AvaTrade is a forex broker headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Since its establishment in 2009, AvaTrade has accumulated extensive experience in the market and has received certifications from multiple financial regulatory authorities worldwide. Below is a detailed review of AvaTrade, including account opening guide, account types, trading conditions, and other key information.

AvaTrade Overview

AvaTrade offers forex (CFDs) and a variety of trading instruments, aiming to provide comprehensive services for traders. Users can trade in various assets including forex, energy, precious metals, stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, agricultural commodities, and bonds.

Trading Instruments

• Forex: 53 currency pairs, including major, minor, and exotic currency pairs.
• Energy: Brent Crude Oil, WTI Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Gasoline, and Heating Oil.
• Precious Metals: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, and Copper.
• Indices: Includes DAX, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, SP500, AUS200, CAC40, FTSE, among others.
• Stocks and ETFs: Over 600 stocks from major EU and US companies, such as Tesla (TSLA), Meta (META), Apple (AAPL), etc.
• Cryptocurrencies: 20 cryptocurrency pairs, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), etc.
• Agricultural Commodities: Cocoa, Coffee, Corn, Cotton, Soybean, Sugar, and Wheat.
• Bonds: Euro-Bund and Japan Govt Bond.
• Options: Options trading on forex pairs, indices, and commodities (precious metals, energy, agricultural commodities).

Leverage

AvaTrade's leverage varies by trading product and account type, with a maximum of up to 1:400. Specific leverage details are as follows:

• International or EU (Professional) Accounts:

  • Forex: Up to 1:400
  • Indices: Major indices 1:200, other indices 1:100
  • Precious Metals: Gold 1:200, other metals 1:50
  • Energy: Crude Oil 1:100, other energy 1:50
  • Stocks: 1:10
  • ETFs: 1:20
  • Cryptocurrencies: 1:20 to 1:5
  • Agricultural Commodities: 1:33
  • Bonds: 1:100

• EU (Non-Professional) Accounts:

  • Major Forex Pairs: 1:30
  • Minor and Exotic Indices: 1:20
  • Precious Metals: Gold 1:20, other metals 1:10
  • Energy: 1:10
  • Stocks: 1:5
  • ETFs: 1:5
  • Cryptocurrencies: 1:2
  • Agricultural Commodities: 1:10
  • Bonds: 1:5

Regulation and Licenses

AvaTrade is regulated in multiple regions globally, ensuring compliance and investor protection:

• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
• Central Bank of Ireland (CBI)
• South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA)
• Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan
• Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FRSA) in the UAE
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySec)
• Israeli Securities Authority (ISA)
• British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (FSC BVI)
• Polish Financial Supervision Authority (PFSA)

Trading Platforms

AvaTrade offers several popular trading platforms to meet various trading needs:

• MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5): Widely used trading platforms supporting various technical analysis tools and automated trading.
• AvaTrade App: Mobile application for trading anytime, anywhere.
• AvaOptions: Platform focused on options trading.
• AvaSocial and DupliTrade: Social trading and copy trading platforms allowing users to follow and copy strategies of successful traders.
• ZuluTrade: Another social trading platform offering a wide range of trading signals and strategies.

Account Types

AvaTrade provides several account types to meet different investor needs:

• Demo Account: For risk-free testing of the platform and trading strategies.
• Live Account: Enjoys commission-free trading with full access to AvaTrade's trading features.
• Islamic Account: Compliant with Islamic financial principles, offering special accounts for Muslim traders.

The minimum deposit required for opening a live account with AvaTrade is $100. No deposit is required for demo accounts.

Payment Methods

AvaTrade supports various payment methods, including:

• Wire Transfer
• Credit/Debit Cards
• PayPal
• Neteller
• Skrill
• Perfect Money
• Web Money

Negative Balance Protection

AvaTrade offers negative balance protection to ensure that accounts do not suffer losses exceeding the deposit. If an account balance becomes negative, AvaTrade will cover the loss and reset the account balance to zero.

Margin Call and Stop-Out Levels

• Retail Clients: Margin call level is 50%.
• Professional or Non-EU Clients: Margin call level is 10%.

This means that investors must maintain sufficient margin to keep positions open. If the account balance falls below the margin requirement, a margin call will trigger, and all open positions will be closed.

Other Considerations

• Micro Accounts and VPS: AvaTrade does not offer micro accounts or virtual private server (VPS) services, but investors can choose other VPS providers to host trading strategies.
• Inactivity Fees: If an account remains inactive for three consecutive months, AvaTrade will charge an inactivity fee of $50 every three months.
• Legality: AvaTrade is a legally registered broker but does not offer services to residents of the United States, Belgium, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and New Zealand.
• Hedging, Copy Trading, and Social Trading: AvaTrade allows account hedging, supporting both long and short positions on the same trading instrument. The platform also supports copy trading and social trading, with services like MQL5, Zulutrade, and DupliTrade for copying other traders' strategies.
• Maximum Trade Size and Spreads: AvaTrade's forex trading lot sizes start from 0.01, with a maximum lot size of 100. Spreads start from 0.9 pips, with no commission fees.
• Minimum Withdrawal: AvaTrade has no minimum withdrawal amount requirement, and all funds in the account can be withdrawn without deposit or withdrawal fees.

Summary

AvaTrade is a well-rounded forex and CFD broker with comprehensive regulation. It offers a variety of financial products and trading platforms, supports high leverage and various trading strategies, and caters to different types of traders. The minimum deposit requirement is $100, and the platform supports multiple payment methods with negative balance protection to ensure investor safety.