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CloseAvaTrade Review
AvaTrade offers some of the best forex trading tutorials in the industry, as well as a demo account for traders who want to learn and improve their skills risk-free.
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Founded in 2006, AvaTrade is an award-winning, Dublin-based forex broker, offering its trading services in more than 150 countries worldwide, however, they do not accept clients from the U.S. They are an international company with sales centers and offices in, Dublin, Paris, Milan, Sydney, and Tokyo.
AvaTrade has over 200,000 clients worldwide who make trades exceeding $80 billion per month. Their website is available in 29 languages and the customer service is also multilingual.
However, despite being an international forex broker regulated by several national financial authorities like ASIC, JFSA, and IIROC, AvaTrade is the most popular close to home. The company’s main focus is on the biggest chunk of its audience which is its UK-based client base.
Their pricing schedule is mostly average and their platforms’ research capabilities are lacking. However, AvaTrade offers outstanding educational resources to traders of all levels.
Fast Facts
- Account Minimum: $100
- Regulation: ASIC (Australia), JFSA (Japan), IIROC (Canada)
- Demo Account: Yes
- Asset Coverage: CFDs, Forex, Crypto, Commodities, Spreads, Stocks
- Best for: Traders looking for a good education
Ratings
- Commissions & Fees: 6/10
- Investment Selection: 8.5/10
- Account Options & Features: 8/10
- Usability: 7/10
- Educational Resources: 9/10
- Customer Service: 9/10
- Overall: 8/10
Risk Warning: Trading CFDs and FX Options entail risk and could result in the loss of your capital.
Overview and Summary
AvaTrade has some key highlights that we rounded up for you:
- Brokerage is available in 150 countries but not in the U.S.
- A very wide range of investment products including 8 cryptocurrencies.
- There’s an account type for every kind of trader. Very noteworthy is the Islamic account.
- The offer of trading platforms is sizeable, but not particularly impressive for the most part. However, clients get social/copy trading capabilities through ZuluTrade and DupliTrade.
- Spreads can be very low-cost, but other prices are mostly average and there are some important hidden fees to look out for.
- Research capabilities are subpar.
- AvaTrade has excellent educational resources for beginners, as well as advanced traders.
Is AvaTrade Safe and Secure? 🛡
AvaTrade is regarded as a low-risk broker, however, there are a few details that raise red flags. They are not listed in any stock exchange and they’re not very transparent, as their financial information is not publicly available.
This lack of transparency coupled with mistakes by the company’s administration caused legal problems for AvaTrade in the past.
The brokerage has been sanctioned in 2016 and 2017 in Belgium, Canada, and Israel for failing to meet certain legal requirements.
They had to pay €175,000 in Belgium because they failed to provide a prospectus for some of their products. AvaTrade also advertised the aforementioned products without seeking approval from FSMA, a top financial authority in Belgium.
In Israel, AvaTrade was fined because its subsidiary (atrade.co.il) ran a promotional video with misleading information in its advertising campaign. Also, AvaTrade advertised its products in Canada without seeking government approval from BSCS. Luckily for AvaTrade, there was no fine this time, and the broker got off with just a warning.
As mandated by EU financial regulators, AvaTrade offers negative balance protection, which means you can’t lose more money than what you have on your account balance. Believe it or not, your account balance can go into the negative with some brokers, which means you can get in debt.
AvaTrade protects users from this inconvenience, and in case the company goes bankrupt, or fails in any way, Ireland’s Investor Compensation Company (ICCL) guarantees clients insurance up to €20,000.
They are regulated by three tier-1 regulators:
- ☑ Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC),
- ☑ Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA),
- ☑ Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).
All in all, AvaTrade seems to be completely safe for customers despite its past quarrels with national financial authorities.
AvaTrade Compared
Average spread EUR/USD standard
0.92
N/A
0.75
All-in cost EUR/USD - active
0.62
N/A
Variable fees
Minimum initial deposit
$100.00
$0
$50 - $200 (jurisdiction dependent)
For UK users is $100
Total currency pairs
60
105
47
Demo account?
Social / copy trading?
eToro Risk Warning: eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs, only real Stocks and Crypto assets available.
The minimum amount required for Stocks investment is $10 USD.
Account Types 🗃
There is a plentitude of different account types available on AvaTrade but they all have similarities. All accounts have fixed spreads, as well as mini or micro lots trading capabilities. AvaTrade Go mobile platform and MetaTrader 4 are available with all account types.
Demo Account ⏳
Users who want to try out the platform can start with AvaTrade’s demo account. The demo account is available regardless of which account type you sign up for and has $100,000 of virtual money. It is available for 21 days after opening the account.
Standard Account 👤
AvaTrade’s standard account is a good next step to take after trying the platform out with the demo accounts. This account is only for international clients outside the EU and is the same in most respects to the retail account. The standard account allows for the maximum leverage of 400:1 in some markets.
Retail Account 🧮
This is the most popular account type and is reserved for EU-based clients. The retail account provides users with leverage of 30:1, which is the max leverage approved by ESMA regulations in Europe. Users also have access to a dispute settlement service.
Professional Account 💰
Active traders will greatly benefit from the discounted prices provided on the professional account. This account is reserved for traders who can meet certain trading volume and frequency requirements. If you upgrade to the professional account, you will get numerous benefits like 400:1 leverage.
Islamic Account 💱
The Islamic (Halal) account is meant for clients who want to trade in accordance with Shariah law. This account is mostly similar to the standard account but it doesn’t offer cryptocurrencies, and Rollovers are only available for certain exotic forex pairs.
VIP Account 🌟
If you are a very active trader who can make a deposit of more than €10,000, then this is an account for you. VIP users get great discounts for high-volume and high-frequency forex trading, which can make up for AvaTrade’s average prices.
What They’re Good At 🏆
AvaTrade offers clients an impressive list of forex and CFDs. There are 8 available cryptocurrencies. CFDs include a number of bonds and commodities, as well as 5 ETFs and 69 shares.
Clients can also make spread bets. All in all, AvaTrade covers all the bases with its investment product offer.
Education 📚
Educational resources are probably this broker’s finest quality. AvaTrade offers articles and webinars on a very wide range of forex-related topics and investing in general. There are training videos on the trading platform but AvaTrade’s YouTube channel is also jam-packed with high-quality, well-produced video content.
The tutorials are well-organized into three basic sections: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. In combination with the demo account, AvaTrade’s educational content is a great boon for experienced, as well as beginner forex traders and is definitely worth checking out.
Customer Service ☎
AvaTrade has a multilingual customer support service that is available 24/5. Customer support representatives can be reached by phone, email, or live chat on the company’s website. The phone operatives get mixed reviews as it sometimes takes them upwards of 7 minutes to respond.
The live chat representatives are very helpful and answer immediately, at least if you’re using Chrome. The live chat feature doesn’t seem to work on Firefox as all I got when I tried it was a never-ending loading screen.
The email service representatives are very professional and usually reply within 24 hours, which is pretty quick. All in all, AvaTrade has great customer service, aside from the unresponsive phone service.
Where AvaTrade is Lacking 🚧
Since they have many different account types, it’s hard to cite all their commission fees accurately but in general, prices range from low to average. AvaTrade offers very low spreads while most other commissions are mid-range.
Their pricing schedule is very convoluted because of the numerous account types and because their website can be hard to navigate. Also, you might find some contradictory pricing information on their website, which can be very annoying if you’re trying to figure out how much your trades are going to cost.
Assets | Fees |
---|---|
EUR/USD | Avg. spread cost is 0.9 pips |
S&P 500 CFD | Avg. spread cost is 0.5 pips |
Europe 50 CFD | Avg. spread cost is 1.0 pips |
The minimum initial deposit is just $100 for the most standard accounts but the inactivity fee is pretty high at $50 per month for accounts that have been idle for at least 3 months.
If an account is inactive for 12 months, it is burdened with a substantial administration fee of $100, but at least there are no deposit and withdrawal fees.
👨🏫 Are you unfamiliar with pip? This easy to follow guide will teach you everything you need to know about pip and how it works.
Can’t Withdraw Your Funds? 💳
A frequent complaint that AvaTrade’s clients have is that they can’t withdraw funds from their accounts. Users actually can withdraw funds from their accounts like everywhere else, but there’s a catch.
It takes a very long time for the transfer to go through, in fact, it can take up to two weeks after you make the withdrawal request. Clients waiting a long time to withdraw their money is a common problem with online brokers, but AvaTrade really takes the cake here.
The company doesn’t make this super-long waiting period clearly known to users so naturally, many clients think that something isn’t working. The withdrawal feature works on AvaTrade if you approach it as explained in their website’s help centre section, however, most other brokers offer quicker money withdrawal.
Trading Platforms 🖥
The most popular platforms offered by AvaTrade are the MT 4, MT 5, and AvaTrade’s own WebTrader. There are a few more available platforms aside from these, like the copy/social trading platforms, ZuluTrade and DupliTrade.
AvaTrade Web 🌐
Their most popular trading platform has basic order placing, portfolio analysis, and customization capabilities. Alerts and notifications are not available on the web version, and the platform feels outdated in general. None of AvaTrade Web’s features are particularly noteworthy so it gets an average rating.
Mobile Platform 📱
The mobile platforms are easy to use and have a good search function. The brokerage offers AvaTradeGO, the standard mobile platform, AvaOptions, a mobile trading platform for trading with forex options, and MetaTrader mobile.
All mobile platforms can be integrated with their desktop counterparts and have the basic functions, as well as some handy price alerts.
You can also access AvaTrade’s training videos through the mobile app, which can be very useful if you’re on your feet. AvaTrade’s mobile software is well-designed but very limited, with the exception of AvaTradeGO, which is the company’s dominant mobile app. Sadly, AvaTrade Go did not make it into our list of best apps for forex trading.
AvaTrade GO 💻
Unlike most mobile trading apps, AvaTradeGO’s level of functionality is almost at the same level as its desktop counterpart’s. Creating watchlists, charting, and executing trades is easy, making this app a well-rounded tool for traders who are on the move.
AvaTrade Go has an exclusive feature called Market Trends, which lets clients monitor the current market trends from AvaTrade’s community and make trades based on these movements.
Other Platforms 🕵️♂️
AvaTrade also offers users two great copy/social trading platforms, ZuluTrade and DupliTrade. These platforms offer users copy trading capabilities, which means they can follow expert traders and copy their trades. MT 5 is a new addition to AvaTrade’s list and is currently available in 32 countries worldwide.
Research 🔍
AvaTrade’s platforms and MT 4 have a great trading position calculator, however, that’s just about the only noteworthy research feature you’ll find on these platforms since AvaTrade doesn’t provide fundamental data, trading ideas, and news.
The charting tools are good and research tools are user-friendly overall, but you have to go to AvaTrade’s YouTube channel if you want to see their latest market analysis videos. Basically, AvaTrade is completely blown out of the water by the competition in the research department due to the lack of basic tools and data.
Bottom Line 🚩
AvaTrade provides a reasonable forex brokerage service overall. The educational content is especially good, even when compared with some of the industry’s leaders. A diverse selection of account types and trading platforms is sure to catch the eye of many different kinds of forex traders.
Aside from education and customer support, AvaTrade provides a fairly good, but unexceptional service to its customers. Their offer of research tools and data is inferior to other companies like Forex.com, and sometimes it’s even difficult to figure out the price of a certain product because the info on their website is so hard to find.
All in all, AvaTrade is an above-average brokerage firm, but can not be compared with the best forex brokers in the industry.
AvaTrade and the Competition
See how AvaTrade compares to the leading Forex brokers by reading one of the reviews below.
All reviews, research, news and assessments of any kind on The Tokenist are compiled using a strict editorial review process by our editorial team. Neither our writers nor our editors receive direct compensation of any kind to publish information on tokenist.com. Our company, Tokenist Media LLC, is community supported and may receive a small commission when you purchase products or services through links on our website. Click here for a full list of our partners and an in-depth explanation on how we get paid.