AvaTrade : the broker guide - the best brokers on the market

Want to start investing? AvaTrade is a world-renowned broker that allows expert and novice traders to invest in a wide range of assets.

AvaTrade has existed since 2009 and is known for its compliance with the ESMA and MIFID II regulations of the major regulatory bodies, such as CySEC, the FCA and ASIC. AvaTrade is present in nearly 40 countries, mainly in Europe. It has offices in many cities around the world in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. Nearly a billion dollars are exchanged every day on its platform.

To find out more about the reliability, investment opportunities and key features of AvaTrade, take a look at this article.

A brief introduction to AvaTrade

Considered as one of the best online brokers, AvaTrade has more than 200,000 clients worldwide. Formerly known as AvaFX, it is based in Ireland with headquarters in Dublin. Its reliability is underlined by its compliance with essential security standards and regulations.

AvaTrade offers a large number of financial products that make it easy to diversify your portfolio. However, AvaTrade does not allow you to invest directly in the traditional stock market. Indeed, the company allows you to take advantage of the leverage effect, which is popular with both beginners and more experienced investors, by specializing in CFD and Forex trading.

This means that you can easily use CFDs to multiply your initial investment. However, you can also trade stocks, bonds, options, stock indices, commodities and crypto-currencies here. In addition, AvaTrade’s clients enjoy competitive rates that further maximize profits.

To meet the needs of all levels of investors, AvaTrade offers platforms that include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, AvaOptions and AvaTradeGo. In addition, it also offers valuable educational support, through online training and videos. Finally, it offers the possibility to take your first trading steps in the real markets with AvaTrade Demo without risking losing money.

In addition, users also benefit from responsive and easy-to-reach customer service. Few brokers open their doors to their users, while AvaTrade welcomes clients to its offices located in Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, Milan, Nigeria and South Africa.

Pros and cons of AvaTrade

Like all online brokerage platforms, there are pros and cons to using AvaTrade. Here is a summary of its strengths and weaknesses.

Pros of AvaTrade 

AvaTrade offers 4 platforms that are each tailored to different user levels. By creating an account, you are entitled to a bonus and can access AvaTrade Demo to become accustomed to the trading world and the platform's features. To diversify your portfolio, you have a choice between over 600 financial products. Moreover, it is one of the few online brokers that allows options trading.

At the same time, the platform is secure and regulated. Your investments and earnings are easy and quick to withdraw. In addition, the customer service is easy to reach to answer all your questions about the operation of the platform and ensure your rise in competence. Moreover, its teams of experts provide support in several languages. One of the great advantages of this broker is also that you can start trading with an initial deposit of only €100.

Cons of AvaTrade

The AvaTrade Demo account is only available for 21 days. Financial products offered are only available as CFDs. In case of a long period of inactivity, the platform charges a fee. To use the social trading and copy trading features, the minimum deposit is €2,000.

Who can use AvaTrade ?

Specializing in CFD and Forex trading, AvaTrade is best suited for those who want to make profits from short and medium term market fluctuations. In fact, large potential gains are favored by the multiplier effect of CFDs. However, thanks to the availability of its different platforms, this online broker is suitable for all levels of users.

Getting started with AvaTrade Demo

Beginners can use a demo account to learn the fundamentals of trading and the platform features more easily. They can also refine their strategies and test their analysis techniques.

Indeed, AvaTrade Demo allows you to bet virtual money with real exposure to the markets. This allows the novice user to avoid any risk of losing savings. This feature is essential for learning how to trade.

The platform also offers advanced online training courses to its users. Users can acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to understand how trading works and benefit from more than 50 videos and tutorials to immerse themselves in the world of financial markets. These educational materials present the various indicators to be considered as a basis for analysis and investment strategies.

Moreover, the resources are available for all countries. You can improve your investment skills through resources dealing with economic indicators, volatility, derivatives, types of financial products, charts and even trader psychology.

Advanced features for advanced traders

The MetaTrader 4 (MT 4) platform is specially designed for advanced traders. MT 4 provides access to many tools that allow you to refine your analysis. Moreover, those who master the MQL4 and MQL5 languages can even use the MetaTrader 5 platform, which allows the creation of customized Expert Advisors, in addition to those already available in its library.

The investment world

AvaTrade is popular for its wide range of financial products. It also allows you to invest in bonds, even if these are only accessible via CFDs. This allows you to diversify your asset portfolio to better secure your investments and to benefit from a minimum return.

Indeed, not all financial products follow the same economic cycle. Thus, when some enter a downward trend, others show an increase in their price. Let's see which are the main financial products in which to invest with this broker.

Stocks and indexes

AvaTrade allows you to trade stocks, but only in the form of CFDs. However, there are over 600 stock CFDs available. In this context, it is a rather small offer, as other brokers offer 2,000 stocks on average. However, although you cannot invest in physical stocks, AvaTrade allows you to benefit from a valuable leverage effect, multiplying your earnings by 5.

On the other hand, traders can also take advantage of several stock indexes on AvaTrade. These are indexed to the most profitable stock clusters in the market. There are 23 stock indexes available on the platform.

You can also bet on the Nasdaq price which refers to the main US technology companies. AvaTrade also allows you to invest on the main stock market indexes, such as the Dow Jones, the German DAX 30, the FTSE 100 which represents 80% of the market capitalization of the London Stock Exchange, the Japanese Nikkei 225, the China A50, the US Dollar Dixie, the Dutch AEX, the Euro Stoxx and many others.

On AvaTrade, you can also bet on CFDs on ETFs. This multiplies the number of indexes available. Indeed, ETFs are investment funds that are also indexed on the stock market. With ETFs, users can also benefit from a leverage effect that can multiply gains by up to 5.

Forex, commodities and crypto currencies

AvaTrade specializes in the foreign exchange market and offers a choice of 50 currency pairs. The platform allows you to take advantage of almost all the possibilities of Forex. You can find 25 classic currency pairs, including the famous EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, USD/JPY, USD/CAD and AUD/USD, which are the most traded on the world market. These are the most widely traded currency pairs in the world and therefore enjoy a high degree of liquidity.

On the other hand, you can also invest in 30 minor currency pairs, such as USD/IL and USD/DKK. AvaTrade offers a wide range of investment opportunities in Forex. You can take advantage of a leverage effect that allows you to multiply your earnings by 30.

Users can also invest in certain commodities on AvaTrade. The available range extends from gold to oil, gas, silver or cocoa. In total, 17 commodities are available. This choice is therefore quite limited.

However, AvaTrade allows you to trade cryptocurrencies. As such, you can invest in 18 virtual currencies, including Bitcoin, i.e the king of cryptos. You can also invest in Ethereum, Dash, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Ripple, Litecoin and many others.

Bonds on AvaTrade

Traders can also invest in bonds on AvaTrade. These financial assets are debts issued by the government or a company. Currently, these are available on the platform via Euro-Bund and Japanese Treasury Bills. These are considered to be the most reliable long-term investments.

By purchasing these assets, traders lend money to governments for up to several years. Bonds allow them to earn interest in proportion to the amount of the loan.

However, it is advisable not to hold the bonds until the end of the contract. This is because the final values of the bonds depend on some complex criteria, such as the political situation, inflation and the price of the currency. At AvaTrade, trading bonds with CFDs allows you to take advantage of leverage.

 Spreads and commissions at AvaTrade

With many free services and some relatively low fees, AvaTrade is among the cheapest platforms in the industry. The platform does not charge any commission on transactions. Indeed, investors are only subject to the spread. The spread is the difference between the purchase price and the sale price of a financial asset. Thus, the higher the spread, the higher the broker's earnings.

However, this spread changes over time and varies according to the assets in which one has invested. Thus, the spreads may not reflect the market price. In addition, the platform also earns money through overnight fees. These fees are the result of the financing of the loan required to implement the leverage. These fees reflect interbank rates.

Be aware that conversion fees may apply to withdrawals from AvaTrade. There is no charge at the time of deposit in any currency. However, in the event that you withdraw your money in a different currency, a 0.5% conversion fee will apply.

The platform also applies inactivity fees. If your account does not show any movement for 90 days, you will be charged €50. If you are inactive for 12 consecutive months, the platform charges an additional €100. 

Let’s take a look at how spreads are applied for each type of asset available on AvaTrade.

Spread on equity CFDs and ETFs

On average, the equity spread is 0.13% at AvaTrade. This means that most assets are 0.13% more expensive to buy there than to sell. This applies for example to companies like Amazon, Google, Tesla or Facebook. The highest spread on stocks is 0.36% for some companies, such as Groupon. The stocks on the platform have a leverage of 5:1 and offer a margin of 20%.

Spread on stock indexes

Spreads on stock indexes are more variable at AvaTrade. Indeed, they range from 0.04% for the Dollar to 10% for the Nikkei 225.

Spread on the foreign exchange market

As a Forex specialist, AvaTrade stands out from its competitors with its low Forex fees. The major currency pairs have the lowest spreads. This includes the EUR/USD, whose spread varies around 0.9% or 0.9 pip.

In the case of USD/JPY, the spread is also only 1.1%. Thus, the spread between the buying and selling price of the EUR/USD is less than €0.0001. Indeed, 1 pip is worth €0.0001. In contrast, the minor pairs have a higher spread, as they are less traded.

AvaTrade Spread on commodities

Depending on the commodities traded, the spreads displayed on the platform are variable. AvaTrade does not charge any commission outside these spreads. Moreover, these spreads are particularly attractive.

Indeed, for oil these fees are only $0.0015 per asset. Most commodities available on the platform have a variable spread and a 10% margin. Only gold has a fixed fee of $0.34 and a margin of 5%. The lowest spread varies around $0.005 for copper, while the highest is around $6 for cocoa.

Spread on cryptocurrencies

In the case of the major cryptocurrencies, spread ranges from 0.5% to 0.6%. In addition, you can also bet on instruments that offer indexation of cryptos against major currencies. Thus, AvaTrade allows, for example, to bet on the BTC/EUR price with a spread of 0.5% or on BTC/USD for a spread of 0.35%.

Spread on bonds

The bonds available on AvaTrade are the Euro-Bund with a spread varying around 0.03% and the JAPAN GOVT BUND with a spread varying around 0.06% above the market.

 AvaTrade in practice

AvaTrade is available on PC, as well as Android and iOS phones. Its platforms offer several apps that allow traders to grow according to their levels. For example, advanced investors can take advantage of numerous technical analysis tools, while beginners have online training available to them.

The platform also allows you to use a demo version to learn the basics of trading and perfect the strategies with virtual money. It is also possible to open other types of accounts.

The standard account is especially suitable for beginners and medium level traders. It allows you to limit the investment risks of each type of asset. Thus, the possible losses are only reduced to the amount you have deposited on your account. There is also a professional account, which allows you to benefit from a higher leverage of up to 1:400. However, this type of account is mainly recommended for experienced traders who are professional fund managers.

In addition, AvaTrade also allows Muslims to open an account that is specifically in line with their religious beliefs. And for those who want to trade options, it is necessary to open a dedicated account. Indeed, options are separate from CFDs. 

Let's take a look at the stand-out features of the platform:

AvaTrade platforms and applications

AvaTrade offers three platforms available on PC :

  • Web Trader : A classic online interface that can be accessed from anywhere without the need for installation. Features are limited.
  • Meta Trader 4 : Downloadable software that is also available in your browser. It offers many advanced features dedicated to Forex trading. In particular, it allows you to create custom plugins based on the MQL4 language similar to C++. The creation of these Expert Advisors is ideal for automating certain trading actions and alerts.
  • Meta Trader 5 is also a software that can be downloaded and installed on a PC, but can also be used directly via the web. This platform allows access to all types of assets.

AvaTrade also offers 3 mobile applications :

  • AvaTradeGO  for investing in stocks, indices, ETFs, Forex and cryptos.
  • AvaSocial, allowing you to follow and automatically copy the strategies of the best traders. It provides a ranking of the most profitable investors on the platform. In addition, you can also filter traders based on their performance over a certain period of time.
  • AvaOptions, which focuses on options trading. Complementing MT4 and MT5, it offers many technical tools to obtain maximum information about Forex.

Technical analysis tools

AvaTrade allows experienced traders to perform their own technical analysis. However, it is necessary to use Metatrader 4 and 5. This is because this platform incorporates a wide range of indicators, including RSI, Ichimoku, Bollinger Bands, MACD, moving averages, etc.

On the other hand, the platform also allows you to research trends and trading signals with daily video analysis, completing AvaTrade's online training offer.

Furthermore, AvaTrade allows users to take advantage of external services to refine their trading strategies. The Duplitrading feature, which is similar to copytrading, is supported by ZuluTrade and DupliTrade. The broker also provides access to various technical analysis and news provided by Trading Central.

The AvaProtect service

The AvaProtect service provides a safety net against potential losses and offers coverage on many of the financial instruments available on the platform. It takes the form of insurance that traders can activate before each bet. It is also necessary to specify a period of validity during which the service will be valid in case of losses. This service is imposed by the Sapin 2 law, but is not free. However, it guarantees a refund for the trader who is new to CFDs and Forex.

Deposit and withdrawal methods

AvaTrade stands out through its fast and easy online registration process. Moreover, you will have direct access to the demo account as soon as you open your account. To start investing, assets are accessible with a deposit of € 100. For this, you can make a bank transfer.

In addition, the platform also accepts deposits via credit card, FasaPay, Mastercard, MoneyGram, Perfect Money, Skrill, Swift, Webmoney, Western Union, Wire Transfer and Bitcoin. You will also be able to make withdrawals via these methods without any fees or limits.