AVAFX experience

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
1

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give a heads up about this one. After using their demo for about a month, I finally decided I’d deposit with them and go for the real thing. My first day I made $40. I went to make my final trade of the day, and lost connection to their server. Tried making sure it wasn’t my connection by refreshing some web pages in IE and signing in and out on MSN. Everything was fine here.

I closed the AVAX platform and re-opened. When I re-opened it had no data but my market order I was trying to place showed up twice in Entry Orders for some reason. I noticed quickly and removed one in time. The other went through before I could click to stop it. I instantly contacted customer support and we tried a number of things to get the chart data and currency data to show back up. After about 20 minutes he told me not to worry and said send this ticket number to us along with the problem to my e-mail. So I did. While I was writing the e-mail, the chart data appeared and the order that I didn’t even try to make was already working against my account at $-30. I contacted my account manager again on chat “Matthew” and asked “Should I close my trade before this gets any worse?” He said we will contact you don’t worry. I said ok. A few minutes later it got even worse & I started to worry that I should close it, but thinking how he said not to, I just went to ask again. He then said “WE WILL CONTACT YOU. DO WHAT YOU WANT” and then closed the chat program on me. I’ve never had anything like that from a customer support rep. This guys an idiot.

An hour later he e-mails me with an e-mail saying that it must be on my end and their investigation showed nothing. I don’t think they even did an investigation. I e-mailed back and said What should I do? I have now lost $60? Should I close? That’s it? Why did you tell me to wait as if they would cover the losses for their mistake???

Must point out that I tried to close trades as soon as I logged back in but it said I can’t close that close to entry price or something to that effect. Makes no sense because I wasn’t trying to set a limit, I was trying to simply close the trades because I was worried.

He e-mailed back saying too bad its my fault I should have used a stop loss and check my proxy & virus settings for why the software didn’t work.

First off, now I will always use a stop loss with my next broker, but I was sitting right here glued to the computer ready to do a stop loss on my own with a click of the mouse. Second, he told me to wait and got angry with me when I questioned if I should close trades at their current positions saying WE WILL CONTACT YOU.

After using the demo for a month constantly, it never had any connection issues at all. The live version crashes in the first day. Kind of weird…?

Now I’m not sure where we stand, I’ve contacted “Matthew” 2 more times asking what can be done & how it is unfair the way they handled the issue. No response. I’ve waited on customer support for over 2 hours without them accepting my chat. I’m pretty sure they are avoiding me.

They also never honored the $50 sign up bonus.

So I’m out $100 plus my profits. Just another example of how no one will ever give a $$$$ about you. So go with your instincts and close the trade at a loss even if they tell you to wait. They work for customer support, they obviously don’t have a brain. Don’t expect any help from anyone, even if they tell you what to do, it’s probably not going to help. That’s just life I guess.

I know it’s just $100, but I can’t help feeling very annoyed & a little cheated. Does this happen often? How am I supposed to want to fund my account with more money after that. I tried to get funds back in PayPal with a dispute but they said they can’t do anything if I got something in return & that it’s more for people that don’t get what they paid for.

Matt

2

Great!

You’ve had a very good lesson and it only cost you 100$ - that’s how you should look at things.
Now instead choose a broker which isn’t located in a tax haven. Go with a UK or US broker that’s well known and regulated.

And don’t ever place a trade again without a stop loss, but I guess you’ve learned that.

Good trading to you

3

Which broker would you suggest I use? I’ve looked a bit at MG and Oanda now. What do you think?

4

I use Oanda and am very happy with them.

A short and probably not complete list of other options might be something like: FXCM, Forex.com, IBFX, GFT, Alpari.

Only drawback with Oanda is their charting. I and many others solve that by using a MT4 demo for the charting. This works great for me as I trade dailies and weeklies. If you plan to trade intraday/short time frames you should first try an Oanda demo to see what you think.

5

Good idea. I’ve been playing with their demo since last night now to see what I think. I just need to be patient until the market opens! lol.

The only thing I’ve noticed is that I can’t zoom in on the charts? Am I missing something there? It’s also a bit confusing right now to place trades, but so was AVAFX when I first started so I’ll keep playing.

Also, do you know what the minimum deposit is with Oanda? I’ve heard it is $1. Would another $100 be safe this time?

I’ve also heard that if you get too good they will stop doing business with you? I guess that is better then take your money if you get too good, but can you let me know if you have heard anything about this?

Thanks!

6

Yes, min deposit is 1$ although you should start with at least a hundred. One great thing about Oanda is that you can trade not just micro lots (lots of 1000$), you can actually trade ANY amount you’d like. Basically you can open a 1$ position… This makes it possible to not have to risk too many % of your account on a trade, even if it’s a very small account.

I’d say that depositing 100$ with Oanda is about as safe as it goes when forex brokers are concerned.

There is a zoom function at the lower right, it looks like a scroll list.

What you’ve heard about them not doing business with you if you get too good simply isn’t true. Think about it: they make their money off of the spread you pay per trade. Many think that they lose money if you win, but that isn’t the case.
What a market maker like Oanda do in essence is this: they will take all their clients positions in, say, EURUSD and add it together. Then perhaps it turns out that the net result is that their clients have more shorts than longs. Oanda will then open a position of their own in the opposite direction to hedge that risk.

Many have the mistaken belief that brokers make their money when clients lose. That’s maybe true for brokers like AVAFX, but serious, regulated ones like Oanda make their money from the spread and nothing else really.

This then of course means that the more you trade, the more Oanda makes. So, in fact, they probably want you to do well and they certainly won’t shun you if you start doing well.

I realize this almost comes off as a sales talk, but it’s not the intention - trust me. I just happened to choose Oanda, but the other big US and UK brokers will probably be a very similar experience if you choose them instead.

For me to choose, I first looked at their financial strength - are they going to be around tomorrow as well? Then I tested platforms and compared spreads, leverage, customer support service, how to add and withdraw funds (fees, smooth, etc?) and so on. But nr 1 has to be their financial solidity IMO.

Search this forum for forexsavior, he has a good thread which you should read through a bit before choosing a broker.

7

I’m going to give Oanda a try. They look more legit.

As for avafx, still can’t get in contact with them. Called their customer support today after waiting 3 days on chat for hours each day, and he said this is the trading room and hung up. I’m starting to think everyone that works there is an idiot.

Not sure if I’ll ever get my $50 bonus or even a call, or e-mail from them. I think they are trying to avoid me. Beware of AVAFX. Thinking it might be a scam.