Stay away from AvaTrade

I've signed up with Ava couple of months ago since they had some attractive bonus for new accounts. But be aware! In order to get the bonus you have to trade ridiculous amount of lots which you will never reach it.
Second. Prior to my opening account with them, they showed their different account's spread (2-3pips spread) which is I thought would be okay with my current trading strategy. But when they actually opened my account I was seeing totally different scene. Now my account had no floating spreads (EURUSD 3) and other some exotic pairs had huge spreads trading them is out of option. So they're not really customer friendly broker where they actually help you to succeed with their service but in the other hand they will try to suck every penny from you. It doesn't matter how but they will succeed.
Third. They have some unrealistic down times during news releases. It happens rather too many times. Oh boy, it's seems like they're desperately trying to decrease trader's odds by shutting their servers down.
For example: http://www.mql5.com/en/charts/259704...-financial-ltd
My live trade was supposed to get in before the initial move but the server went down for couple of minutes. Due to server's problem ofcourse they slipped me when the server were back online again. I had 20pips Trailing Step so there are no way that my trade should be at BE, but my trade was at BE and it was closed. lol
Just look at my Alpari demo http://www.mql5.com/en/charts/259704...-alpari-uk-ltd
Same settings as ava but managed to grab 70pips.
Things like these happen alot. For some unknown reasons I stopped out alot.

P.S if you are planing to open an account with them, I'd suggest you to take your money and run as fast as possible.

Their practices still seem to be a bit questionable. The broker recently got fined with EUR 175,000 by the Belgium regulator - the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) for offering their services to the local citizens without being authorized to do so.

According to the regulator, Avatrade has been offering CFDs to Belgium residents without the requisite prospectus, which must include complete information about the type of investment instrument, the issuer, and the risks associated with the investment. Besides, the regulator states that the broker did not submit for approval to the FSMA any advertisement or other documents relating to the said public offers.

Why do that when they know that the Belgium authorities banned such advertising?

This precious experience should be share & rate in f*rexpeacearmy website

what is the prospectus suppose to say about the instrument ?

By looking into the info above it seems to be a very dodgy broker. I always question the reliability of brokers with so ‘’attractive’’ bonus systems.

I opened a 'test' account with Avatrade.
They've effectively frozen it.
I can no longer move funds in or out of the account.
Customer service won't deal with the problem, they're saying it's my card, which I use every day.

Also, I can't remove funds or deposit funds using wire or any other method.
They've given me no reason for this, even though it's one of the features of the account and deposit methods.
They've also frozen it.

Very suspicious.
I'd like to report them to the authorities, but don't know how to go about it.

Any broker that advertise heavily, offer bonuses etc is going to scam you.
Good ones - big ones too - don't advertise!!!

AvaTrade got fined yet again – this time by the Israeli regulator. The brokerage has committed regulatory infringements back in 2016 and 2017, and will be fined another 500,000 ( $141,000) shekels if it breaches similar regulations in the next two years, as the ISA also imposed a conditional fine.

I know someone who lost money due to their negligence recently.

You should complain to their regulators, they can help you recover.

There are many routes you can take:

https://www.fspo.ie

https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/conta...nduct-to-asic/

https://www.fsca.co.za/Pages/Contact-Us.aspx

https://www.centralbank.ie/contact-u...me%20or%20PRSA.

Here, https://www.fairforexreviews.com/avatrade/, it is said that they also offer services to UK clients: "Following Brexit, AVA Trade EU Ltd continues to serve its existing UK clients under the UK’s financial services contracts regime, which allows EEA-based firms to maintain prior agreements with UK clients. However, AvaTrade is not permitted to accept new UK clients under this arrangement."

Does that mean that their existing clients get the same FCA protections as any other UK firm?

That is what they are implying. I don’t know if it is actually true or not.

I would be careful because they have been sneaky about how they do business in the past.

Yeah, I looked into this too—and it’s something people should really be aware of.

AvaTrade can still serve existing UK clients after Brexit, but they’re doing it under this special arrangement called the Financial Services Contracts Regime. The important bit is: they’re not actually regulated by the FCA anymore. So if you’re in the UK and still trading with them, you’re not covered by the UK’s FSCS, which protects up to £85,000 if something goes wrong. Instead, you fall under Irish regulation, and their compensation scheme (ICS) only covers up to €20,000.
Basically, it’s a lot less protection—so definitely something to think about if you’re keeping your money with them.