Plus500 Review

Plus500 is located in London, UK.  It operates its CFD business through its subsidiaries:

Plus500 UK Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 509909). Plus500 CY LTD is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (License No. 250/14).  Plus500AU Pty Ltd, AFSL #417727 issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is authorized to issue these products to Australian residents. Traders should understand that when trading with Plus500 they do not own the underlying assets and they must consider the disclosure agreements on the broker’s website.

Plus500 is also listed on the AIM section of the London Stock Exchange.  We believe regulation to be critical for any serious Forex broker and the fact that Plus500 has so many regulations indicates that your funds will be entirely secure when depositing and trading with Plus500.

Features

Plus500 offers a powerful CFD trading platform that adheres to the highest standards and allows thousands of traders to trade CFDs on over 2,000 instruments including 50 Forex pairs and ETFs, Shares, Commodities and Indices across more than 20 markets worldwide. A minimum deposit of $200 is required to open an account.

One of our favorite aspects of Plus500 is that unlike many other brokers that pass the trader’s information to an aggressive sales team, Plus500 has no sales team at all.  Interested traders need only complete the application process and deposit their funds. This makes Plus500 an excellent option for motivated traders who don’t want to be hounded but who want to explore the world of financial trading on their own.

Risk Management Offerings

There are several risk management tools offered at Plus500 traders which provide traders with a necessary peace of mind. Traders can manage their own leverage and can trade with high, low or no leverage depending on  their ‘Total Position Value’ and ‘Equity’ which is determined by depositing or withdrawing funds. ‘Total Position Value’ and ‘Equity’ can be viewed from the Account Snapshot page which is accessed from the main trading window.

Traders can also set guaranteed ‘Close at Profit’ [Limit] or ‘Close at Loss’ [Stop loss] price levels for specific instruments which can limit the trader’s risk.  This is a feature we always look for and one not offered by all (or even most) brokers. In addition, you can set price alerts to be notified when the market reaches a specified buy or sell price. Unlike a stop, a price alert keeps the position open, so you can decide what action to take as the market moves. In the Instrument List and Instrument Details screen there is a bell icon – clicking the bell will open a ‘Price Alert’ screen where you can set your preferences.

An additional tool offered at Plus500 is their trailing stop which is similar to a price limit in the sense that both are designed to protect profits. A trailing stop placed upon opening a trade will lock in profits by closing a position at the trailing stop’s new level and not the level you originally placed it at thus limiting any “downside” risk without having to manually monitor a position and adjust the stop price.

Additional Offerings

Plus500 was one of the first brokers to offer leveraged trading on bitcoins which were made available as CFDs in April 2013 and the broker offered 1:4 leverage at the time. In January 2014, it responded to demands of its clients and increased its leverage to 1:10. Plus500’s bitcoin CFDs expire monthly. In all other aspects, the bitcoin is treated the same as the other Plus500 CFDs and can be traded in the Plus500 demo account.

The Plus500 website can be viewed in 32 different languages and visitors may be automatically redirected to the site in the language they come from even if they’d been previously browsing the web in another language and can then navigate back to another language if desired.  This language switch is designed to make traders feel comfortable wherever they are.

One of the most valuable features at Plus500 is the company’s free demo which is unlimited in time and can allow traders to practice for as long as they deem necessary. While an unlimited free demo is not entirely uncommon, it’s always welcome and appreciated.

Deposits/Withdrawals

Deposits and withdrawals can be made via credit cards, bank transfers, Paypal and Skrill.

Plus500 Bonus

Bonuses are always appreciated by new and old traders and help to attract new clients. Plus500 offers several of bonuses and varies them from time to time to make life more interesting. There were two bonuses being offered at Plus500 at the time of this review.  Traders making a deposit upon opening an account are granted a generous Plus500 Deposit Bonus. The bonus varies according to the amount of funds deposited. For deposits of $100, $30 is awarded; a $500 initial deposit receives an extra $150; $750 receives an additional $200 and anyone dropping $5000 into an account will be credited with an extra $1000. Deposits can be made in the acceptable forms of money payments listed above.

In addition, there is a $25 Plus500 non-deposit bonus that is credited to a trade’s account at the time of account registration. The Plus500 non-deposit bonus is ideal for traders who wish to take the Plus500 trading platform for a test run before deciding how much money to deposit in their trading account. Terms and conditions apply.

Customer Support

Plus500 offers customer service 24/7 via email or fax as well as via online chat.

Platforms

Plus500’s uses a WebTrader platform as well as the Plus500 proprietary Forex trading platform which provides all necessary information on one screen so that there is no need to scroll to find necessary information. Four clearly-labeled top tabs make it possible to receive details about past trades and current positions without having to search for it.

Plus500’s excellent trading platform is available in 3 versions – a downloadable version, a web-based platform and a mobile trading interface. What makes this platform unique is that unlike those offered by most other brokers, Plus500’s platform remains constant in all versions, which makes it possible to switch seamlessly between the platforms without having to regroup.  Likewise, though most brokers offer out-of-the-box platform solutions that are limited in many ways, we’re always happy to see brokers build their own trading platforms to provide specific (and oftentimes upgraded) services to their traders.

Traders using Plus500 CFD trading platforms have access to a variety of trading features such as advanced technical analysis tools, guaranteed stop loss and more.

Plus500’s trading platform is totally reliable and boasts an impressive execution rate which is reassuring to all traders. It offers competitive spreads (from as little as 1 pip), no trading commissions and a leverage of up to 1:200.

Conclusion

The Plus500 website has a user-friendly website and a user-centric approach which makes a pleasant trading experience for both beginner and experienced traders. With almost fifteen years of experience, it’s no surprise that Plus500 has grown into one of the top CFD services on the market.