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AvaTradeTrade Nation Review
Written by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by John Bringans
Fact-checked by Joey Shadeck
Last modified September 12, 2022
Trade Nation’s well-designed, easy-to-use trading app for web and mobile is an innovative platform suite that’s great for beginner forex and CFD traders. However, if you’re a seasoned trader, you may find that Trade Nation lacks some of the advanced features you’d find with the best trading platforms.
-
Minimum Initial Deposit:
$0 -
Trust Score:
83 -
Tradeable Symbols (Total):
601
Trade Nation pros & cons
Pros
- Regulated in Australia, the U.K., South Africa, and the Bahamas.
- Web and mobile platforms are thoughtfully designed and easy to use, earning Trade Nation a Best in Class ranking for our Ease of Use category.
- The Smart News feature available in Trade Nation’s mobile app and web platform helpfully curates Tweets and news headlines.
- Offers a dollar-per-point default staking size, where rather than select a trade size in units, you can select how much you want to risk per price point or per pip (comparable to eToro or Plus500).
- Charts are powered by ChartIQ on TradeNation for web and mobile.
- Fixed spreads for forex and CFD trading are competitive – except during rollover time.
- Loyalty rebates available in South Africa and the Bahamas provide discounts starting at 10% of the spreads you pay, and are capped at up to $2,500 per client.
- Trading signals powered by Acuity are available within platform and as standalone web module as part of Trade Nation’s Signal Centre.
Cons
- Web platform lacks integrated news headlines and market research (beyond the Twitter-curated Smart News feature).
- Micro contract sizes are not supported at Trade Nation (smallest available size is 5,000 units or $0.5 per pip, although minimum stakes may vary depending on the account’s base currency)
- Market research updates on blog are sporadic, and mixed with educational articles.
- The educational offering is limited and lacks variety in its articles, videos, and blogs.
- MetaTrader suite no longer promoted, meaning that MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is only available upon request.
- Though Trade Nation’s new podcast series are well-made and often entertaining, they’re not always strictly focused on financial markets.
Overall summary
| Feature |
Trade Nation
|
| Overall Rating | |
| Trust Score | 83 |
| Offering of Investments | |
| Commissions & Fees | |
| Platform & Tools | |
| Research | |
| Mobile Trading | |
| Education |
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Is Trade Nation safe?
Trade Nation is considered average-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 83 out of 99. Trade Nation is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank. Trade Nation is authorized by two tier-1 regulators (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). Trade Nation is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Learn more about Trust Score.
| Feature |
Trade Nation
|
| Year Founded | 2014 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No |
| Bank | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 2 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 1 |
Offering of investments
Trade Nation offers a total of 601 tradeable symbols. These consist of 33 spot forex pairs, 102 U.K. shares, and 423 U.S. shares, along with popular commodities, metals, bonds, and indices.
Cryptocurrency: Trade Nation does not offer cryptocurrency trading.
| Feature |
Trade Nation
|
| Forex Trading | Yes |
| Trading - Forex or CFDs | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 601 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 33 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | No |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No |
| Cryptocurrency (CFD) | No |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
Commissions and fees
Trade Nation offers fixed-spread pricing across its tradeable symbols which is quite competitive. While most brokers offer variable pricing, Trade Nation keeps the spread distance fixed as prices update. This means its pricing can be considered an average price as-is, with no further calculation needed – except during the rollover period each day when prices widen for about one hour.
Fixed spreads: Trade Nation lists a fixed spread of 0.6 pips for the EUR/USD pair. It’s worth mentioning again that Trade Nation does widen its spreads briefly during its rollover period each day to as much as 1.4 pips, bringing the true average closer to 1 pip when factoring all price tick data (though it can be lower, depending on whether the average is weighted by time or trade volume).
| Feature |
Trade Nation
|
| Minimum Initial Deposit | $0 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 0.6 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.6 |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | No |
| Execution: Agency Broker | No |
| Execution: Market Maker | Yes |
Mobile trading apps
Overall, the Trade Nation app scores highly for ease-of-use but lacks some of the advanced features that are typically found in the best trading apps.
Apps overview: The Trade Nation mobile app is available directly from the Google Play and Apple App Store for Android and iOS devices, respectively. MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is available at Trade Nation, but not promoted as the primary platform option.
Ease of use: The Trade Nation mobile app is just as easy to use as its web counterpart, and features the same functionality and unique features – such as its Smart News section with headlines and curated tweets — that helped Trade Nation earn a Best in Class rating for Ease of Use for 2022.
Charting: Charting in the Trade Nation mobile app is powered by ChartIQ, and features over 90 indicators and dozens of drawing tools.
Trading tools:Integrated market research and news headlines are absent from Trade Nation’s web platform, and there’s a general lack of in-house content or third-party articles beyond the curated feed of Tweets that is available within the Smart News module. There’s simply a lot of real estate left on the platform where I was expecting to find more trading tools. That being said, I was pleased to find trading signals powered by Acuity Trading, which can be easily copied and are nicely integrated under the signals tab for live account holders.
| Feature |
Trade Nation
|
| Android App | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 12 |
| Watchlist Syncing | Yes |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 35 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 95 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes |
| Charting - Multiple Time Frames | No |
| Forex Calendar | No |
Other trading platforms
Trade Nation's web platform is overly simplified – so much so, that it often feels as though there are significant gaps in its offering. Bringing in research that already exists in the client portal and mobile app will help to elevate Trade Nation’s web platform closer to the level of industry leaders such as Saxo Bank, IG, and CMC Markets.
Platforms overview: Trade Nation offers a web trading platform that is supported by the latest modern browsers. I found that the platform has simple steps for carrying out core actions like setting an alert, adding a symbol to your favorites, opening a chart, or placing an order.
The features I liked most in Trade Nation’s web platform were the pre-defined watchlists found in the market explorer, and the ability to create multiple custom watchlists.
Charting: Charting in the Trade Nation web platform is powered by ChartIQ, a popular provider of charting software within the online brokerage industry. With 35 drawing tools and 95 indicators, Trade Nation’s web charts have rich technical analysis capabilities – similar to TradingView charts.
Trading tools: Research and news headlines are absent in terms of in-house content or third-party articles beyond the curated Tweets available within the Smart News module. And while there is a lot of real estate left on the platform where I was expecting to find more trading tools, I was pleased to find trading signals powered by Acuity Trading, which can be easily copied and are nicely integrated under the signals tab for live account holders.
Guaranteed stop-loss: Trade Nation offers several order types, including a guaranteed stop-loss. At 3 pips, the price to add a guaranteed stop-loss order is expensive, compared to CMC Markets or IG. That said, pricing is competitive on Trade Nation’s fixed spread offering.
| Feature |
Trade Nation
|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | No |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| DupliTrade | No |
| ZuluTrade | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 35 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 95 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | No |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 12 |
Market research
Trade Nation trails slightly behind the industry average in the research category. Its mobile app does publish articles throughout the week, and offers curated Tweets and headlines. On the web platform, however, besides the Smart News module, news headlines and research are limited. That said, I was pleased to find Trade Nation’s newly added Signal Centre available to clients from within the web platform, featuring trading signals from an FCA-regulated provider.
Research overview: Trade Nation’s research is mostly found in three places: the news and analysis section of its website, its official YouTube channel, and the Smart News module in its mobile app and web platform. The addition of integrated news headlines from top-tier sources and an economic calendar could be logical next steps to further enhance the user experience in the Research category.
Market news and analysis: On Trade Nation’s YouTube channel you’ll find a growing variety of content, like archived analysis videos such as the Trading Insights and TRADERCAST series that contain over 130 recordings. Overall, Trade Nation’s videos are good-quality, and focus on technical and fundamental analysis, yet content that focuses on research, daily market news, and analysis is still limited. The number of newly uploaded videos that are primarily research-focused has been reduced, and the best brokers in this category feature a wider variety of research content and produce videos more frequently each day.
| Feature |
Trade Nation
|
| Daily Market Commentary | No |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes |
| Autochartist | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | No |
Education
Trade Nation’s educational content is mainly for beginners – even the premium and advanced content is basic. I found it difficult to navigate by topic or experience level because the educational materials are mixed together with market news in the same section. That said, some content does exist and it appears Trade Nation is slowly expanding this category. One such example is the broker’s addition of its Experts Explain series, where professionals write articles that are designed to answer common research questions.
Learning center:Educational content at Trade Nation consists primarily of its Beginner Guides series, a few archived webinars, and an assortment of articles in its news and analysis section. Also worth noting is Trade Nation’s No Shortcuts to Success podcast, which I found to be lively and contained good discussions.
Room for improvement:It does appear that Trade Nation is slowly expanding in this category. Organizing the educational content so that it is clearly set apart from the research and market news articles, and adding interactive courses with progress tracking would help elevate Trade Nation’s ranking in this category.
| Feature |
Trade Nation
|
| Has Education - Forex or CFDs | Yes |
| Client Webinars | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | No |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | No |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes |
Final thoughts
Trade Nation has established itself across its network of global entities with a variety of regulatory licenses, and offers a decent range of markets through its easy-to-use trading platform suite for web and mobile.
While Trade Nation could be a good stepping-stone for beginners and less active traders, the absence of advanced trading tools and additional research and educational content may leave more demanding investors looking for more.
About Trade Nation
Founded in 2014, Trade Nation is a brand of Finsa Investment Ltd that holds regulatory licenses in various jurisdictions, including in the U.K. by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), in South Africa by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), and by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB).
Does Trade Nation use MT4?
Yes, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is still available at Trade Nation for trading forex and CFDs, alongside the broker’s proprietary web trading platform and mobile app – MetaTrader is just not prominently advertised on the broker’s website.
Is Trade Nation regulated in South Africa?
Yes, Trade Nation is regulated as a Financial Service Provider (FSP) by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa (under Trade Nation Financial Pty. Ltd.) Trade nation also holds regulatory status in the U.K., Australia, and the Bahamas. Click here to learn more about Trust Score and forex regulatory agencies.
Does Trade Nation have a ZAR account?
Yes, Trade Nation offers ZAR accounts. Trade Nation accounts can be denominated in any of its eight base currencies, including Great British Pounds (GBP), United States Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), Australian Dollars (AUD), South African Rand (ZAR), as well as the Danish Kroner (DKK), Norwegian Kroner (NOK), and Swedish Kronor (SEK).
Trade Nation holds its customer funds at Barclays Bank in London, and its Trade Nation Australia client funds are held at Westpac Bank in Australia.
2022 Review Methodology
For our 2022 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 39 international forex brokers over a three-month time period resulting in over 50,000 words of published research.
Each broker was graded on 113 different variables, including our proprietary Trust Score algorithm. This innovative scoring system ranks the level of trustworthiness for each broker based on factors such as licenses, regulation and corporate structure. Read about Trust Score here.
As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy.
Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.
Forex Risk Disclaimer
There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Read more on forex trading risks.
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Show allAbout the Author
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. A forex industry expert and an active fintech and crypto researcher, Steven advises blockchain companies at the board level and holds a Series III license in the U.S. as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
John Bringans is the Senior Editor of ForexBrokers.com. An experienced media professional, John has close to a decade of editorial experience with a background that includes key leadership roles at global newsroom outlets. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University, and conducts research on forex and the financial services industry while assisting in the production of content.
Joey Shadeck is the Content Strategist and Research Analyst for ForexBrokers.com. He holds dual degrees in Finance and Marketing from Oakland University, and has been an active trader and investor for close to ten years. An industry veteran, Joey obtains and verifies data, conducts research, and analyzes and validates our content.