AvaFX Forex Broker Review 2012 - Ratings, Likes, Dislikes, Comparison, Demo, Open Account
Review and ratings of AvaFX Forex broker - Ava Capital Markets Ltd. is available on this page. Compare it with other FX brokers or share your experience.
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Last review date: 1/12/2012 |
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Recommendation is based purely on our own opinion, but we try to be objective as possible!
| Commission Type: | Spread |
| Forex Trades Fee: | 26.00 USD |
Displayed 'Forex Trade Fee' is spread based. Commission for Forex trades is an estimation of fees charged per round turn of $100,000 major pair units. The cost of no-commission brokers is calculated as average spread markup on majors. |
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| Execution Type: |
DD
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DD - Dealing Desk, STP(MM) - Straight Through Processing/Instant Execution, STP(DMA) - Straight Through Processing/Direct Market Access, ECN - Electronic Clearing Network |
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| Minimum Deposit: | 100 USD |
| Minimal Contract Size: | 1,000 |
| Maximal Leverage: | 1:200 |
| Account Base Currencies: | USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, JPY, CAD |
When trading on MT4 account max. leverage is 1:400.
| Spread Type: |
Fixed
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| EUR/USD: | 3.0 |
| GBP/USD: | 4.0 |
| USD/JPY: | 3.0 |
| USD/CHF: | 4.0 |
| AUD/USD: | 4.0 |
| USD/CAD: | 5.0 |
| Islamic (Swap-Free) Acc.: | |
| Managed Accounts: | |
| Segragated Accounts: | |
| Virtual Trading: | |
| Demo Account Duration: | Unlimited |
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| U.S. Citizens Allowed: | |
| Account Opening Type: | Online |
| Time To Open Account: | 3 minutes |
| Paper-Work Required: | |
| Notarization Required: | |
| Documents Delivery: | |
| Deposit Currencies: | USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, JPY |
| Withdrawal Fee: | 0.00 USD |
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| Wire Transfer: | |
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| PayPal: | |
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| Neteller: | |
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| Prize Contest: | |
| 1st Deposit Bonus: | |
Bonus depends on the investment size and deposit method. Current limited-time offer: up to $1,200. |
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| Refer a Friend Bonus: | |
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| Software/Platforms: | |
| MetaTrader4 (MT4): | |
| VikingTrader (Currenex): | |
| PowerTrader (Currenex): | |
| MirrorTrader (Tradency): | |
| ZuluTrader: | |
AvaTrader is available in following languages: English, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Finish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish, Swedish.
| Forex: | |
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| Oil & Gas: | |
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| No. of Currency Pairs: | 48 |
Plus 15 Commodities, 19 Indices, 89 Stocks, 6 Bonds.
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| Market If Touched (MIT): | |
| Trailing (Server Side): | |
| Trailing (Client Side): | |
| One-Cancels-Other (OCO): | |
| If-Then (Conditional): | |
| Bid/Offer (Inside Spread): | |
MT4 is client based application in respect to trailing orders.
| Hedging Capability: | |
| Scalping Allowed: | |
| One-Click Orders: | |
| Chart Trading: | |
| Guaranteed Stop-Losses: | |
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Trading features are related to platform selection.
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| AutoChartist: | |
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| Phone Dealing: | |
| 24/7 Support: | |
| Ava Financial Ltd., Euro American Trust Building, POB 3161, Road Town, Tortola, BVI | |
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| Tool-Free Phone: | +1-888-541-3720 |
| International Phone: | +1-212-941-9609 |
| Dealing Phone: | +1-212-941-9609 |
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Stocks-For-Beginners.com is Ava FX's affiliate and is being compensated for every new opened client's account. |
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AvaFX Forex Broker Review
We believe AvaFX is a great Forex broker, recommended for retail and active traders, who look for integrity, quality service and high level of functionality.
Very Positive - Besides really broad range of investments offered, Ava's major advantage is their business relationship with auto trading providers, whose ideas are easy to integrate into your trading strategy.
Could do Better - We have missed some transparency of their website. Navigation is not straightforward enough; things need more explanation for new visitors.
Introduction
Ava Group is representing one of the leading online Forex brokers in the World, with over 150,000 customers in over 150 countries worldwide, who execute over 1.5 million trades per month in worth of over $50 billion. Ava Financial was founded in 2006 and has its headquarters on BVI (British Virgin Islands). Their 100% owned EU subsidiary, Ava Capital Markets Ltd., is headquartered in Ireland and takes care for clients from EU. AvaFX has offices in all major financial centers, including New York, Tokyo, Dublin, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Sydney. Their good work was notices and awarded many times in the past, especially for maintaining high standards in customer service, quality of trade executions, transparency in pricing, and sophisticated trading tools. What makes Ava different from other Forex providers is orientation towards users. They do everything they can to fit individual needs of private and also institutional traders. They offer advanced trading technology, rich of functionality and easy to use at the same time. For any questions there is support available for you 24 hours a day in several languages.
If we try to summarize Ava's offer, here is what you can expect from them: advanced trading tools (all FREE), with over 150 tradable instruments in it, including currencies, oil and gas, precious metals, commodities, stocks, stock indices, and bonds; you will pay no commissions or fees with AvaFX, except spreads, which are fixed and in the average range of the industry; account opening in several possible base currencies only takes few minutes and you can start trading with only $100 almost instantly with many available money transfer methods, including credit cards, PayPal and WebMoney; you can leverage your trading ideas up to 200 on AvaTrader account or up to 400 on MT4 account; in case of emergency, Ava's 24 hours support is there to help you.
Account Opening
The procedure of account opening with AvaFX is fully web based; actually there are also PDF forms available, which can be printed, signed and faxed, but to be honest, we do not really see any reason for filling out the forms when such simple online process is in place. There is a simple online form with just basic data you have to enter and account can be opened in no more than 3 minutes. The only thing left to do is to send them a copy of your personal ID or passport, which can be scanned and emailed to Ava.
There is one thing we would like to clarify, which is a bit confused/not so clearly stated on their website: every client has the possibility to open two different types of account: AvaTrader or MT4 account. The latest offers trading on well known MetaTrader platform and users can experience all advantages of this state-of-the-art app. If the user has both of this accounts opened, they can easily transfer their money from one account to another to perform trading. And then there is a possibility of service upgrade, if clients would like to use auto trading facilities of third parties, like Mirror Trader, Zulutrade, ayondo, or Trade Leaders Program. In such case there is no need to open another account; all it has to be done is that your account manager manually links your trading account with service provider. If anything is not clear with account opening, there is Live Chat support there for you, so go ahead and ask them for assistance.
Regardless if you are experienced trader or beginner, it is recommended you start with paper trading with AvaFX first. This is the best way to get familiar with trading platforms they offer, their functionality and even enhance your trading skills. Your practice account will be funded with $100,000 of virtual money, which you can trade without any risk.
Depending on deposit amount, clients fall in one of the following categories: Silver, Gold, Platinum or VIP. Silver status requires a $300 deposit, Gold $1,000 deposit, Platinum $10,000 deposit and VIP $50,000 deposit. There are some differences in traders benefits related to type of account status, like for example access to dealing room, breaking new to mobile, trading signals, etc.).
If you are a heavy client, willing to deposit $100,000 or you will exceed USD 100 million trading volume, you will qualify for Ava Select program, which is an exclusive club for serious traders. Members of Ava Select enjoy customized trading conditions, express withdrawals, special hotline, customized trading terms and benefits, tailored educational programs, and special gifts.
We would just like to mention that AvaFX has also a refer-a-friend program in place, where both the referral client and new client have opportunity to earn some free cash, which again depends on the friend's deposit amount.
Deposits/Withdrawals
It is very easy to deposit or withdraw money to/from AvaFX. Among available methods are: Credit/Debit Cards, Ava Debit Card, Wire Transfer, WebMoney, Paypal, Neteller, and Moneybookers. AvaFX charges no fees for money transfers, and you can use the following currencies for money transfer: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, JPY. You will have to deposit at least $100 to start trading on real account; if you choose to deposit via credit/debit cards or e-wallets, it just a question of minutes the money will be booked on your real account.
Ava is regularly running new account promotions, where you can get a bonus on your initial deposit. Bonus is free cash amount you can get and depends on the deposit volume and deposit method. Current promotion is a $1,200 bonus for $10,000 deposit. Of course, promotions are subject to change anytime, so you have to check Ava's website to find latest information. Just to let you know, bonus cash is not free to withdraw until minimum trading requirements are met within certain period of time - you will be required to execute a minimum trading volume of 10,000 base instrument for every $1 bonus. Also promotion offers are not valid for clients of all countries, so again, check Ava's website for detailed information.
As Ava client you can get a Payoneer MasterCard, which will allow you to easily and cost effectively withdraw funds from your trading account on any ATM cash machines or pay with it anywhere MasterCard is accepted. There are however some costs with the card (activations, loading payments, account maintenance and ATM withdrawal fees), so be sure to check conditions in details before you apply for the card.
Trading Platforms
AvaFX is offering you several trading platforms to trade anytime and anywhere. The most basic platform is web based platform called AvaJava. Since it is Java based app, it will install automatically and you only have to provide username and password to login. It is a very clean and easy to navigate application which will allow you to trade from any computer connected to internet.
Ava's main trading platform is AvaTrader, which needs to be downloaded and installed on your computer. This platform can be customized to fit individuals taste. The platform is constructed to give traders all important information on one screen, including streaming prices, dealing rates table, open positions, orders, chart, account information, and possibility to trade FX quickly. You can have multiple sheets opened similar to Excel and navigate them for more information you setup there. Confident traders can setup one-click trading functionality, which allows entering into trade with a single click (for those who enter and exit positions very frequently). Charts are advanced, allow several technical indicators overly and most important, you can trade directly out of them. We do have one recommendation for chart upgrades: if you change the time-frame of a candlestick chart from 5 minutes to 1 day, chart should automatically adopt the x-axis to show candles for one year for example; instead user has to zoom-out of the two candles to get the broader picture. One of the things we loved mostly in AvaTrader app is Audio Squawk. This is a nice audio module, covering live events related to Forex market, so you can get information as it happens without searching for it on Google or any other news portals; you will hear it and have the chance to trade it first in line.
If you will decide to trade on MetaTrader 4 Terminal (the most popular Forex trading platform in the World), you will get all the tools and resources to analyze, trade and/or automate trading with Forex, CFDs and Futures. MT4 is server based platform, which possess a powerful and easy to learn programming language MQL that offers you creating custom trading strategies, indicators, systems and scripts.
The new Ava AlphaTrader application is a simplified and more easy to use app then AvaTrader. It is very user friendly, available in over 10 languages, allows one-click trading, advanced hedging, server side trailing orders, trading directly from charts, fractional pips, and quick executions.
What we didn't like while testing all the trading platforms, that it is necessary to open new demo account for every platform. You cannot simply use one username and password for all of them. This is something that should be upgraded. Once a client registers as demo client, it should have all platforms available for testing.
When it comes to mobile trading, you can choose between trading on AvaTrader or MT4. While AvaTrader only operates on iPhone and Android currently, MT4 operates on Windows, Blackberry, Symbian and i-mode as well. With mobile trading app you will have access to Forex market from wherever there is mobile coverage. Some of the mobile app features: live prices and charts, news and analysis, opening and closing trades, stop and limit orders, multiple languages, alerts, and more.
Auto Trading
AvaFX is offering quite a few options for auto trading Forex market in case you don't have the knowledge, time or guts to do it on your own or you simply want to learn from the best and also enjoy their results. First offered auto trading solution is Mirror Trader, where you can fully-mirror, semi-mirror or manually mirror experienced traders and use their knowledge. Similar is the idea of ayondo, social trading network allowing you to copy trades of top traders. Next option is Zulutrade, which was established back in 2006 and has some of the best strategies; find one that fits your trading style and start trading it. If you possess your own trading algorithm, the latest version of AvaTrader offers you to back-test them and execute them in real trading. Another option is to use API trading interface in case you already have your own trading system. One more way to get quality trading ideas is to join Trade Leaders Investment Program with many top currency traders.
Investments Offered
AvaFX is very powerful when it comes to number of symbols you can trade: 48 currency pairs, 15 Commodities, 19 Indices, 89 Stocks, and 6 Bonds; all together 177 tradable underlyings.
Currency pairs: AUD/CAD, AUD/CHF, AUD/JPY, AUD/NZD, AUD/USD, CAD/CHF, CAD/JPY, CHF/JPY, EUR/AUD, EUR/CAD, EUR/CHF, EUR/DKK, EUR/GBP, EUR/HUF, EUR/JPY, EUR/NOK, EUR/NZD, EUR/PLN, EUR/SEK, EUR/USD, GBP/AUD, GBP/CAD, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY, GBP/NZD, GBP/SGD, GBP/USD, NZD/CAD, NZD/CHF, NZD/JPY, NZD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, USD/DKK, USD/HUF, USD/JPY, USD/MXN, USD/NOK, USD/PLN, USD/SEK, USD/SGD, USD/ZAR, USD/ILS, EUR/ILS, GBP/ILS, USD/TRY, EUR/TRY, EUR/ZAR.
Commodities: Crude oil, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Corn, Soybean, Wheat, Natural Gas, Heating oil, Gasoline, Coffee C, Sugar no. 11, Cotton no. 2, Brent Oil, Copper.
Indices: S&P500 US, NASDAQ 100 US, DJ 30 US, CAC 40 France, DAX 30 Germany, FTSE 100 UK, FTSE, MIB Italy, RUSSELL2000 US, DJ EURO STOXX50 EU, SMI Switzerland, MSCI Taiwan, NIKKEI 225 Japan, IBEX35 Spain, HSI Hong Kong, OMX30 Sweden, SPI 200 Australia, NIFTY50 India, TOPIX Japan, DOLLAR INDEX US.
Stocks: Coca Cola US, McDonalds US, Exxon Mobil US, General Electric US, Wal Mart US, Bank Of America US, Walt Disney US, Citigroup US, Apple US, Google US, Berkshire Hathaway US, Potash US, American Express US, AT&T US, Boeing US, Caterpillar US, Chevron US, Cisco Systems US, Goldman Sachs Group US, Intel US, Johnson & Johnson US, JP Morgan Chase US, Microsoft US, Morgan Stanley US, Pfizer US, Procter & Gamble US, Verizon US, Yahoo US, GM US, LinkedIn US, Amazon US, Groupon US, Teva US, Perrigo US, Check Point US, Amdocs US, HSBC UK, Royal Dutch Shell-A UK, BP UK, Vodafone UK, Barclays UK, Rio Tinto.UK UK, GlaxoSmithKline.UK UK, BHP Billiton.UK UK, British American Tobacco.UK UK, Anglo American.UK UK, Banco Santander Spain, Telefonica Spain, Banco Bilbao Spain, Iberdrola Spain, Repsol YPF Spain, Inditex.ES Spain, Banco Popular.ES Spain, Acciona.ES Spain, Endesa.ES Spain, GAS Natural.ES Spain, E.ON Germany, Siemens Germany, Bayer Germany, Allianz Germany, Deutsche Bank Germany, BASF.DE Germany, SAP.DE Germany, Deutsche Telekom.DE Germany, RWE.DE Germany, BMW.DE Germany, Daimler.DE Germany, France Telecom France, GDF Suez France, Sanofi-Aventis France, Total France, Alcatel-Lucent.FR France, Peugeot.FR France, Vallourec.FR France, Carrefour.FR France, Danone.FR France, Accor.FR France, ENI Italy, Intesa Sanpaolo Italy, Unicredito Italy, Banca Pop Mi.IT Italy, Generali Assicurazioni Italy, Telecom Italia Italy, ENEL.IT Italy, Tenaris.IT Italy, Pirelli.IT Italy, Saipem.IT Italy, Unione Di Banche.IT Italy, Banca Pop Mi.IT Italy.
Bonds: 5 Year US T-Notes US, 10 Year US T-Notes US, 30 Year US T-Bond US, Gilt Long UK, Euro-Bund EUR, Japan Govt Bond JP.
Tools & Research
AvaFX has quite a huge resources module within their website, which is in large part freely accessible. If you are newbie to Forex trading, you should start in the educational center, where you can learn basics of Forex, advantages and risks, introduction to technical and fundamental analysis, and glossary. Then you will find video Forex tutorials, guides series for beginners and advanced traders, free webinars conducted by industry experts, virtual and guided tours, economic calendar, and a market review blog, where you can read daily and weekly market updates prepared by AvaFX analysts. You can even get a Free Forex Strategies eBook, giving you access to information shared only between the top of the line Traders.
Awards
AvaFX has received many awards in the past. Here are some of them: IBTIMES Excellence Award Forex 2011, World Finance Foreign Exchange Awards 2011 for best trade executions and best trading platform, FXempire 2011 for most reliable Forex broker, , World Finance Foreign Exchange Awards 2010 for best Islamic Forex provider, most transparent broker, best Forex broker in Middle East, best Forex broker BVI, and best Forex broker Canada, DailyForex awarded them for best customer service, Middle East Money Summit in Dubai 2008 for best alert system and best financial derivative trading provider.
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Written by: Goran Dolenc
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