AvaTrade Review 2023
For this AvaTrade review, we opened a real account and deposited over €4,000 in total.
We traded the popular instrument in each popular market to get the real spreads and placed a total of 21 trades.
We also reached out to customer support to solve issues that we encountered.
Finally, we withdrew our funds to see if there is any issue with the withdrawal process.
What is AvaTrade?
AvaTrade was founded in 2006 with its headquarter in Dublin, Ireland. The broker is regulated in several jurisdictions, including Ireland, Australia, the UAE, Japan, South Africa, and the British Virgin Islands.
AvaTrade started as a retail forex trading platform and now offers trading with forex, indices, commodities, bonds, cryptocurrencies, stocks, and ETFs.
Some of the key highlights of AvaTrade are:
| 🗺️ Authorised & Regulated in | Ireland, Japan, Australia, UAE, South Africa, British Virgin Islands |
| 🛡️ Is AvaTrade safe | Yes |
| 💰 EUR/USD Spread | 0.87 |
| 💳 Minimum deposit | US$100 |
| 💰 Withdrawal fee | US$0 |
| 🖥️ Trading Platform | MT4, MT5, AvaTradeGO, AvaOptions |
| 📈 Markets offered | Forex, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, Cryptocurrencies, Stocks, ETFs |
| 📉 Number of Products | 796 |
Licenses and Regulations
AvaTrade has gained 7 regulatory licenses from some of the top regulators, including Australia, Ireland, Abu Dhabi, and Japan.
The full list of AvaTrade’s all licenses is in the below table:
| Legal entity | Registered in | Regulator | License Number | Accepting clients from | Compensation Scheme Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ava Trade EU Ltd | Ireland | Central Bank of Ireland | C53877 | UK & EU clients | €20,000 |
| Ava Capital Markets Australia Pty Ltd | Australia | Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) | 406684 | Australia | No Compensation Scheme |
| Ava Trade Middle East Ltd | Abu Dhabi | Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) Financial Regulatory Services Authority (FRSA) | 190018 | Middle East | No compensation scheme |
| Ava Trade Japan K.K. | Japan | Financial Services Agency (FSA) | 1662 | Japan | No compensation scheme |
| Ava Trade Japan K.K. | Japan | Financial Futures Association of Japan (FFAJ) | 1574 | Japan | No compensation scheme |
| Ava Capital Markets Pty | South Africa | South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) | 45984 | South Africa | No compensation scheme |
| Ava Trade Ltd | British Virgin Islands | British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission | Regulatory Register | Globally many countries | No compensation scheme |
AvaTrade UK
Is AvaTrade Safe?
Yes, AvaTrade is safe to trade.
Under the Irish regulator, funds of AvaTrade clients are protected with a €20,000 compensation scheme. Most of the other licenses acquired by AvaTrade are also considered very reputable in the trading industry.
Additionally, AvaTrade offers AvaProtect, which provides insurance on losses for any specific trade for a specific period. This risk management scheme offers protection of up to $1 million and is applicable only for market orders.
For this review, we opened an account with Ava Trade EU Ltd which is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. For our tests which we deposited money, placed trades, and withdrew deposits.
We recommend you register your account with the Irish, Australian, or Abu Dhabi entity.
Fees
AvaTrade fees are built into the spreads. The broker, however, offers attractive spreads on forex, stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrency CFDs.
Spread Charged in Our Trades
For our tests, we have chosen popular instruments in each market offered by AvaTrade. We placed 3 trades for each instrument to get a picture of the average spread. The spreads for all the asset classes did not fluctuate much for our trades.
Details of our trades are shown below the table.
| Markets | Instruments | 1st trade | 2nd trade | 3rd trade | Avg. spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forex | EUR/USD | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.87 |
| Indices | FTSE 100 | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 1.17 |
| Commodities | Gold | 3.4 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 3.67 |
| Bonds | GVD/EUR Bund | 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin | 56.69 | 56.84 | 60.26 | 57.93 |
| Stocks | Apple | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.1 |
| ETFs | VXXB | 0.13 | 0.13 | 0.13 | 0.13 |
AvaTrade’s spreads for forex are much below the industry standards. The offered spreads on indices and commodities are also below the average industry benchmark.
Cryptocurrency and stock spreads are, however, are above the average industry average.
| Markets | Instruments | Avg. spread charged in our trades | Industry avg. spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forex | EUR/USD | 0.87 | 1.16 |
| Indices | FTSE 100 | 1.17 | 1.65 |
| Commodities | Gold | 3.67 | 3.53 |
| Bonds | GVD/EUR Bund | 0.04 | – |
| Cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin | 57.93 | 72.81 |
| Stocks | Apple | 2.1 | 1.75 |
| ETFs | VXXB | 0.13 | – |
Other Fees
AvaTrade charges an inactivity fee of US$50 or €50 or £50 every quarter after 3 months of account inactivity. In addition to that, the broker charges administration fees of US$100 or €100 or £100 after a year of inactivity.
Real Account Types
AvaTrade offers only a single account type to the traders.
The broker also offers Islamic trading accounts to its Islamic clients. This type of account operates under Sharia Law.
Account Opening
Opening a new account with AvaTrade is fast and easy.
Steps to create an AvaTrade account:
- Enter the first name, last name, email, and phone number (you can also sign up with Facebook or Google account).
- Provide personal and professional information: including date of birth and address; set password; select trading platform and base currency.
- Provide professional details like occupation, income level, estimated net worth, and source of trading funds.
- Click on “upload documents” to submit various identification proofs.
We have submitted the following documents to verify our AvaTrade account:
- Copy of national identification (both front and back)
- Copy of utility bill as address proof
The registration process took merely 15 minutes. Our account was verified after 1 business day.
We registered our accounts on January 4, 2023, and it was verified on January 5, 2023.
Overall, our account opening experience was quick and smooth, with one minor issue.
After submitting all the documents, our AvaTrade account logged out. When we tried to login again, our password was showing wrong even though it was correct. We have to reset the password.
Deposit and Withdrawal
Deposits on AvaTrade accounts are fast and easy, but processing withdrawal requests take a bit of time. The broker does not charge anything for deposits and withdrawals.
Minimum Deposit
AvaTrade has a minimum deposit amount of US$100 for all payment methods.
Deposit
AvaTrade allows client deposits through wire transfers, credit cards, and popular e-wallets like Skrill, Neteller, and Paypal.
Deposits with credit cards are not available in Canada, while EU and Australian clients cannot use Skrill, WebMoney, and Neteller.
We have tested the deposit process on AvaTrade using multiple payment modes.
There was no deposit fee and for most of the payment methods, funding was instant. See forex no deposit bonus India brokers.
Details of our fund deposits are shown in the below table.
| Payment Method | Submitted Date | Funded Account Date | Funding Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit/Debit card | 2023-01-11 | 2023-01-11 | 3 hours | zero |
| Skrill | 2023-01-11 | 2023-01-11 | Instant | zero |
| NETELLER | 2023-01-28 | 2023-01-28 | Instant | zero |
| Paypal | 2023-01-11 | 2023-01-11 | Instant | zero |
Our debit card deposit was not instant. It showed “pending” for 3 hours before the amount was approved and funded.
Withdrawal
AvaTrade supports withdrawals with multiple payment methods, similar to its deposits. The broker does not charge any withdrawal fee.
Our experience with the withdrawal process was mixed. We faced some issues with our initial withdrawal requests, but it was quickly resolved.
First, we submitted 4 withdrawal requests on the same day, each with a different payment method. AvaTrade rejected all these requests.
We reached out to Avatrade customer support for this issue.
The customer support executive told us that as we deposited through different payment methods, we have to withdraw our fund through the same order and the same amount for each payment method. Any remaining booked profits need to be withdrawn using the last used deposit method.
We did as we were instructed and received the funds.
Details of our withdrawal requests are in the table below.
| Payment Method | Submitted Date | Fund Released Date | Fund Arrived Date | Withdrawal Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit/Debit card | 2023-01-17 | Rejected | NA | NA | – |
| Skrill | 2023-01-17 | Rejected | NA | NA | – |
| NETELLER | 2023-01-17 | Rejected | NA | NA | – |
| Paypal | 2023-01-17 | Rejected | NA | NA | – |
| Credit/Debit card | 2023-01-18 | 2023-01-20 | 2023-01-20 | 2 working days | zero |
| Skrill | 2023-01-19 | 2023-01-20 | 2023-01-20 | 1 working day | zero |
| Paypal | 2023-01-22 | 2023-01-22 | 2023-01-22 | same day | zero |
Markets and Products
AvaTrade offers CFDs trading services in various popular markets, including forex, indices, commodities, bonds, cryptocurrencies, stocks, and ETFs.
It offers a fair number of instruments across all the markets. All instruments on AvaTrade are CFDs.
The complete list of AvaTrade offerings are:
| Markets | Instruments |
|---|---|
| Forex | 55 |
| Indices | 23 |
| Commodities | 29 |
| Bonds | 2 |
| Cryptocurrency | 14 |
| Stocks | 614 |
| ETFs | 59 |
AvaTrade also offers vanilla forex options for which a separate account with AvaOptions is needed.
Trading Conditions
AvaTrade offers good trading conditions. The broker allows both hedging and scalping. It also offers copy trading services with two third-party services: DupliTrade and ZuluTrade.
AvaTrade offers MQL5 Signals Services as well.
The broker, however, does not allow traders to change the leverage levels.
| Trading Method | Allowed |
|---|---|
| Hedging | Yes |
| Scalping | Yes |
| Change Leverage | No |
| Copy Trading | Yes |
AvaTrade Leverage
Traders cant change and adjust their leverage levels on AvaTrade.
| Markets | Ava Trade EU Ltd | Ava Capital Markets Australia Pty Ltd | Ava Trade Middle East Ltd | Ava Capital Markets Pty | Ava Trade Ltd | Ava Trade Japan K.K. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Currency Pairs | 30:1 | 30:1 | 400:1 | 400:1 | 400:1 | 25:1 |
| Gold | 20:1 | 20:1 | 200:1 | 200:1 | 200:1 | NA |
| Oil | 10:1 | 10:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | NA |
| Other Commodities (except Gold and Oil) | 10:1 | 10:1 | 50:1 | 50:1 | 50:1 | NA |
| Major Indices | 20:1 | 20:1 | 200:1 | 200:1 | 200:1 | NA |
| Non-major Indices | 10:1 | 10:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | NA |
| Bonds | 5:1 | 5:1 | 20:1 | 20:1 | 20:1 | NA |
| Stocks | 5:1 | 5:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 | NA |
| ETFs | 5:1 | 5:1 | 20:1 | 20:1 | 20:1 | NA |
| Cryptocurrencies | 2:1 | 2:1 | 20:1 | 20:1 | 20:1 | NA |
Australian ASIC imposed major restrictions on leverages offered by the retail brokers, which came into effect on March 29, 2021 so no longer high leverage up to 1:400 is available.
AvaTrade Bonus
AvaTrade offers attractive bonuses on the first deposits of its clients.
The promotional offer is valid for clients under three regulated entities: Ava Capital Markets Pty, Ava Trade Ltd, and Ava Capital Markets Australia Pty Ltd.
Clients from countries, including European countries, Canada, Japan, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Macao, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, are not eligible for deposit bonuses.
Deposits via Skrill and Neteller are not eligible for this promotional offer.
The first deposit bonus for traders under Ava Capital Markets Pty are:
| Deposit Amount | Bonus Amount |
|---|---|
| US$50,000 | US$10,000 |
| US$20,000 | US$4,000 |
| US$10,000 | US$2,000 |
| US$5,000 | US$1,000 |
| US$3,000 | US$600 |
| US$2,000 | US$450 |
| US$1,000 | US$300 |
| US$600 | US$200 |
| US$100 | US$30 |
The first deposit bonus for traders under Ava Trade Ltd, and Ava Capital Markets Australia Pty Ltd are:
| Deposit Amount | Bonus Amount |
|---|---|
| US$50,000 | US$10,000 |
| US$20,000 | US$4,000 |
| US$10,000 | US$2,000 |
| US$5,000 | US$1,000 |
| US$3,000 | US$600 |
| US$2,000 | US$400 |
| US$1,000 | US$200 |
AvaTrade Trading Platform
AvaTrade offers multiple trading platforms:
- MetaTrader 4
- MetaTrader 5
- WebTrader (AvaTrade’s propriotary web-based platform)
- AvaOptions (for forex vanilla options)
- AvaTradeGo (for mobile trading)
MetaQuotes Software developed the MetaTrader platforms, and they are among the widely used third-party trading platforms.
AvaTrade’s own web trading platform and its mobile trading platform are also very clean and easy to use for the traders.
For our tests, we placed the orders on the MetaTrader 4 mobile platform.
Research and Tools
AvaTrade offers a good set of research tools. The charting tools are excellent with many functions.
Some of the key tools are:
- Excellent charts
- Economic calendar
- Trading calculator
- Popular trading ideas
- A good news feed
On the downside, the broker lacks in offering good fundamental data on the markets.
Education
AvaTrade offers excellent trading educational materials for new traders.
The educational resources of the broker include:
- Tutorial videos on trading and platform-tools
- eBooks and web-based guides on trading
- Webinars
The broker also offers a demo account for novice traders.
Customer Service
AvaTrade has excellent customer support.
Traders can contact the broker via:
- Live chat
- Phone
| Question | Response Time | Quality of reply | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live Chat | We asked several questions | 5 mins | The answer was clear and direct |
| We asked if AvaTrade allows to change trading leverage | same day | The answer was clear and direct |
To check AvaTrade’s customer service, we have asked several questions via live chat. One of the questions we asked is if AvaTrade allows hedging and scalping.
We received a reply in less than 5 minutes.
Live chat is only available on the weekdays (East European working hours).
AvaTrade offers support in several languages.
The broker also maintains a detailed Q&A page for mostly faced issues with Customer Reviews.
Conclusion
Overall, our experience with AvaTrade is positive.
The broker offers impressive spreads on forex pairs.
Though we faced withdrawal rejections at first, the issue was resolved quickly by the support staff. Our experience with customer support was also good.
We recommend Avatrade to traders who focus on trading currencies and traders who would like to run hedging or scalping as their trading strategies.
We recommend AvaTrade for traders who are
- Beginners
- Trading Currency pairs
- Trading Stocks
- Scalping trader
- Experienced traders
- Copy Trading
- EA trader
AvaTrade might not be a fit if you are
- Futures Trading
- Trading of real Stocks
- Commission based trading
Author of this review
By George Rossi
Author of this review
I am a well-rounded financial services professional experienced in fundamental and technical analysis, global macroeconomic research, foreign exchange and commodity markets and an independent trader.
Now I am passionate about reviewing and comparing forex brokers.
Everything you find on BrokerTested is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology