The OANDA Labs Trader Program lets traders with limited capital trade with an OANDA Labs Trader account and share in the P&L they produce. OANDA’s proprietary trading models use the trading signals produced by OANDA Labs Traders to make decisions about placing trades in the market. OANDA’s proprietary capital is at risk, so OANDA asks potential OANDA Labs 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 Labs Trader account is virtual, traders are entitled to a share of up to 90% of any profits that they make. OANDA Labs 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 Labs 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 proof of address, and conduct a liveness check. You will also need to open a trading account with OANDA Global Markets, which is where the P&L share will be paid.

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 Labs Challenge and Trader program are available in the following countries:

• Algeria
• Angola
• Antarctica
• Antigua & Barbuda
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Aruba
• Azerbaijan
• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Belize
• Benin
• Bermuda
• Bhutan
• Bolivia
• Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Botswana
• Bouvet Island
• Brazil
• Brunei
• Burundi
• Cape Verde/ Cabo Verde
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Chile
• Cocos (Keeling) Islands
• Colombia
• Comoros
• Cook Islands
• Costa Rica
• Côte D'ivoire
• Curaçao
• Djibouti
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Fiji
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Georgia
• Ghana
• Greenland
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana
• Honduras
• Hong Kong
• Iceland
• Indonesia
• Israel
• Kazakhstan
• Kiribati
• Kosovo
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Lebanon
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Macau
• Macedonia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Marshall Islands
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mayotte
• Mexico
• Micronesia
• Moldova
• Mongolia
• Montenegro
• Morocco
• Nauru
• Nepal
• New Caledonia
• Niger
• Niue
• Oman
• Palau
• Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Philippines
• Pitcairn
• Qatar
• Rwanda
• Saint Helena, Ascension & Tristan Da Cunha
• Saint Kitts & Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent & Grenadines
• Samoa
• Sao Tome & Principe
• Saudi Arabia
• Serbia
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Solomon Islands
• Sri Lanka
• Suriname
• Swaziland
• Taiwan
• Tajikistan
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tokelau
• Tonga
• Tunisia
• Turkmenistan
• Tuvalu
• Ukraine
• United Arab Emirates
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan
• Venezuela
• Wallis & Futuna Island
• Western Sahara
• Zambia

The OANDA Labs 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 Labs Trader Account.

To successfully complete the Phase 1 Challenge, you’ll need to achieve a 8% profit target, calculated from the unrealised P&L of the account as per MT4/5.

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 Labs Trader Program is a highly valued service for dedicated, talented and serious traders – with the levels of OANDA’s own capital that we provide and the 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 Labs Challenge via a credit or debit card.

You could take and pass both phases of the Challenge in the same day – it all depends on your skill.

There is no limit on how many times you can take the Challenge. Feel free to take multiple challenges, however do note the maximum virtual allocation amount for those that pass the challenge is $500,000.

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

We welcome all kinds of trading strategies if these are not based on copy trading, or usage of the same or slightly modified EAs that are being followed. You can participate in multiple Challenges and run various trading strategies as long as these do not violate our terms regarding Forbidden Trading Practices in the Assessment Terms and Conditions. Violation of these terms may lead to loss of access.

Note that we do not allow trading from multiple Labs Trader accounts once traders receive a virtual capital allocation. If a Trader successfully completes multiple OANDA Labs Challenges, the virtual capital will be merged in 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.

We’ll start processing your OANDA Labs Challenge Account as soon as we receive payment. When we create your OANDA Labs Challenge account, you’ll receive your OANDA Labs Challenge notification via email, and your login credentials for the trading platform will be found directly in your client area. 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 don’t pass a Challenge on your first attempt, we’ll give you a 20% discount to have another try.

This discount can be applied to any Challenge tier, and is calculated based on the Challenge fee for the new Challenge being undertaken, not the one you didn’t pass. For example: trader A buys a $699 Challenge and fails to pass. If they then decide to buy a $249 Challenge, a $50 discount applies. If they buy a $2400 Challenge, then a $480 discount will be applied.

The discount is not cumulative and remains at 20% regardless of the number of times a Challenge hasn’t been passed. So, if trader B fails a $699 Challenge the first time, their second purchase of a $699 Challenge would cost them $560. If they didn’t pass the second time and decided 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 1 or Phase 2, or after gaining access to the OANDA Labs Trader account (provided they lose access to the OANDA Labs Trader account before getting a payout).

After you’ve passed all the trading objectives in the OANDA Labs 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 Labs Challenge. We’ll then evaluate your trading results and, after approximately 1-2 business days, and send you new account login credentials for 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 Labs 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 Labs 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 Labs Trader, you’ll need to log in to your dashboard and complete your 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
• ID card
• Driving license
• 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 already have one from this link.

At this stage, 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, you will receive an approval email

from OANDA in about 1-2 working days.

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

After you complete your verification, you will receive your OANDA Labs Trader credentials and you can start trading with real assets.

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 Labs 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 Labs Trader program. 

You can’t merge your OANDA Labs Trader accounts with an OANDA Global Markets account.

However, if you successfully complete multiple OANDA Labs Challenges, the virtual capital will be merged in a single account up to a maximum of $500,000. If you complete 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 you no longer have an active allocation, and a new virtual allocation will be created.

Please note, 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 with is a virtual allocation of OANDA’s capital and remains under OANDA’s ownership. As such, it cannot be withdrawn. However, you are entitled to a share of up to 90% of the profits that you make.

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

• Drawdown rule: the account drawdown is equal to or exceeds 10%
• Daily loss rule: the daily loss is equal to or exceeds 5%
• Inactivity of 20 calendar days: if you do not place a trade at least once every 20 calendar days on your account, we will consider the account inactive, and the account will be breached
• Max time rule of 120 calendar days for each phases: if you do not complete the challenge in 120 days for each phase, the account will be breached
• Traders engaging in trading techniques such as copy trading, price and latency arbitrage, and other trading behavior as described in our T&Cs
• In addition, behavior that violates our terms regarding Forbidden Trading Practices in the Assessment Terms and Conditions may also lead to loss of access

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 a $10,000 decrease in the account equity. If profitable trading increases the balance to $105,000, the maximum drawdown trails up by $10,000 to a new drawdown limit of $95,000 of equity. If the balance or the equity of the account decreases (other than via payouts), the maximum trailing drawdown will not decrease, but will stay at the high water mark minus $10,000. If profitable trading continues and the balance of the account goes above $110,000, then the maximum drawdown limit will increase to a maximum level of the initial value of the account, $100,000, and no further.

The maximum drawdown limit level can be monitored via the Labs 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 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.

You can trade on MetaTrader 4 and 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 MT4 and 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 Labs 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-labstrader@oanda.com.