AvaTrade is an online trading company founded in 2006 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. It provides four trading instruments and investment products to include retail forex trading, CFD, options, and cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, the company targets over 150 countries, thus making trading available for individual users around the world.
A Concise Review of AvaTrade Trading Platform and Investment Services
The following is a summary of the key features, differentiation, and pros of AvaTrade:
• The company has a very low setup cost with an initial deposit of USD 100. Note that eToro has an initial cost of USD 200 for clients outside the United States and Australia.
• It offers forex, CFD, options trading, as well as cryptocurrencies. The CFDs include a basic selection of commodities and bonds as well as 69 shares and 5 ETFs. Some of the cryptocurrencies it offers include BitCoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, and EOS.
• Social trading or copy trading is a primary selling point. The platform allows clients to copy the trading activities or behaviors of other high-performing clients or traders. It also has third-party software integration for better copy trading.
• One of the strengths of AvaTrade is that it runs a dedicated educational and research site offering a variety of learning materials ranging from free courses and market analyses to video tutorials and explainer articles.
• The account of the client has a protection of up to EUR 20,000 through the Investor Compensation Company of Ireland. It also complies with EU financial regulations, particularly by offering negative balance protection.
• Customer support is generally reliable. There is a comprehensive FAQ that addresses most inquiries. It also maintains a 24/5 chat and phone support, in addition to online form entries and social media communication.
• The platform is available via desktop as well as Android and iOS mobile apps. Furthermore, it has a diverse and rich automated trading package bundled with the primary software. The package includes ZuluTrade system, Ava AutoTrader system, and Forex trading APIs, among others.
• Note that integration with third-party software through APIs is one of the major pros of AvaTrade. It allows clients or users to extend the functionality of the software or use additional tools to support trading decisions.
• Aside from the fact that the company maintains sales offices in Paris, Milan, Sydney, Tokyo, Madrid, Mongolia, Beijing, Nigeria, Santiago, and Johannesburg, it is also regulated in Europe, the British Virgin Islands, Australia, Japan, and South Africa.
Below is the summary of the limitations, criticisms, and cons of AvaTrade:
• The company maintains that it has no commission and very low spread. However, spreads depend on account type. Furthermore, there are overnight interest calculations, maturity rollover fees, and inactivity fees.
• A major criticism of AvaTrade is the lack of transparency about fees and costs. For example, it has no documentation on floating spread minimums or averages. There are also some discrepancies spread and fee disclosures that included hidden withdrawal fees and a provision to charge commissions on some account types.
• The company offers no volume discounts. The platform does not have guaranteed stop losses. Hence, experienced and professional traders might find other companies and their platforms better because of these disadvantages.
• Although the company has extensive learning materials available online, it has limited news and research services. The platform does not display detailed and updated news. Research products are not comprehensive, and as such, they are not enough to support the most relevant decisions traders need to make.
• There is also a problem with inactivity fees. The company charges USD 50 fee after just three months of inactivity and a USD 100 administration fee after one year of inactivity.
