eToro Review

eToro, founded in 2007 and domiciled in Limassol, Cyprus, is a leading social site on the global scene with 5,000,000 traders. It is regulated by CySEC, ASIC, CFTC, MiFID, FCA and has been the recipient of several awards.

eToro is one of the leading social trading platforms. Social trading is a process that offers an opportunity for Forex traders who trade online to retrieve information assembled from other retail traders and use their combined experience and knowledge to trade in their own accounts. Traders can connect with other traders, discuss trading strategies, and use the eToto patented CopyTrader technology to automatically copy their trading portfolio performance.

Accounts

eToro has just upped the minimum deposit required for its account to $200 in Arabic regions. It remains $100 or up to 40% of their realized equity (Up to $50,000) in all other areas.

Anyone depositing $20,000 or more becomes a Premium member and receives special benefits such as a personal account manager, a personal Payoneer credit card, direct access to the eToro trading room and faster withdrawals.

One of the most important factors that should always be considered when choosing a Forex broker are the costs of trading, which can be broken down into two categories: spreads and commissions, and overnight financing charges or payments frequently referred to as “swap rates”. The swap rates are unimportant for day traders, but spreads and commissions are always important. Swap rates are openly published on eToro’s website, which we find commendable. During the most active market hours, we found that eToro typically charges a floating spread of 3 pips on the benchmark EUR/USD currency pair. The typical USD/JPY spread is 2 pips and the typical spread for GBP/USD is 4 pips. Commissions are not charged, so what you see upfront in the quoted spreads is what you get. These spreads are a little on the high side in today’s market. Spreads can of course become considerably lower if you become a successful “Popular Investor”, with the most successful able to trade completely without spreads at all! That is a very competitive offer in today’s market.

The maximum leverage offered is 400:1.

There is no additional cost to copying a trader. Spreads remain the same regardless of whether a trader is copying someone or is manually trading on his own.

I was pleased to see that a practice account is available but this option was only listed in the ‘Ask a Question’ section which is a shame as newbie traders may miss this opportunity if they don’t read all the information in FAQ.

As a demo account user, traders have access to the eToro’s social trading platform. However, trading activity and profiles are only displayed for real traders.

Features

Social networking has grown exponentially in the investment arena. eToro pioneered the ‘social’ trading arena years ago and has recently introduced its New eToro trading platform. eToro encourages clients to connect with one another to trade, invest, learn and share knowledge across the network and the top ranking traders are listed on the landing page along with the number of copiers, their win ratio and gain percentage. Their CopyTrader program provides traders with the opportunity to crowd work by copying the best traders on the eToro trading network, quickly and simply. With the Copy Trading portfolio, copied trades go directly to the trader’s account automatically and this allows traders to manage their copied trades in a simple and transparent way.

The Personal Investment Program clients can build and monetize their investment portfolio with accumulated trades, earning an attractive monthly income as well as their profits.

Traders at eToro, can benefit from Personal Portfolios, Watchlists, News Feed (similar to Facebook Wall), trading history, stats, risk levels and can use one click trading from all screens.

They can also select to search by entering specific profile features such as location, per cent of returns or duration of trade.

The choice of investment at etoro is vast and includes a diversity of stocks on the financial markets, precious metals like gold and commodities such as crude oil. The top performing investors set the example, and traders can copy their methods. In addition to its long list of trading products, eToro now offers US, Spanish and Italian stocks, as well as ETFs and Russian and Chinese ADRs.

eToro introduced the bitcoin to its list of trading choices in January, 2014. However, as opposed to most other bitcoin brokers, eToro’s lists the bitcoin as a stock on its platform rather than as a currency. The platform trades the bitcoin on a CFD basis, which means users buy and sell financial derivatives that track the BTC price without actually owning the underlying asset.

eToro has recently introduced a new platform by taking their old WebTrader and OpenBook platforms and redesigning them to fit all devices. It isa responsive HTML5 Web application that is fully optimized and runs on any mobile device.

The full features of their mobile app are available on their website and the website can be accessed via mobile devices. However, they haven’t been updated to offer all Copytrader features yet, so for now it is advisable to use the website on mobile rather than the app.

Offers and Promotions

Due to regulatory restrictions, eToro does not offer typical deposit bonuses. However, traders can enjoy additional promotions by registering to be a Popular Investor, where they can enjoy a 100% spread rebate and a 2% management fee. If you’re a regular trader, this is definitely a program that we recommend looking into.

Deposits/Withdrawals

Deposits can be made to an eToro account via bank transfer, credit cards, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney and MoneyBookers.

Withdrawals are made by entering the ‘cashiers’ section, clicking on withdrawal and filling out the electronic withdrawal form.

Education

The eToro education center offers several tools for enhancing successful trading including webinars, training courses and a host of videos. They offer a choice of trading guides starting with the basics of trading and how to deposit and withdraw money from an already existing account.

Traders can join a live webinar and learn their way around the eToro platform with the help of eToro’s online trading experts. Traders can hear top trading tips from financial experts in the field.

eToro’s exclusive financial trading eCourses help traders master financial trading at their own pace. These interactive eCourses are geared to both new and experienced traders.

The news screen on the WebTrader platform shows what’s happening in the world of Forex at the moment. The news items are updated live by the eToro team of market analysts.

eToro also offers a blog in a variety of different languages.

Customer Support

Traders can contact an eToro representative at customer support by phone or live chat 24/5. Telephone support is toll free to local numbers in the UK, Cyprus and New Zealand and questions can be sent via email for a quick response.

etoro has offices spread across the globe, so they are suited to deal with a customer base that speaks a multitude of different languages.

Conclusion

eToro is certainly one of the best choices for anyone looking for more interaction with other currency traders and who are interested in studying how other people invest. The OpenBook platform provides a good testing ground for beginners and the choice accounts in different locations is welcoming. Experienced traders who look for tiny spreads may not like the two pip minimum at eToro.