Help Centre
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Most frequently asked questions
Here are the most common questions a trader would normally ask us or consider to ask before opening an account with us.
For more information on help resources related to Oscar Markets and the products we offer,
simply type your question below or visit our live chat service.
Oscar Markets offer two types of accounts, Standard account and our market leading, Raw Spread account.
Raw Spread Account: This account shows the Raw inter-bank spread received from our liquidity providers. There is a commission charge of $7 per standard lot round turn.
Standard Account: We do not charge a commission on Standard accounts but instead, there is a mark up applied to the spread of 0.8pip above the raw Inter-bank rate received from our Liquidity providers.
Further information about the different types of trading accounts available can be found on our Account Overview page.
Oscar Markets has two MetaTrader account types, a Standard account and our market leading, The Raw Spread account. Oscar Markets does not charge a commission on Standard accounts but instead applies a spread mark up of 0.8 pip above the Raw inter-bank prices received from our liquidity providers. Oscar Markets Raw Spread account shows the raw inter-bank spread received from our liquidity providers. On this account we commission of $7 per standard lot round turn.
Oscar Markets allows clients to open an account with as little as USD $1000 or currency equivalent.
Our mission is to provide traders with the lowest spreads and fastest executions possible across over 1980+ Forex products including Forex, precious metals, stocks, futures and other CFDs on Commodities. We have invested heavily in technology and established strong relationships with some of the largest and most reliable pricing providers in the market.
To find more about products offering click here: range of products.
We also strongly suggest to thoroughly read our Account Terms available for the attached costs, risks and your responsibilities before deciding to trade with us.
This is one of the most frequently asked questions. The difficult part in understanding ECN and STP meanings is that those have been interpreted differently by many people. There are three main business models used by Forex brokers which differ by the way the transactions are handled and orders are executed: ECN, STP and Market Makers.
ECN: ECN stands for ‘Electronic Communication Network’ which is simply a technical term that is used to describe how banks and liquidity providers connect to each other to form a bid and offer price. In the Forex industry, it can be used to identify providers who use this type of pricing mechanism in order to offer raw interbank pricing to retail traders. Under this model your broker will stream raw prices and your trades will be offset with another client, a liquidity provider or held internally by the broker. This usually results in faster trade execution. This is distinct from order execution that may result in an offsetting order placed with a liquidity provider.
STP: This term stands for ‘Straight Through Processing’ and is used when a Forex and CFD provider processes all trades at market prices obtained from a liquidity provider, this price is simply passed on by the broker. This is not dissimilar to the ECN pricing model in that the price is not altered and there is no dealing desk intervention when the trade is processed, hence it is known as STP.
Oscar Markets is the issuer of the products it provides. We consider ourselves to be a forex provider offering the ECN pricing model as we source our pricing from external unrelated liquidity providers , these prices are passed onto you with no dealing desk intervention. In order to provide you with better price certainty and to ensure fast execution speed we do not offset each and every position with our liquidity providers. We do this in order to provide you with a better overall trading experience.
Opening an account is simple. Click on the Open a Live Account link and complete your application form.
Once your on-line application form has been approved by our accounts team you will be emailed your trading account login details and password.
Questions about Oscar Markets
Oscar Markets is one of the world’s leading Forex CFD provider. The company was incorporated with the vision of providing fair and transparent Forex trading to active traders. Oscar Markets is dedicated to bringing solutions previously only available to professionals and large global investment banks to retail investors and traders around the world. For additional information about Oscar Markets, please visit the About Us page.
Oscar Markets is a privately owned company with a management team that has over 20 years of experience in derivative products. The founders of Oscar Markets were crucial to the success of one of the largest CFD providers.
Oscar Markets holds client money in segregated client money accounts in Tier 1 banks.
Oscar Markets hold client money in segregated client money accounts with a number of top rated International banks. We spread the client money across multiple banks to reduce the counterparty risk to any one bank.
We only collect personal information which is reasonably necessary to provide you with quality products or services, conduct identification checks to meet our legal regulatory obligations and combat fraud. We do not sell your personal information to any third party for marketing purposes. Our privacy policy outlines how we handle our customers’ personal information in detail.
Yes, we take the privacy of our customers extremely seriously and we have in place policies and procedures to safeguard the information we request. You can view our privacy policy which outlines how we handle your personal information.
Should your account security be compromised, we suggest you change your trading platform and Client Area passwords immediately. We recommend you store your passwords securely and not on a shared or public device. Should you become aware of a security breach, we recommend you change your passwords and contact us immediately to notify us of the incident.
Questions about Trading with Oscar Markets
Oscar Markets has two Meta Trader account types: Standard Account and our market-leading Raw Spread Account. Oscar Markets does not charge a commission on Standard Accounts; instead, we mark up the spread received from our liquidity providers. Oscar Markets Raw Spread Account shows the raw interbank spread received from our liquidity providers. On this account we charge a commission of $3.5 per standard lot round turn.
Oscar Markets allows clients to open a trading account with as little as USD $200 or currency equivalent.
Oscar Markets offers flexible leverage options ranging from 1:1 to 1:1000. You can change the leverage on your trading account via your Client Area.
Oscar Markets allows you to open multiple trading accounts. You can open an additional trading account via your Client Area.
The opening and closing times of Oscar Markets prices are:
Opening time: 00:01 MetaTrader 5 Server Time (Monday)
Closing time: 23:57 MetaTrader 5 Server Time (Friday)
Please note the trading times of certain instruments may vary; you should refer to the relevant product section on our website for specific information.
Oscar Markets rollover occurs at 00:00 MetaTrader 5 Server Time.
To align the daily chart candles with New York close (5pm ET), Oscar Markets server time and charts are GMT+2 or GMT+3 when daylight saving is in effect. The table below outlines the dates on which the server time is changed to reflect daylight savings each year.
The trading hours for gold (XAUUSD) are:
Opening time: 01:02 MetaTrader 5 Server Time
Closing time: 23:57 MetaTrader 5 Server Time
The trading hours for silver (XAGUSD) are:
Opening time: 01:00 MetaTrader 5 Server Time
Closing time: 23:59 (Friday 23:57) MetaTrader 5 Server Time
Oscar Markets offers extensive online education. In addition, we regularly conduct educational webinars on a variety of topics.
Oscar Markets offers over 75 currency pairs, including cryptocurrencies.
Oscar Markets also offers CFDs in precious metals, CFDs on Commodities, indices, futures, shares and bonds.
Oscar Markets offers its customers several ways of depositing funds into their trading account. Common deposit methods include bank / wire transfer, Paypal, credit card, Skrill, Neteller, UnionPay, Bpay, FasaPay and Poli. Our funding page provides further information about each method that we offer.
When funding your account using online deposit methods such as credit cards, Paypal, Neteller and Skrill, your deposit will appear instantly in your trading account.
Wire transfers and Bpay within Australia normally take one to two business days. For international bank transfers, please allow up to three to five working days.
You can submit a withdrawal request from within your Client Area. All withdrawals received before 12:00 midday AEST / AEDT will be processed on the same business day. Our full withdrawal policy can be found in the withdrawals page on our website.
Opening an account is simple. Click on the Open a Live Account link and complete the account application form.
Once your online application form has been approved by our accounts team you will be emailed your trading account and secure Client Area login details and password.
Under the Anti -Money Laundering Act 2020 of Financial Services Authority of Seychelles, Oscar Markets is required to verify your identity before opening a trading account for you.
Identification must be provided in the form of photo ID and proof of address to enable us to verify your identity.
Photo ID
• Must be clear and visible
• Must be issued by a government agency
• Name, signature, expiry date and date of birth* must be clear
* Please note that Oscar Markets does not accept account applications from any persons under the age of 18
Proof of Address
• Must be no older than 6 months
• Must show the same name and address as your account application
Our anti-money laundering policy contains further information regarding our identification requirements.
No, Oscar Markets does not pay interest on account balances in any currency.
No, Oscar Markets does not accept US clients. US CTFC regulation prevents US clients from trading with brokers outside the US.
Yes, we allow both hedging and scalping trading strategies. Our spreads and trading conditions are the preferred choice of many day traders and scalpers globally.
Oscar Markets is not able to open new positions over the email. However, should you wish to close out positions, please mail our support team on support@oscarmarkets.com and we will accept instructions from you.
No, you will not be charged any account inactivity fees.
While demo accounts and live accounts provide similar trading experiences, the demo accounts are predominantly used for familiarizing yourself with the trading platform and educational purposes only. We do not guarantee that the performance of a demo account will be the same as that of a live account as our demo accounts are not connected to our live trading environment.
Forex brokers use three main business models which differ in the way the transactions are handled and orders are executed: ECN, STP and Market Makers.
ECN: ECN stands for ‘Electronic Communication Network’, which is simply a technical term that is used to describe how banks and liquidity providers connect to each other to form bid and offer prices. In the Forex industry, it can be used to identify providers who use this type of pricing mechanism in order to offer raw interbank pricing to retail traders. Under this model your broker will stream raw prices and your trades will be offset with another client or liquidity provider, or held internally by the broker. This usually results in faster trade execution. This is distinct from order execution, which may result in an offsetting order placed with a liquidity provider.
STP: This term stands for ‘Straight Through Processing’ and is used when a Forex and CFD provider process all trades at market prices obtained from a liquidity provider. This price is simply passed on by the broker. This is not dissimilar to the ECN pricing model in that the price is not altered and there is no dealing desk intervention when the trade is processed; hence, it is known as STP.
Market Maker: Typically, market makers operate a dealing desk in order to create their own prices. These prices can be based on their own proprietary trading positions or overall risk exposure and may not reflect the prices in the underlying market.
Oscar Markets is the issuer of the products it provides. We consider ourselves to be a Forex provider offering the ECN pricing model as we source our pricing from external unrelated liquidity providers. These prices are passed on to you with no dealing desk intervention. In order to provide you with better price certainty and to ensure fast execution speed, we do not hedge each and every position with our liquidity providers. We do this in order to provide you with a better overall trading experience.
When you trade with us, you are trading with Oscar Markets as principle, this is the case with all Forex and CFD providers globally.
We do not operate a proprietary trading book, we source our prices from external unrelated liquidity providers or directly, these prices are then passed onto you with no dealing desk intervention.
Oscar Markets streams prices from its liquidity providers, who, in their turn, derive those prices from the market (or exchange) in the case of Stocks CFDs and from banks and non-bank liquidity providers in the case of Forex. The source of the underlying market price may vary for each product.
Although Oscar Markets prices come from its liquidity providers and Oscar Markets is not practically involved in the making of the price, simply streaming prices which it receives, the prices nonetheless become Oscar Markets prices when it provides them to its clients to trade on. This is the case for all derivative products which Oscar Markets offers to its clients.
If you trade 100,000 (1.00)
Commission is $3.50 for opening, and $3.50 for closing; $7.00 for the full round-turn
If you trade 10,000 (0.10)
Commission is $0.35 for opening, and $0.35 for closing; $0.70 for the full round-turn
If you trade 1,000 (0.01)
Commission is $0.035 for opening, and $0.035 for closing; $0.070 for the full round-turn
On MetaTrader 5 all commission charge for a position is applied at the opening of the trade.
On MetaTrader 5 commission is charged per side (opening/closing).
*On MetaTrader 5 the commission column is not rounded up to 3 decimal places but to 2 decimal places only. Thus, commission on a micro lot size $0.035 per side is rounded to $0.04
Oscar Markets is the issuer of the products it provides. Our Securities Dealer License allows us to make a market; however, we consider ourselves to be a CFD provider offering the ECN pricing model as we do not operate a proprietary trading book and source our pricing from external unrelated liquidity providers. These prices are then passed on to you with no dealing desk intervention. In order to provide you with better price certainty and to ensure fast execution speed, we do not offset each and every single position with our liquidity providers.
When you trade with us you are trading on prices streamed from our liquidity providers. Oscar Markets does not have a dealing desk that creates its own prices.
The prices we offer are streamed various liquidity providers.
Oscar Markets Securities Dealer License allows us to make markets, this is the case for all CFD and Forex providers globally. We are not a broker to you but a Forex and CFD issuer. Simply put, acting as a principal to your trades, we are the sole counterparty that allows you to access prices streamed from our liquidity providers that supply Oscar Markets with the bank and non-bank pricing.
Technically, when you buy a product at Oscar Markets, we are selling that product to you. It is not possible for you to buy that product at the exchange directly to complete the transaction due to the attached requirements for higher trade sizes, and margin costs, etc., thus, it has to be dealt with Oscar Markets on a principal basis alone.
Typically, market makers are considered to be Forex and CFD providers who operate a dealing desk in order to create their own prices, these prices can be based on their own proprietary trading positions or overall risk exposure and may not reflect the prices in the underlying market.
All conflicts of interest can be found in our Terms & Conditions
On our Raw Spread Account, the average spread on gold is 1 pip. Detailed information can be found on our spreads page.
On our Raw Spread Account, the average spread is 0.1 pip. Detailed information can be found on our spreads page.
All trades are filled based on the prices we stream on our trading platforms. We adopt a market execution model whereby stop loss and take profits orders are triggered based on their pre-set conditions and executed at the price available at that time. We do not offer guaranteed stop loss orders.
Information regarding our swap rates can be found on our website. They can also be found from within the MetaTrader 5 platform: simply go to Market Watch, right-click on an instrument and select ‘Specifications’. A new window will then open and the swap rates will be displayed.
Yes, we do offer oil as a spot and future commodity CFD product. More information can be found on our CFDs on Commodities product page.
Triple swap rates are charged on Wednesday. The reason for this is that spot Forex contracts have a two-day settlement period. For example, a spot Forex contract that occurred on Monday settles on Wednesday, a trade that occurred on Tuesday settles on Thursday, a trade that occurred on Wednesday settles on Friday, but a trade that occurred on Thursday settles on the following Monday. In this example, the trade that occurred on Thursday rolled through the weekend because the banks are closed on Saturday and Sunday. Triple rollover interest is applied to positions held open at 5pm New York time on Wednesday as this time marks the beginning of the new 24-hour trading day (Thursday).
You should note that swap rates can be negative or positive, depending on the currency pair traded and the prevailing interest rates at that time.
Oscar Markets offers over +2100 Stocks CFDs. The full list can be found on our Stocks CFD product page.
A dividend adjustment is applied to a share or index CFD position in the event of a dividend payment occurring in the underlying share or share constituent of an index. The ex-dividend date is the day a stock starts trading without its dividend payment. In the case of an index, an adjustment will be made that is equal to the number of points by which the index price must be adjusted downwards to take account of those shares in the index which go ex-dividend at the close of the cash market. The ex-dividend figure estimated by Bloomberg, rounded to the tick size we use for that index, is used to determine what adjustment to apply. In the case of long positions, the dividend adjustment is in the form a trading account credit. In the case of short positions, the dividend adjustment is in the form of a trading account debit.
The most common reason is that incorrect prices have been referred to. You must refer to the bid prices to check whether the requested take profit price level on a buy trade has been reached or not. However, in the case of a sell trade, you must refer to the ask prices. It is also important to note that a standard account has 0.8 pip mark-up on the raw spreads. This spread mark-up does not appear in bid prices recorded on the chart by default.
Oscar Markets margin stop out level on all trading platforms is 50%, which means that if your account’s margin level drops to or below 50% of the margin required, the system will start closing your open positions automatically.
Events such as markets gapping over the weekend or on major holidays, where liquidity is thin, can increase the chance of your positions being stopped out and a negative equity situation occurring. In case you lose more than your current account balance, you should be aware that you will bear the negative consequences of such adverse events.
Oscar Markets uses a market execution model. A market execution model means that all trades and pending orders are filled at the prices we stream on the platform at the time an order is placed.
Oscar Markets does not offer instant execution.
Our average trade execution speed is around 35 milliseconds on currency pairs. Our trade servers are in the Equinix NY4 data centres in New York. We have cross connects in place with our liquidity providers to ensure faster trading execution speeds.
Oscar Markets does not charge any additional fees or commission for CFD indices trading.
You can subscribe to our daily market forecasts by visiting your secure Client Area. Select Daily Market Forecasts under the ‘Trading Tools’ section. You may choose to subscribe to daily market forecasts from either Autochartist or Trading Central, or both.
Oscar Markets offers a variety of partnership programs including, but not limited to, Introducing Brokers, Affiliates, etc. Detailed information can be found at the partnerships section on our website.
A demo trading account contains virtual money and is absolutely risk-free. Demo accounts are designed as an educational tool to familiarize customers with our trading platforms without losing real money.
To add funds to your demo trading account, go to Account Summary under the ‘Accounts’ section of your secure Client Area. Scroll down the page to go to your ‘Demo Accounts’ section. You can add virtual money to your demo account by clicking on the ‘Add Funds’ options marked with a green dollar ($) icon available at the end of the account row.
Please note that all client funds are held in segregated client money accounts with top International banks, away from the company’s own funds. Clients with a net credit balance at the time of insolvency can be paid both from funds that are held in the segregated trust accounts and also from the company’s other available funds. Fortunately, Oscar Markets corporate account balance is substantial and in the very unlikely event of insolvency those funds would cover clients, we well exceed the capital requirements set by our regulators.
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you a personal trading advice that may impact your trading decisions. Trading Derivatives may not be suitable for all investors, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary.
Questions about the Forex market
Forex, or the ‘Foreign Exchange Market’, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average turnover of approximately US$3 trillion. Forex trading is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. The price of currencies is floating and dependent on supply and demand. Foreign exchange is always traded in pairs, for example EUR/USD or AUD/USD.
Making money trading Forex involves buying lower and selling higher or selling higher and buying back lower. Using leverage means that you are able to deposit a smaller amount of money to achieve the same buying power as you would have if you bought and sold the currencies outright.
In this example, Mary deposits $5,000 into her Forex trading account and nominates the leverage on her account to be 1:100. As a result of leverage, Mary’s buying power on her $5,000 deposit becomes $500,000. Mary decides to buy 0.1 lots of the AUD/USD par at a price of 0.99802. Three days later, the price of the AUD/USD is 1.04069 and Mary decides to close her position. Mary’s profit is calculated as (1.04069 – 0.99802) 426 pips. As Mary opened a position of 0.1 lots, she made a profit of $426, or $1 per pip.
Of course, should the AUD/USD have moved against Mary below the opening price of her trade to a level of 0.97802, Mary would have incurred a loss on the trade of (0.99802 – 0.95542) 426 pips. As Mary’s position size was 0.1 lots, she would have incurred a loss of $426 or $1 per pip.
It is important to be aware that when trading Forex you can also incur losses which can be greater than your initial deposit.
Forex is said to be one of the fairest and most transparent markets on earth. This is mainly because of the large number of market participants and sheer size and number of transactions. No one single country or bank can completely control the direction of a currency.
Forex is not exchange traded, unlike the stock and futures markets. Forex is traded on an over-the-counter (OTC) basis with no central exchange between banks, governments, hedge funds and private investors. The Forex market is open 24 hours a day, five days a week, it opens in New Zealand and closes in New York.
The main participants in the Forex market are central banks, commercial banks and investment banks, however, in recent years – since the advent of the internet – accessibility to the Forex market has increased, which has resulted in an increase in the number of non-bank participants. Nowadays, participants also include large multinational corporations, money managers, registered dealers, money brokers and private investors.
The Forex market is a 24-hour market. Forex trading commences in Wellington, New Zealand and moves around the globe as business days begin in each financial centre. The major global financial centres where most Forex trading takes place are Tokyo, London and New York. The Forex market opens on Sunday at 10:00pm (GMT) and closes on Friday at 10:00pm (GMT).
The most popular liquid currency pairs are those from countries with politically stable governments and well-respected central banks. The most popular currency pairs are those that are paired with the US dollar, these are nicknamed the ‘majors’ and account for around 85% of transactions. The most commonly traded pairs are the EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CHF and USD/CAD.
A variety of fundamental and technical aspects can cause an exchange rate to move. The most notable influences include interest rates, inflation and political stability. Sometimes, governments will buy or sell a currency in an effort to influence its value with a view to having a broader effect on the country’s economy. This is known as ‘central bank intervention’ and can have a significant impact on the value of a currency. Given the size and diversity of participants, no one single factor can influence the Forex market for any significant length of time.
Forex traders can use a variety of risk management strategies. The most common form of risk management is the use of stop loss and limit orders. Stop loss orders can be set within the MetaTrader 5 platform and are often used to force the closure of a position at a predetermined price in order to limit any potential loss. Limit orders work in much the same way as stop loss orders; however, they allow a restriction to be placed on the maximum price paid.
Forex traders use a variety of trading strategies based on technical and fundamental analysis. Nowadays, technical trading is becoming increasingly popular and traders are using a variety of technical indicators, such as trend lines, support and resistance levels, and numerous other methods, to identify short-to-medium term trading opportunities. Some traders choose to use fundamental analysis, which revolves around interpreting economic information including news, government reports and sometimes even rumour. Often, however, it is elements outside of technical and fundamental analysis that have the most dramatic effect on currency prices. This includes events such as central bank intervention, interest rate changes, political change or even war.
No, trading Forex has never been cheaper or more accessible. Traders can now trade on institutional grade pricing with a deposit of as little as $200 and leverage of up to 500:1. It is, however, important to remember that although trading on leverage can maximise profits, it can also amplify losses.
