes. In addition to a breach under the applicable terms and conditions, a breach of the rules will result in the loss of your account:

You can trade a wide variety of instruments. Factors such as the contract sizes, positions and step sizes will vary depending on which instrument(s) you choose. You can find a full list here.

The maximum leverage is 100:1.

The daily loss limit is the maximum amount (measured in account equity) that the account can lose on any given day. The daily loss limit is set using the previous day’s end-of-day balance, which resets at 17:00 ET. Please note that we do not base our limit calculations on the previous day’s end-of-day equity, but instead use the end-of-day balance as the balance is a static value at the start of each trading day and allows the parameter to be tracked more transparently by users.

The daily loss limit increases or decreases with any notional increase or decrease of the account balance.

Our hours of operation are aligned with the global financial markets. The trading hours are subject to change during daylight saving time and certain public holidays. If you decide to leave trades open over the weekend, your trades will be subject to the weekend trading rules.

The maximum drawdown limit is the maximum loss you can suffer on the trading account. If the equity drops below that max drawdown limit, this will be considered a hard breach, resulting in closing of all open positions, and disabling trading access to the account.

The maximum drawdown limit is trailing and will increase as the account balance increases. Any increase in the account balance from the starting balance will be treated as a new high water mark for the account. The high water mark is capped at the initial account balance of the account. The high water mark value for the limit will be maintained even if the value of the account balance decreases. The only time the high water mark will decrease is if there is a payout from the account, and it will decrease by the amount of the payout request.

Here’s an example. If trading starts with an initial account balance of $100,000, the maximum drawdown is 10%, or $90,000. If your realized P&L goes up to $105,000, the maximum drawdown trails up by 10% and your new drawdown will become $94,500. The max drawdown limit will be 10% from the initial balance trailed up to the maximum of the initial balance, so in this case, it will go up until $100,000. 

The maximum drawdown limit level can be monitored via the OANDA Prop Trader Dashboard portal.

Yes. As long as you’re trading within the permitted 100:1 leverage and allowed max lot sizes, you may hedge positions on both sides.

Yes, you can use EAs, scripts, and indicators. However, we do not allow copy trading, or EAs that engage in price or latency arbitrage techniques and other trading behavior as described in the applicable terms and conditions. 

You can trade on MetaTrader 5. MetaTrader is a third-party trading platform – if you have any problems using it, please refer to our troubleshooting FAQ page. Here’s our guides on using the MT5 trading platforms.

You can request the payouts from your User Portal. When you do so, your account in MetaTrader will be temporarily locked while we process your request. Your account will be unlocked once the payment request is approved, and the money is debited from the MetaTrader account. Please note that you can only make a payout request every 14 days, and that you’ll need to close all open positions before your request for a payout will be processed. All payouts will be made to the OANDA Global Markets account you create when you established your OANDA Prop Trader account.

You can further request a withdrawal from your OANDA Global Markets account.

You can contact us via email. Our customer support email address is support-proptrader@oanda.com.