AvaTrade Broker Review

CBI Regulation: Founded in 2006 in Ireland, AvaTrade has more than 200,000 registered clients globally and is a leading Forex and CFD broker.  Many good regulators, including the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), regulate it. See below for Avatrade’s licence:

Safety Features: 

• Avatrade segregates its client funds from its operational funds at top-tier banks.
• It provides all clients with negative balance protection, which means that traders cannot lose more than their initial deposit. 
• It has received a wealth of industry recognition, supporting its credentials as a safe broker. 
• Avatrade’s EU entity (CBI) participates in an investor protector scheme of up to 20,000 EUR, adding an extra level of fund security.

It took us about 5 minutes to open an account at AvaTrade, and once our documentation had been submitted, our accounts were ready for trading immediately. We were also pleasantly surprised to receive a phone call from customer service to assist with any troubleshooting issues.

As a British trader, you are eligible to open an account at Avatrade as long as you meet the minimum deposit requirement of 100 GBP. 

Creating an account is fast and fully digital, and accounts are usually ready for trading in a matter of minutes. 

How to open an account at Avatrade:

1. After clicking on the “Register now” button at the top of Avatrade’s main page, we were given a choice to open either a Real or a Demo account. We selected the Real Account option.
2. We were then directed to Avatrade’s intake form, which required us to fill in our name and email address:
   
   
3. Next, we were asked to complete a short form to help Avatrade assess the state of our finances and trading knowledge. Many brokers omit this step in the account-opening process, but it is a responsible move in an industry that is often accused of not protecting customers.
4. Lastly, Avatrade needed at least two documents to accept us as an individual client; these are:
   • Proof of Identification – current (not expired) coloured scanned copy (in PDF or JPG format) of a passport. If no valid passport is available, a similar identification document bearing a photo such as an ID card or driving licence will work.
   • Proof of Address – a Bank Statement or Utility Bill. Please ensure, however, that the documents provided are not older than 6 months and that the trading name and physical address are clearly displayed. Documents can be scanned or sent through as a high-quality digital camera picture.

Once all documents had been received, our account was ready for trading within a matter of minutes.

Avatrade offers a variety of assets, including 55 vanilla options, traded exclusively on Avatrade’s AvaOptions platform, two bonds, 59 ETFs, and 13 cryptocurrencies, providing traders with excellent asset diversification.

Avatrade’s account requires a minimum deposit of 100 GBP, making it accessible to most traders. No commissions are charged for Forex trading and traders will find spreads of 0.9 pips (EUR/USD), which is around the industry average.

Account Trading Costs:

We opened and tested Avatrade’s Standard and Professional account:

• Standard Account: Avatrade offers a single live account with a minimum deposit requirement of 100 GBP, spreads starting at 0.90 pips on the EUR/USD, and leverage of up to 30:1. Avatrade allows all trading strategies, including hedging, scalping, and copy trading.

• Professional Account: Professional Accounts are accounts in which the maximum leverage is increased to 500:1.  However, professional traders give up some of their regulatory protections. Avatrade offers a professional account to traders who meet two of the following criteria:
  • Traders should have carried out transactions of significant size on the market at an average frequency of 10 trades per quarter over the previous four quarters.
  • Traders must have worked in the financial sector for at least one year in a professional position.
  • Traders should have a financial instrument portfolio of over 500,000 EUR. 

A well-regulated broker, Avatrade ensures that all Anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed, and as such, all non-profit withdrawals are returned to the deposit source. Traders can only withdraw up to 100% of the original deposit to a credit or debit card. After this, funds may be withdrawn by another method in the trader’s name.  

Accepted Deposit Currencies: When we opened our account, we noticed that the Avatrade client portal allows traders to choose between five base currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, CHF, and AUD. Because we were depositing GBP from our UK-based bank account into our GBP-based trading account, we weren’t charged any currency conversion fees. 

Funding Methods: We were pleased to find that Avatrade offers a good range of payment methods, and it does not charge fees for deposits or withdrawals. However, British clients will not be able to make deposits or withdrawals via e-wallet.

See below for a complete list of payment options and withdrawal times:

AvatradeGO Trading App

We quickly realised that the AvatradeGO app is not a trading platform but more of a portal that allows traders to manage their Metatrader 4 platform from a mobile device or tablet.  It’s available on both Android and iOS and integrates with Avatrade’s social trading application.

AvatradeGO Features: We enjoyed how easy it is to use the AvatradeGO app. It has a sophisticated dashboard and intuitive home screen that allows you to view educational videos, and market analysis materials and contact customer support from within the app.  It also has excellent search functionality, and it’s simple to place orders, set price alerts, create watchlists, and view live prices and charts:

Trading Tools: The mobile app also features AvaProtect, Avatrade’s risk management system. This unique trading tool allows ‎clients to purchase protection against losing trades for a specified time, and if a trade is closed during that period, any losses will be fully refunded.  

Overall, the AvatradeGO mobile app provides a smooth trading experience with an intuitive dashboard. We also enjoyed the step-by-step tutorial on how to use the app.  

MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5

Avatrade offers MT4 and MT5 available for both Android and iOS. Although there is slightly limited functionality compared to the desktop versions of the platforms, with reduced timeframes and fewer charting options, traders will still have access to analytics with technical indicators, graphical objects, and a full set of trading orders. 

AvaOptions Mobile Application

Unlike most other brokers, Avatrade offers trading on vanilla options. It has also created its own options mobile trading platform. Traders can choose between more than 40 currency pairs and gold and silver. The platform gives you total control over your portfolio, letting you balance risk and reward to match your market view. It also offers integrated Autochartist, one of the best technical analysis tools in the industry.

Overall, Avatrade’s mobile trading support is excellent when compared to other brokers, with the MT4 and MT5 mobile versions available, in addition to the AvatradeGO and AvaOptions trading apps.  

Mobile App Comparison:

Avatrade offers a wider range of trading platforms than other brokers, including MT4, MT5, and its own proprietary platforms – Avatrade Webtrader and AvaOptions.  

For the purposes of this review, we tested Avatrade’s web trader platform.  When you log in to your account you are immediately redirected to the platform.

Avatrade Webtrader

The web trader platform requires no downloads or installation and is available for all devices. We found that the web trader has a clean user interface and intuitive design and is easy to navigate and search for various instruments, making it a great option for beginner traders. There are three chart types, including Line, Bar, and Candlestick charts, and you can also access a wide selection of indicators in multiple timeframes.

One drawback is that the platform is not customisable, and traders can’t change the size and position of the tabs.  The platform also does not allow traders to set price alerts and notifications. More advanced traders may prefer MT4 or MT5, both available at Avatrade, which allows traders to customise their indicators, has many more chart types, and algorithmic (or automated) trading.

We were pleased to note that Trading Central, one of the most popular third-party trading tools on the market, is fully integrated into the platform and provides technical insight and instant pattern recognition.

Metatrader 4 (MT4)

We found that like most brokers, the Avatrade MT4 platform is the standard version with 24 graphical objects and 30 built-in indicators. Unlike Avatrade’s proprietary web trader, algorithmic trading is available, and MT4 is fully customisable. 

As you can see below, only the basic orders are available, Market, Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop. 

Metatrader 5 (MT5)

MT5, the newer version of MT4, is also available at Avatrade. The difference between the two platforms is that MT4 is a Forex-only platform, while MT5 allows trading on all the assets available at Avatrade. We recommend using MT5 if you are looking for a more powerful and faster trading platform when it comes to back-testing functionality for automated trading algorithms.  Additionally, traders prefer MT5 for its depth of market display, additional technical indicators, and analytical tools. 

AvaOptions

AvaTrade allows trading on vanilla options. Options trading provides traders with opportunities to benefit from more than just the 2-dimensional nature of Forex trading. Vanilla options are available on more than 40 currency pairs, gold, and silver. Trading options can be a complex undertaking, but the AvaOptions platform simplifies the process. 

Research is available through the web trading platform, the MetaTrader platform, the AvaOptions trading platform, and on Avatrade’s website:  

• Trading Central: Trading Central is a third-party company that provides Avatrade’s clients with market insight and trade analysis.  These products are available through Avatrade’s proprietary interfaces (WebTrader and AvaTradeGO) and via notifications (SMS/email/push). The market insight provided by Trading Central helps inform traders’ strategies and trading plans and is created by expert analysts. 
  The tool helps to merge the views of these experts with automated algorithms and offers pattern recognition to trigger trading ideas. Trading Central also delivers a daily strategy newsletter, combining both technical and fundamental research directly to your inbox. Trading Central also provides an updated news feed for each asset, which also comes with a sentiment score for that asset.  An additional feature of Trading Central is the Trend Analysis, which predicts whether assets will rise and fall and by what percentage.
• Capitalise.ai: Capitalise.ai provides AI-powered financial services for investors and traders. The platform uses machine learning algorithms to analyze financial data and provide insights for investment decision-making. Some of the services offered by Capitalise.ai include automated trading, portfolio management, and risk analysis.
• Blog: Avatrade also provides a blog covering daily market movements, including relevant news, in addition to a regular market commentary presented in video format.
• Economic Calendar: Avatrade’s Economic Calendar provides a good selection of fundamental data. It also offers a feature that allows traders to gauge historical volatility and trends, including an “impact” button to see how various prices were affected by certain news updates. Note that traders will have to sign up for an account to view this premium content.
• Trading Calculator: Like many brokers, Avatrade offers a trading calculator to help traders calculate the potential profits, losses, and costs of trading.  The calculation outcome will help traders decide if or when to open a position, what margin is required, and what the cost of trading will be.
• AvaProtect:  This unique trading tool allows ‎clients to purchase protection against losing trades for a specified time, and if a trade is closed during that period any losses will be fully refunded.  While the AvaProtect feature is active, traders will still be able to benefit from any gains on a position. The cost of AvaProtect changes according to the market and size of the trade.  AvaProtect is also available on the AvaTradeGO App.  Note that this feature is not available on limit orders, only on market orders. 

Overall, while Avatrade’s in-house team does not provide as much market analysis as is available at other large international brokers, it provides a good set of third-party tools to help its clients make trading decisions. 

Trading Tools Comparison:

Social Trading

We found that AvaTrade offers an excellent and varied social trading experience compared to other brokers. 

We were pleasantly surprised to find that Avatrade offers two copy trading platforms and its own social trading platform:

• Duplitrade, a third-party copy trading platform
• Zulutrade, also a third-party copy trading platform
• AvaSocial, Avatrade’s proprietary social trading platform

Duplitrade: Duplitrade is a popular copy trading platform that can link to the MT4 trading platform. DupliTrade allows traders to automatically duplicate the actions of expert traders (with proven histories) directly into their AvaTrade trading account. However, traders will have to deposit a minimum amount of 2,000 USD to access Duplitrade, way above the required minimum deposit.  We thought this offering was expensive compared to other similar brokers.

Zulutrade: Another firm favourite is Zulutrade, a popular auto trading platform. ZuluTrade converts experienced traders’ recommendations and automatically executes the trades in your AvaTrade account.

We also like the fact that although Zulutrade offers automated trading, copy traders can monitor all open positions in real-time and have full control over their funds.  Copy traders can choose from a large set of experienced and high-ranking traders with many followers.  In order to open a copy trading account, you should click on “New Account” and select Zulutrade as the trading platform.

AvaSocial: AvaTrade clients can also download the broker’s social and copy trading platform – AvaSocial. Available on iOS and Android devices, the mobile app allows clients to replicate the trades of successful investors. You can opt to trade on market signals manually or to follow a fully automated service. 

Users can interact with other traders via community channels and ask questions on specific strategies, find out more about crypto markets, or seek out a trading mentor, making it a great tool for beginner traders.

Overall, Avatrade offers a comprehensive social and copy trading experience compared to other brokers. 

We found that Avatrade’s library of educational materials is world-class and on par with some of the best brokers in the world.  Education comprises trading videos, a trading beginners section, correct trading rules, online trading strategy guides, order types, technical analysis indicators and strategies, economic indicators, market terms, and a free trading e-book.  These materials are in-depth and well-structured and cater to both beginner and experienced traders.  Avatrade also offers a demo account for traders to practice their trading:

• Trading for beginners – The Trading for beginners section gives you all the information you need to tackle Forex and CFD instruments with confidence. In this section, traders can learn about many trading topics, including ‘What is Forex,’ ‘What is a pip,’ ‘What is Metatrader?’, ‘MACD trading strategies,’ ‘How to read a Forex chart,’ ‘Technical analysis,’ and more.
• Video Education – AvaTrade’s video section is strong and covers many different topics, including Advanced Trading Tools, Beginner Lessons, Forex Trading Strategies, and more.
• Correct Trading Rules: These guides educate traders on how to trade efficiently and master the basics, and progress to more advanced trading techniques and strategies.
• Online Trading Strategies: This section covers various online trading strategies, including day trading, swing trading, and financial instruments.
• Order types: This section covers different types of market orders, pending orders, and conditional orders used on the financial markets.
• Technical Analysis Indicators and Strategies: CFD and forex traders mostly utilise technical analysis methods in analysing the price changes of their preferred assets. These articles help traders understand price action methods (candlestick types and candlestick patterns, trends, volatility, market cycles, etc.
• Economic Indicators: These articles outline the types of economic indicators and their importance during trading.
• Market Terms for Pros: These guides help traders understand all the relevant key terms, gain further knowledge from more professional sites, and participate in interesting trader-centric forums.
• Ebook – AvaTrade’s Ebook gives traders a good overview of basic Forex terminology and the different groups of currency pairs available. The Ebook also explains how to read a Forex quote and the advantages of Forex trading.
• Demo Account: AvaTrade’s free demo account is a handy tool to practice your trading, test an expert advisor, or acquaint yourself with how Forex trading works. With 100,000 USD in virtual funds, the demo account accurately simulates AvaTrade’s real account but expires after 21 days.

Education Comparison:

Customer support is available 24/5 for CFD trading.  Support is available in a range of languages via email, live chat, and via a local British telephone number. 

For the purposes of the review, we tested the live chat service and email. Our email was answered within a couple of hours, and the answer was relevant and to the point. We found the live chat agents were polite and responsive, and they were able to answer all our questions. After logging into the live chat, we were connected to an agent who replied to our message within 30 seconds, as shown below:

Is AvaTrade Safe?

Yes. AvaTrade is an internationally regulated Forex CFD broker.

What is the AvaTrade minimum deposit?

Clients can open a live AvaTrade account with 100 GBP.

How do I fund my Avatrade account?

Clients can fund accounts using Bankwire, ETF, and credit cards. Payments will reflect in your trading account between 1-5 days depending on the deposit method.

How can I withdraw money from Avatrade?

Clients can only make withdrawals via payment methods used to fund your account. The only exception is for clients who are withdrawing earnings and have already made a withdrawal via the original funding method. Withdrawals are typically processed and sent within 1 to 2 business days.

Does AvaTrade have a demo account?

The free AvaTrade demo account has 100,000 USD virtual funds. The account will expire after 21 days but can be reopened by the support team.