Avatrade was founded 10 years ago, and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. It started as AvaFX, concentrating on foreign-exchange, but changed its name in 2013 when it added other financial instruments.
It offers four different types of accounts, which they call Silver, Gold, Platinum, and AVASelect. No matter which one you have, you have access to all the video tutorials, e-books, online courses, and webinars. The initial deposits vary, from $100 for the Silver up to $100,000 for the Select account.
Being based in Ireland, Avatrade is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, but with offices around the world it also falls under the Australia Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission, the Financial Futures Association of Japan, and the Financial Services Agency of Japan. Of course it also has to comply with stringent EU regulations, otherwise known as MiFID, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. In fact, it’s even expanded into South Africa in 2016.
Avatrade is offering a generous 20% welcome bonus for new customers, that’s $40 if you open your account with $200, or as much as $10,000 if you open your account with $50,000. The maximum leverage offered on any account is 400:1. If you want to give it a try, you can open a demo account for 21 days free of charge.
Platforms
You’re spoilt for choice with Avatrade when it comes to trading platforms. The well-respected MetaTrader 4 is available, and this may be the choice of established traders, particularly those who have their own favourite add-ins to the platform, such as EAs (Expert Advisors).
AvaTrader is a powerful alternative, based on MetaTrader, offering single click trading of a variety of financial instruments. This platform is fully customizable, has live news feeds, and advanced charting features. It has special features that include algorithmic trading, as well as various APIs that allow you to devise your own automated strategies.
Other platforms include AVAOptions, especially formulated to allow trading of FX Options alongside FX Spot instruments, and MT4 Floating Spreads, which allows you to access lower spreads directly from the interbank market.
You also have a choice of web-based platforms for either the Mac or the PC, and mobile trading platforms for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
Markets
Avatrade scores over many other brokers by having more than 200 financial instruments available for trading. But as this includes many diverse markets, it may not be such an advantage as it seems, and it will always depend on which markets you want to trade on regular basis.
There are more than 60 foreign-exchange currency pairs available, and this is where you will find the maximum leverage up to 400:1. However, while this amount of leverage works well for your winning trades, you should always remember that it will be working against you on the losers, and size your trades accordingly – you don’t always have to use the maximum leverage your broker will give you.
Avatrade also offers Contracts for Difference (CFDs) with all the financial advantages they give to traders in those countries that allow them (they are not permitted in the US). The CFDs can be traded on commodities and a range of stocks. Avatrade even allows CFD trading on Bitcoin, which lets you dabble in the value of this virtual currency without actually having to set up an account in it – and also profit if the value of it goes down.
Advantages
- extensive range of products
- well-established broker with multiple regulatory authorities
- multilingual support teams, including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and multiple European languages good sign on bonus
- easy deposit with multiple methods, including credit cards, debit card, and online payment solutions
- multiple online educational resources
Disadvantages
- market maker, so inevitably there are complaints of manipulation from losing clients
- fixed spreads are large, and only fixed “under normal market conditions”, throwing doubt on their effectiveness
