AvaTrade Canada Review 2024
AvaTrade Canada Review
- Available Assets and Instruments
- Pricing and Fees
- Account Options
- Platforms and Tools
- Customer Service
AvaTrade Review Summary:
Launched in Ireland in 2006, AvaTrade has spent the last decade and a half making a name for itself as one of the top online brokerages for forex and CFD traders.
If you’ve been a long time stock, bond, and ETF investor and find yourself yearning for something with a bit more action, and are willing to risk your capital, then AvaTrade could provide you with the tools to satisfy that itch.
CFD trading is highly risky, and you are much more likely to lose money trading CFDs than with other forms of investment. Now, if you take your time, and slowly learn about CFD and forex trading through AvaTrade’s robust educational offerings, you could be one of the traders who make a pretty penny.
If you are ready to take the risk to receive those elusive rewards, AvaTrade is the platform you want.
In our AvaTrade review, we’ll be covering all you need to know, including product offerings, a breakdown of the fees, and the quality of the tools and platform. Want to check out the competition and see why Ava is the best? Read up on our top picks for Best Trading Platforms in Canada.
Pros
- Lowered risk with regulations in several global jurisdictions
- Extensive offerings of forex, CFD and cryptocurrency trading options
- Award winning brokerage
- Excellent social trading tools available
- Includes negative balance protection
Cons
- High leverage investing and forex is not for everyone
- High inactivity fee
What Is AvaTrade? Is it Legit?
AvaTrade is known as one of the safest online brokerages for CFD and forex trading. Over 300,000 customers use AvaTrade to execute $70 Billion worth of trades per month.
AvaTrade has been granted regulatory approval by 6 regulatory bodies, including Canada’s own IIROC. To top it off, AvaTrade offers AvaProtect, which means that investors can use tools to protect against possible investment losses.
AvaTrade has spent years developing proprietary platforms that have been designed to optimise trading experience. The number of choices offered is quite impressive, and later on in our AvaTrade review, we are going to go in-depth into each one and what it offers.
Considering what AvaTrade has accomplished in the last decade and a half, we can expect more innovative platforms and tools to come from this broker.
AvaTrade’s Assets and Instruments
AvaTrade offers a wide range of assets and instruments for investors to choose from. However, it is most well known for its forex and CFD trading options.
Forex (Foreign Exchange)- With AvaTrade, you can trade 50 of the world’s most popular currencies at a competitive spread. What you’ll get with AvaTrade that you might not get with other brokers is multilingual customer service as well as protection with AvaTrade. You’ll also get a suite of educational tools so you can become more knowledgeable about the forex trading world.
CFDs- CFDs, or contract for difference, is a volatile trading instrument with which investors are paid the difference in the settlement price between opening and closing trades.
The reason why CFDs are so risky is because they are highly speculative. It is an instrument reserved for only highly experienced investors. That said, they are cheap to trade and because of the leverage involved, day traders love them to make money by moving in and out of positions quickly.
AvaTrade offers CFDs for currency pairs, stocks, commodities, ETFs, and bonds.
Options- With AvaTrade’s AvaOptions you can trade options easily. There are a number of charts and tools available, as well as a number of educational resources.
Cryptocurrency- AvaTrade offers crypto trading, however at this time it is not approved for Canadian and UK investors.
If you are looking to actually purchase ETFs and stocks, AvaTrade won’t be the broker you’re looking for. That’s because it doesn’t allow you to actually purchase these assets, but you can create CFDs for them.
If ETFs and stocks are what you are after, check out our top pick for Canada’s best online discount brokerage, Qtrade, by heading over to our Qtrade Review.
AvaTrade Pricing and Fees
AvaTrade, like many other online brokers, does not charge commissions fees. Instead, users will be charged in the spread cost.
Check out the spread cost table below to see what you might end up paying in trading fees for Forex, stocks and ETFs.
| Forex | Starts at .9 pips and a 0.25% margin, with leverage up to 1:400 |
| Stocks | Starts at 0.13% and a 10% margin requirement, with leverage up to 1:10 |
| ETFs | Starts at 0.13% and a 5% margin, with leverage up to 1:20 |
Other available assets are charged varying fees.
Active traders will qualify for AvaTrade’s Professional account, and will start at a much lower 0.6 pips, and increase maximum leverage from 30:1 to 400:1.
Other Costs and Fees
| Account Minimum | $100 |
| Inactivity Fee | $50 after 3 months of inactivity |
| Administration Fee | $100 charged after 1 year of inactivity |
| Withdrawal Fee | $0 |
AvaTrade Review: Account Options
While you won’t be able to open Canadian registered accounts such as TFSA and RESP with AvaTrade, there are a number of accounts offered, including:
- AvaTrade Demo Account
- Retail Account
- Professional Account
- Spread Betting Account
- Standard Account
There are also secondary account types available:
- VIP Account
- Crypto Account
- Islamic Account
- Options Account
- Corporate Account
- Partner Account
- MAM/PAMM Account
AvaTrade Review: Platforms and Tools
One of the reasons why AvaTrade is so popular with forex and CFD traders is because of the wide range of platforms and tools it offers. Most brokers offer two platforms, one for your average trader, one for your more professional trader. AvaTrade on the other hand goes above and beyond with 9 different platforms.
Let’s see what some of their most popular platforms have to offer.
| WebTrader | AvaTrade’s easy to use web-based platform. It offers clients a peek at what other AvaTrade users are doing for up to the minute market insights. |
| AvaTrade GO | Award winning trading app that allows users to trade on the go. Users can connect to global markets from anywhere, as well as create their own unique watch lists, live prices and charts. |
| AvaOptions | Designed for options traders, this app allows for users to visually structure trades with the help of their carefully designed interface. Profits/loss charts help users see risk and reward potential. AvaOptions offers a wide range of advanced tools for options and forex trading. |
| MetaTrader 4 | A downloadable platform that offers a suite of trading instruments, offers a range of charts to examine, as well as access to Expert Advisors (EAs) that automate your trading based on scripts uploaded to the platform. |
| MetaTrader 5 | Offers even more market indicators, instruments and market orders. It’s a highly secure platform that offers unlimited shares, commodities, index, and ETF CFDs, in addition to forex and cryptocurrencies. |
| AvaSocial | This app is great for those with zero experience in CFD and forex trading. It allows users to follow and copy trades of top traders. App users can also ask questions in mentor groups to help them understand and trade more complex instruments. |
No matter what platform you use, your trades will all be covered by AvaProtect. AvaProtect is a risk management tool allowing users to protect themselves against losses of up to one million dollars within a selected time period.
AvaProtect does come at a small fee however, which comes in the form of a hedging cost, which you pay at the time of purchase.
AvaTrade Review FAQ
AvaTrade Canadian Review Final Thoughts
If you have been a reader of MDJ for some time, you know that we generally go for safer investments. CFDs and forex trading require a high tolerance for risk, and ideally an investor of this type has money to burn. If you aren’t ready for that kind of action, AvaTrade likely isn’t for you. To find a broker that might better fit your needs, read our guide of The Best Canadian Online Brokers.
If you are ready to take the leap into the world of forex and CFD trading, you will be in good hands with AvaTrade. With social trading and a wide offering of educational tools, you will be able to wade in the shallow end, so to speak, before diving into the deep waters. You’ll also have peace of mind knowing that you are protected with AvaProtect if a trade doesn’t go as expected.
If you would like to read more about our take on other brokerages that offer optimal day trading tools, check out our full rundown on the Best Day Trading Platform in Canada linked above. To learn more advanced trading strategies, like those you would be using with AvaTrade, head over to our Ultimate Options Trading Guide in Canada.
