AvaTrade

AvaTrade is a leading international contract for difference (CFDs) broker that is a part of the AVA Group. Founded in 2006, AvaTrade has grown into one of the most popular online brokerages with multiple trading platforms, a wide selection of CFDs, including bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, a mobile app, a variety of deposit and withdrawal methods, as well as MetaTrader 4 integration.

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Background and history of the broker

Launched in 2006, AvaTrade is one of the oldest online brokerages operating worldwide. The company has offices and sales centers worldwide, namely in Australia, Chile, China, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Mongolia, Poland, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates, while their administrative headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland.

AvaTrade is synonymous with reputation and is regulated in numerous respectable jurisdictions:

• In Europe, AvaTrade is licensed by Central Bank of Ireland under the license number C53877.
• In British Virgin Islands, the company is regulated by the B.V.I. Financial Services Commission, under license no. SIBA/L/13/1049.
• In Australia, the broker is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission under license no. 406684.
• In Japan, the broker is supervised by the Financial Services Agency under license number 1662, as well as Financial Futures Association under license no 1574.
• In South Africa, the broker is licensed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority under FSCA license no. 45984.
• In the Middle East, the firm is regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Markets Financial Regulatory Services Authority under license no. 190018.

In order to register and use AvaTrade, users must verify their identity by providing the following documents:

• Government-issued ID or Passport
• Proof of Address (utility bill)

It may take up to 1 day to approve your verification. Mind that AvaTrade will block all unverified accounts after 14 days of their first deposit.

AvaTrade accepts customers from most countries and continents, including Australia, Canada, The United Kingdom, Thailand, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Qatar, and many other countries.

The platform is unavailable to citizens and residents of the United States, Belgium, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Zimbabwe.

AvaTrade account types

As you sign up on AvaTrade, you can open one of the following account types. All of them have their similarities and fixed spreads and support mini or micro lots of trading.

• Demo account. Try out the AvaTrade platform without making a deposit and test novel trading strategies using 100,000 practice money. The demo account available for 21 days after opening an account.
• Retail account. The most popular account type for EU-based clients. It lets you trade with 30x leverage, and you can also access dispute settlement service.
• Standard account. Standard account is available for international clients outside of the European Union and is mostly the same as the retail account. In some markets, it allows for 400x leverage.
• Professional account. Pro traders who meet a certain trading volume threshold may be eligible for numerous trading discounts and up to 400x leverage (in certain markets).
• Islamic account. Islamic (Halal) account is meant for clients trading following Sharia Law. It shares most of the standard account features but does not include cryptocurrencies and Rollovers for most forex pairs (with a few exceptions).
• VIP account. Active traders who make deposits above EUR 10,000 or more get great discounts for high-volume and high-frequency trading.

AvaTrade Fees

AvaTrade promotes commission-free trading regardless of your account type. This is due to its internal market pricing and operates as a counterparty to your trades. As a result, unlike other CFDs brokers, AvaTrade does not facilitate direct market access with reduced spreads but imposed commissions.

Other fees may depend on your account type. Since AvaTrade offers multiple account types, it’s rather difficult to accurately cite all of their commission fees, as they are also subject to change. Our general impression is that AvaTrade fees are low for Pro and VIP accounts and are average for standard and retail accounts when comparing to other CFDs brokers.

The spreads on AvaTrade are rather competitive. Main forex markets like EUR/USD come with spreads that start from 0.9 pips and can even go as low as 0.6 pips for professional trading accounts. Other markets, such as crypto or stocks, come with a starting point between 0.13% (stocks) and 0.35% (crypto). They also charge overnight fees for leveraged positions, which depend on varying funding rates.

Also, AvaTrade has a strict “idle account” policy. If you don’t use your account for three months, it will incur a relatively high USD 50 monthly fee. If your account is inactive for a total of twelve months, it will also incur a substantial administration fee of USD 100.

AvaTrade design and usability

At the time of writing this review, AvaTrade provides access to the following trading instruments (CFDs):

• Forex: Over 50 currency pairs with competitive spreads of 0.8 pips and up to 400x leverage.
• Cryptocurrency: 18 different cryptos with up to 20x leverage, including Bitcoin pairs against major currencies like BTC/USD, BTC/EUR, and BTC/JPY; Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Litecoin, Bitcoin Gold, Dash, IOTA, EOS, NEO, Stellar, Chainlink, Uniswap, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Solana, and Polygon.
• Indices: Trade DJ 30, NASDAQ 100, S&P500, FTSE 100, and 20 more indices with up to 20x leverage.
• Stocks: Bet on top stocks, including Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, Google, Facebook, AT&T and other top companies with up to 5x leverage.
• Bonds & Treasuries: Access a range of US, European, and Asian government bonds with up to 5x leverage.
• Commodities: Gold, silver, copper, platinum, energies, and various food crops with up to 10x leverage.
• ETFs: Trade exchange-traded funds with up to 5x leverage on your positions.
• Options: AvaTrade offers a range of trading options for traders of all experience levels.

Besides, AvaTrade provides its traders with a comprehensive array of educational trading resources. It has a decent education center filled with video tutorials, webinars, glossaries, eBooks, and more. It also includes simple tutorials like how to use Meta Trader 4 or how to do simple technical analysis.

AvaTrade offers several different trading platforms. AvaTrader is a professional-grade trading platform that is suitable for novice and expert traders alike. Traders can watch the markets, apply their own analysis, and execute Forex and CFD trades from their desktop. AvaTrader offers various customizable tools and indicators for complex analysis and testing and automated trading that can be set up according to preset specifications. The CFD can be used for short and long trades and start with as little as USD 100 with a leverage of up to 20x.

Also available at AvaTrade is the popular MetaTrader4, which allows trading in Forex, commodities, and indices with low spreads, reliable execution, and 400x leverage. The AvaTrade MT4 account is powerful and flexible and combines the world’s best platform with all the advantages of trading with an award-winning regulated broker.

MetaTrader4 provides transparent low pricing from 0.8 pips, flexible lot sizes - from 0.01 micro lots, quick execution, and free auto-trading with full EA compatibility and MQL5 support.

These platforms are available for mobile trading for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone, where traders can choose any 200+ Forex & CFD instruments on your phone.

AvaTrade security

AvaTrade is a CFDs broker, meaning that it does not keep the underlying traditional assets and cryptocurrencies. As such, the biggest risk falls under the regulatory side of the platform. Here, AvaTrade stands as a very low-risk broker due to its global nature and multiple relationships with local regulators, including tier-1 regulators like the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), and Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).

As a result, AvaTrade users can enjoy the highest quality service and exposure to multiple markets without losing any good night’s sleep.

Deposit and withdrawal methods

AvaTrade offers a wide variety of deposit options, including the most popular online payment methods such as bank card payments via Visa or Mastercard, bank wire transfers, and E-Wallets like Paypal, Skrill, NETELLER, and WebMoney. Unfortunately, AvaTrade is a pure CFDs trading platform and does not accept any cryptocurrency deposits, though you may be able to convert your crypto into fiat by depositing via PayPal.

The minimal initial deposit amount at AvaTrade is only USD 100.

When it comes to withdrawals, you can take your funds via the same methods as mentioned above. Note that withdrawals may take up to 5 business days to process.

The AvaOptions platform is intuitive and powerful, and traders the full variety of vanilla currency options in addition to spot trades. Traders can trade 30+ currency pairs over a range of expiries and with an assortment of powerful yet user-friendly tools to hone a trader’s trading strategies.