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Editor Rating
- 4/5 – Good
- Ayondo.com review
- Website: Ayondo.com
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Review Summary:
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Ayondo is a London-based online broker founded in 2009, on which users can trade Forex (foreign currency exchange) and CFDs (contracts for difference) as well as engage in spread betting.
Table of contents
With the advent of online technology changing the way we do pretty much everything, the financial industry has gotten an overhaul as well. An innovative new system is that of “social trading,” where investors can follow and invest in financial instruments based on watching what other traders invest in. Ayondo.com is one of the financial industry’s most popular sites for social trading and online trading in general.
Ayondo is a London-based online broker founded in 2009, on which users can trade Forex (foreign currency exchange) and CFDs (contracts for difference) as well as engage in spread betting.
Ayondo has become best-known for their social trading features, which allow users to operate either as a Follower or a “Top Trader.” Users can choose to follow as many investors as they want and filter their choices based on a number of different variables. Below we’ll take a closer look at Ayondo.com to help you decide whether you want to become a Top Trader as well.
About Ayondo.com
Ayondo is actually made up of two separate companies which handle separate parts of the business. First is the FCA-regulated Ayondo Markets Ltd., which serves as the trading broker, while Ayondo GBH (based in Germany and regulated under the supervision of BaFin) serves as the social trading component, connecting traders around the globe.
Traders operating on Ayondo are able to trade a variety of different CFD instruments, including over 30 forex currency pairs, major European, Asian, and U.S. indices, precious metals, interest/bond rates, and individual shares. This means you can easily diversify your portfolio within the platform, which helps to minimize your risk.
Ayondo’s mission is to connect small-to-medium sized traders with top-tier traders through their social platform.
Ayondo is a Forex and CFD broker, focusing heavily on its proprietary social trading system- TradeHub.
TradeHub allows users to trade hundreds of underlying assets, with automatic, guaranteed stops, tight spreads, and 100% dividends in the UK, as well as 85% in the U.S.
To open an account, investors are required to make a minimum investment of $100.
Because of the social trading aspect, Ayondo can also be seen as an educational platform for beginning traders in addition to being an online trading platform. Ayondo also offers a demo account, in which you can practice trading and familiarize yourself with their platform.
Top Features of AYONDO
Protections
Ayondo has a series of different client protections in place, including membership in the UK-based Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), negative balance protection, and segregated bank accounts.
Since Ayondo Markets Ltd. is regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), all accounts are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, covering investments up to 50,000 GBP. FCA regulations also ensure fund segregation, which keeps investors’ money separate from the company’s business account, meaning that the company nor any of its creditors have access to investors’ money.
All client money is kept in Trust accounts, which are kept only with reputable, top-tier banks. These banks are reviewed quarterly to ensure solvency.
Beyond the FSCS coverage, Ayondo has taken out additional insurance, covering investors up to 1 million GBP. This service is free of charge to all clients.
In 2015, Ayondo added negative balance protection, which means that in case of a catastrophic market event which would cause you to lose more than your initial investment, Ayondo will not be able to go after your assets to cover losses.
Social Trading
The key feature of Ayondo is its social trading platform, in which you can both passively follow and invest in other traders within the network. All traders who register for an account are automatically enrolled in the system. The different traders are ranked according to their performance on the site.
The process is simple: You begin by searching and rank Top Traders by 14 different search parameters, including maximum drawdown %, profit/loss %, % volatility, trades per month or number of followers.
Once you’ve chosen the traders you want to follow, you then drag them into your portfolio. This gives you a simulation of how you would have performed with these traders in your portfolio.
Finally, you copy these traders to your account. Users are encouraged to try a demo account, or when you choose to begin, start with a minimum of 2,000 GBP.
Top Traders
Below is a breakdown of Ayondo’s different trading levels:
- Street Trader: Has to have completed a minimum of 15 trades over 30 days, and achieved maximum draw-down of less than 25%, with a performance of more than 1.0% afterward.
- Advanced: Requires traders to complete a minimum of 16 trades over 60 days, and achieved maximum draw-down of less than 25%, with a performance of more than 2.0% since their career start.
- Professional: Requires traders to complete at least 25 trades in 90 days, with a maximum draw-down of 20%, plus at least 4.0% since their career start.
- Risk-Adjusted Level: Requires traders to complete 50 trades in 180 days, plus one trade per month, with a maximum draw-down of 15%, plus at least 6.0% since their career start.
- Institutional: Requires traders to complete 150 trades in one year, with at least one trade per month. Maximum draw-down of less than 15%, plus at least 8% per year.
Opening an Account
To confirm that new clients understand the risks of trading, compliance checks include answering questions about your trading history. In addition, new clients must pass include personal documents, including scanned copies of a passport, driver’s license or national ID. You must also present a utility bill or bank statement from the past three months as proof of address.
Users will not be able to conduct any trades until compliance has passed, which may take a few days.
Ayondo.com Prices
Ayondo does not take commissions on trades but instead make their profits from spreads. Ayondo’s spreads begin at 1.5 pips on EUR/USD and move up from there. Trades that are left open overnight do not garner a fee, but there is a small fee on trades left open over the course of a weekend.
Underlying Assets
One of Ayondo’s key features is the wide variety of instruments that are available for trading. These include over 30 Forex currency pairs, CFDs, precious metals, bonds, major Asian, European, and American indices, and individual blue-chip stocks, including Coca-Cola and Starbucks.
Fees and Commissions
When following any of Ayondo’s top-tier traders, clients will not be charged commissions or fees. Because Ayondo receives remuneration from the Forex broker in question, the fees are derived from the spread. Any trader who moves their account to Ayondo will receive a cash bonus.
Traders can begin an account with 100 EUR, USD, or GBP.
Interface and Functionality
Ayondo’s TradeHub system is quite easy to use, with a streamlined and intuitive interface. Filters can be adjusted based on certain interests.
Trading Levels
As user’s progress through Ayondo, they will progress through different trading platforms from Street Trader to Institutional. The main benefit of advancing to different levels is the increase in commissions paid from Ayondo. Poor trading can cause a user to be downgraded, whereas a “Money Trader’s Badge” will be awarded to any user with more than $500 in their trading account.
Education
Ayondo has an extensive collection of webinars, videos, and guides to help clients educate themselves about CFDs and spread betting, in order to make smarter trades. Their available educational tools, such as TradeHub user manuals and basic guides to CFD trading are helpful and easy to access, but ultimately seem geared towards beginning traders.
Advanced traders may not find these tools very useful.
Deposits and Withdrawals
One of the few areas where Ayondo comes up short is in their payment system. Users are only able to make deposits and withdrawals via bank wire transfer or credit/debit cards; there are no electronic payment systems used. Traders can deposit in a variety of currencies, though, including EUR, GBP, USD, SEK, and CHF.
Criticism Of AYONDO.com
Although Ayondo is advanced in many other ways, their methods of payment remain rudimentary, featuring only debit/credit cards and bank transfers, but no e-wallets.
Customer Support
Ayondo has a 24-hour dealing desk, and their customer support team is available Monday through Friday, from 8 am to 5 pm (London time) by phone or email. For trading inquiries, their phones lines are open from 10:15 pm Sunday until 10:15 pm Friday (UK time).
In addition to their London headquarters, Ayondo has local offices for in-person service in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore.
Ayondo is one of the industry’s leaders in online forex trading, and it’s not hard to see why. Their proprietary trading platform is smart, easy-to-use, and ideal for both beginning and experienced traders. Their social trading feature is what sets them apart, though.
Ayondo has taken the connectivity made available by modern technology to the next level. Novice traders will benefit from the guidance and education of more advanced traders, while experienced professionals can profit from their experience while helping to educate a new generation of traders.
