AVAFX Reviews : Account Opening Bonuses up to $10,000

AvaTrade Regulatory Status: AvaFX has a different applicable regulatory status depending on where you're located -- something we're seeing more and more of, as it will allow firms to participate in the most favorable regulatory environments when possible. If you're in the European Economic Area, you'll be a customer of customers of Ava Capital Markets Ltd, a company regulated by the Irish Financial Regulator (License Number C53877). If you're outside the European Economic Area and NOT in the United States, you'll be a customer of Ava Financial Ltd, A British Virgin Islands company. The British Virgin Islands I think may be a new hot spot for forex and CFD brokers; I half-jokingly call it "the new Cyprus." (because many forex/CFD brokers are currently located in Cyprus). 

1. AvaTrade has lots of key instruments traders can choose from, far more than most brokers. To me, this is the biggest advantage. If you are a trader who wants to trade a wide variety of CFDs -- government bonds, cryptocurrencies, FX options, single shares, global indices, forex pairs, commodities -- Ava may be a broker you wish to consider. 

2. New account bonsues: Ava does offer new account bonuses, which I like to think of as loss insurance/margin bonus: basically, it gives you some free trades. I don't think this is a very important feature, but Ava is more generous with bonuses than most brokers -- so if you are focused purely on price, this may be something to consider.

3. I've used the AvaTrader platform, their custom platform. It is a bit ugly and not extremely intuitive or sleek, but I found it adequate. Ultimately, the technology was decent and the execution was also pretty good. Not remarkable, but I did not find it to be problematic. 

4. Ava is a B book broker, as are most brokers who offer a wide variety of instruments. This means they are taking risk and in some instances are not offsetting orders with the larger market; rather they are the counterparty to their customer's trades. I do think this is acceptable if the broker is responsible and well-capitalized, which from my vantage point Ava is, though I do think it is worth noting.

5. Like most brokers, Ava has invested considerably in its own education offering. The company has free educational material on the web, as well as premium education available to its customers. I think its premium education, HushTrade, looks pretty legit, though I doubt it is worth opening an account just for that. Generally speaking -- and as the founder of InformedTrades, I'm biased here -- I think traders are better off finding educational resources that are a bit independent of their broker, as this will help them learn from an organization that is truly focused on education. 

6. Ava's customer service is what I found to be the biggest potential concern. To their credit, the customer service was responsive in English, via phone, email, and chat. However, the staff generally was unable to answer any questions I had. This was a bit frustrating, and leaves me a bit concerned if I were to deposit a larger amount. At the very least, I think it is something traders should test out to see if they are comfortable with it. 
                                          Click Here to Visit AvaTrade

Currency Trading With AvaTrade: AvaTrade offers currency trading in many pairs; all the major pairs, plus the Scandinavian currencies, the Singapore dollar, the Mexican Peso, the South African rand, the Israeli shekel. Spreads on the exotics can go into triple digits; the US dollar/South African rand and British pound/Israeli shekel both have 120 pip spreads. EURUSD is 3 pips. The rollover fee (for holding positions overnight) is $-0.19 if you are short EURUSD; you earn $0.11 per lot if you are long EURUSD. The lot size is 5,000 units, which is a bit unconventional. 

CFD Trading With Ava Trade: AvaTrade also offers CFD trading in many international stock indices: FTSE 100, CAC 40, DAX 30, NASDAQ 100, NIKKEI 225, and more. CFDs are also offered for US treasury bonds, commodities and precious metals, and major corporations like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Apple, Google, Citigroup, Berkshire Hathaway, and more. Many forex/CFD brokers do not offer CFDs for single stocks or treasury bonds -- just indices -- so this is a point of differentiation for AvaTrade relative to many other CFD brokers. 

As is customary amongst forex/CFD brokers, AvaTrade offers commission-free trading, profiting primarily from the spread, rollover, and interest earned on client deposits. Maximum leverage is 200:1, and trading is available 24 hours day, 5 days a week (not on weekends). Deposits can be made via debit/credit card, Paypal, or wire transfer. 

Account Opening Bonuses. Like many of you, I am a cheapskate, and quite proud of it. And so, AvaTrade's account opening bonuses are worth noting. There are all sorts of restrictions on your ability to withdraw these funds, so it's probably easier to think of it as "loss insurance" -- in other words, the amount of the bonus is the amount of losses you can incur without losing any of your own money. AvaTrade has pretty big account opening bonuses which I think is a really nice selling point for them; see the breakdown below. 

Initial Deposit Minimum / FREE Cash Amount:

$/€300 / $/€150
$/€1,000 / $/€300
$/€3,000 / $/€750
$/€10,000 / $/€1,500

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