We hereby present an interview with Vatsa Narasimha, Executive Vice President  and Chief Strategy Officer at OANDA Corporation.
In the interview Narasimha discusses the integration of Currensee’s features in OANDA’s platform, details about “Circuit Breakers†protection and touches other various topics. Enjoy:
Congratulations for the successful integration of the Trade Leaders program in OANDA. How did the integration go?
Thank you, we are proud and excited. Given our shared pedigree as technology innovators, and commitment to transparency and customer success, the integration was a positive experience.
Is the copy trading feature going to be integrated in OANDA’s advanced mobile app?
Today, traders can view the OANDA Trade Leaders Program Leaderboard, and we are currently working on full feature capability on fxTrade Mobile – we’ll be sure to share the news as soon as we’re ready.
Is the copy trading platform integrated also in the MetaTrader platform or only on fxTrade?
Traders can leverage the OANDA Trade Leaders program for MT4 with our OANDA APIs.
How many trade leaders are there today? Does OANDA plan on enlarging the amount of leaders?
Today, there are 26 Trade Leaders in the program. We will absolutely increase that number – in fact, we’re adding two this week. It is our continued aim to provide investors with a varied set of excellent Trade Leaders. To apply, traders can visit http://www.currensee.com/tradeleaders.
Can you tell me more about the Circuit Breakers feature?
Our aim is – and has always been – to help our clients trade smarter. Again, here we’re using disruptive technology to take social trading to the next level. The Circuit Breakers in the program are unique to our offering – no other broker offers pre- and post-trade protection. They help ensure that trades made outside of your Trade Leaders’ profile are not triggered in your portfolio. There are five currently available in our offering, with more to come.
Those available today are:
1) Focus of Currency Pairs: commitment from Trade Leaders to make trades on specific currency pair(s).
2) Cap on Leverage Per Trade: Leverage on any particular trade will not raised above that which has been indicated in the Trade Leader profile.
3) Cap on Open Positions: Trade Leader profiles indicate their level of trading activity. This circuit breaker ensures any trades made above this maximum number of open positions will not be triggered in the Trade Follower’s portfolio.
4) Cap on Maximum Loss per Position: Each Trade Leader will include a maximum loss per position in their profile, at which point that position will be closed in the Trade Follower’s portfolio.
5) Cap on Maximum Daily Loss: Each Trade Leader will include a maximum daily loss in their profile, at which point all trades will be closed in the Trade Follower’s portfolio (with no new positions triggered in that trading day).
What percentage of OANDA trades are made via copy trading?
At this time, copy trading is still a small percentage of our overall trading volume, however, we’ve seen strong uptake in the offering. From December 2013 through the end of April 2014, the total trading volume by clients copy trading quadrupled.
Is the program still open to non-OANDA trade leaders and non-OANDA followers?
The OANDA Trade Leaders Program is specific to traders using fxTrade, however, Currensee still has its offering available with other platforms.
Was the Currensee team integrated into OANDA’s or is Currensee still operating as a separate unit?
Our teams are fully integrated.
Will the Currensee brand remain in any form?
Today, the Currensee brand and website exist to facilitate those copy trading on other platforms.
What are the advantages of the Trade Leaders program over competitors’ programs?
There are three distinct advantages with the OANDA Trade Leaders Program. First, because it’s integrated with the award-winning fxTrade platform, investors get low latency and the lowest minimum slippage found with any broker; Second, the Circuit Breakers – no other broker offers pre- and post-trade protection; and third, the OANDA Trade Leaders Program is built to help protect your investment. The compensation of our Trade Leaders is unique to our offering: our Trade Leaders only receive compensation when their trades make money in investor accounts, above a high water mark. If a Trade Leader makes winning trades that don’t win for the investor, they are not compensated. The only incentive for our Trade Leaders is to make wining trades for our investors.
Are there regulatory restrictions regarding copy trading?
We have worked with various regulators to ensure the OANDA Trade Leaders Program is compliant per market, and will continue to do so. We’ll also be launching in new markets later this year, so stay tuned.
Do traders that focus solely on copy trading enjoy higher profitability?
OANDA clients tend to be more profitable on the whole, and yes if we look at our Trade Followers, they have a similar or higher percentage of profitability.
Does OANDA plan to encourage copy trading, or just offer this as another feature?
We absolutely encourage copy trading. OANDA prides itself on providing a large breadth of offerings to our clients, based on their needs and experience. We want all of our customers to be profitable and therefore offer them a multitude of investing options, including CFDs.
Does OANDA still offer currency baskets? Is this available via the Trade Leaders program?
We no longer offer currency baskets.
Are there any new features in the pipeline for the Trade Leaders program?
At this time, our primary focus is on mobile integration but we will continue to innovate our offering, adding new instruments such as precious metals and Trade Leaders with strategies specific to those metals (such as gold), which is also unique to the OANDA Trade Leaders Program.
Is there anything else you would like to add regarding the program?
The OANDA Trade Leaders Program provides investors with the most transparent access to the forex market and a modern way to diversify their portfolios.
