AVA Trade Review

Their education program on the website seems quite comprehensive, however, when you take a deeper look you will find it a little patchy in places which might be a struggle for the novice trader. Moreover, you can tell from the confusing explanations on certain pages that it’s not written by a native English.

• Trading A-Z – Here you’d expect all the Forex trading terms but it’s simply split into sections giving brief details of the main aspects of each security they allow you to trade. You’d have to know something about Forex to be able to understand a lot of it.
• Economic Indicators – Again, you expect detailed descriptions and explanations but what you get is a basic explanation of how indicators can affect prices, which is basic for anyone considering Forex trading.
• Webinars – The website claims that AVA Trade offer webinars from trading experts but nothing happens when you click on the link to sign up for them, see past webinar topics or check the future ones
• Video Tutorials – You’ll find a number of video tutorials on aspects of Forex trading which are reasonably informative and comprehensive but deal mainly with the operation of AVA Trade’s own platforms.
• eBook – AVA Trade offer a free eBook but you have to sign up first so you’ll be giving them details to be able to contact you. On the basis of the quality of other education offerings on their site, signing up may give you more hassle that benefit.
• Glossary– The glossary is the best part of their education section and is comprehensive. The explanations are short and sometimes you’ll need to cross-refer for the meaning of technical terms within the explanation.

AVA Trade offers a web chat service where you can contact an agent who will help you with the technical side of your trading. There is no indication of how long the
service is open each day but having made contact at various times, the indication is that it is 24/5 during trading days. When you open a live account, an account manager will assist you but reviews indicate it feels like pressure to make trades.

AVA Trade claims numerous awards from their eight years in the market. Looking at the name of the awards they won, it would be safe to say some look a little obscure. Still, many of those awards had been checked out by FXLORDS. The links are available on Ava Trade’s website, which assures us that the organization as a whole (including IB’s and Whitelabels) is being honest over the awards; but not necessary AVA Trade.

AVA Trade repeatedly states on their website that all client funds are ring-fenced and held in accounts at Danske Bank to which Ava Trade have no access. Instead, Ava Trade s says that the client must deal directly with Danske Bank to deposit or withdraw funds.

Moreover, Ava trade claims that they are the only Forex company to offer this level of security, which isn’t true as all registered Forex companies must keep client funds separate from those of the company. But more interestingly, their claim that the client has to deal with the bank directly to withdraw funds put a big question mark on their entire compliance department of Ava Trade along with the regulations it adheres to, simply because in this case, Ava trade must also be able to access to the funds to deposit or withdraw funds from the account when the trader wins or losses, otherwise and if their claims were true, they have to ask the client to transfer money to them when he losses!

As with almost all brokers, AVA Trade offer a choice of trading platforms including their own browser base and downloadable platforms; AVA Trader and AVA Options. However there is no data for the reliability of the AVA Trade platforms anywhere, which gives an idea about Ava Trade’s reputation. If awards are anything to go by, then Ava won a few awards for the quality of their platforms. Again, like other Forex companies, AVA Trade offer MetaTrader4. but the company offers only fifty currency pairs to trade.

AVA Trade offer variable spreads on majors claiming that it is in place to let you enjoy the tightest spreads, but what the spread usually is three to four pips extending to seven and eight and even more sometimes for popular minor pairs. Their excuse for the spreads variability is the statement ‘under normal conditions’ which makes them able to adjust spreads and then justify the increase as market conditions not being of normal conditions. Their margin requirement on MetaTrader4 is a fixed margin of 0.25% or 1:400 and 0.5% or 1:200 on their own platform, which is maybe acceptable for MT4 but is too high for their platform. They justify the higher margin requirement on their platform is the extra information the platform offers, although there’s nothing special there. Last – Swap rates will be charged on overnight positions.

Definitely higher than other brokers in the market. The variable spread, which doesn’t have a higher limit when markets are volatile, added the Swap rate on your overnight positions will be a lot compared to other brokers, especially if you are trading one of the Yen crosses

New traders can enjoy an introductory trading bonus of up to $10,000 depending on the amount of their deposit. It’s 50% of your deposit up to $3,000 of deposit with a decreased percentage after that.

The company is purely a market maker. They offer floating spreads which as per their website, should keep costs tight. Even novice traders will be highly aware of the need for a sizable gain to cover the spread once they witness it on AVA’s platforms. The No-flexibility policy they have definitely pushed clients away from them for the 8 years they’re in business
. They are a small broker despite the grand statements on their website, which has a lot of contradictory messages in its text. According to their website, the prices they quote may not be those you see in the open market. This means that traders can’t be sure if their stop loss and take profit points will be honored on top of differences in the price they execute your trade at.
Website language can be a bit confusing in places, seeming like it’s written by non-native English speakers giving scope for misinterpretation, and last, being based in the US, not all nationalities can open accounts with AVA Trade.