eToro

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eToroEtoro is an online broker site where you can gain exposure to Equity, Forex, Cryptocurrency, and more. A lot of the trading is done using Contracts for Difference.

Etoro is especially famous for its “social trading” features, which allow traders to copy each other’s trades. If you opt-in, others can see your trades (but no personal information) and elect to copy you. When other traders copy you, it can turn into a second stream of revenue for you.

Generally speaking, the spreads are a bit higher at eToro than the industry average. For high volume day traders that rely on very small margins to make a profit, eToro is usually not the first choice of online broker. For some however, the revenue garnered from the social trading feature more than make up for the somewhat higher spreads.

Headquartered in Cyprus, the roots of eToro goes back to 2016, when the online broker RetailFx was launched. Soon, it was rebranded to eToro.

Short facts about eToro

  • Website: https://www.etoro.com/
  • Minimum deposit: $200
  • Minimum trade: $1
  • Instruments: CFD, Equity, FX, Cryptocurrency
  • Demo account: Yes
  • MT4 integration: Yes
  • Mobile trading: Yes, for iOS, Android and Windows
  • Auto trading: Yes, but only via Copy Trading
  • Trade signals: Yes, but only via Copy Trading
  • Islamic account: No

eToro website

Contracts for Difference

  • FTSE spread: 1 pt
  • GBP/USD spread: 4 pips
  • Oil spread: 5 pts
  • Stock spread: 0.24% var

Forex

  • GBP/USD spread: 4 pips
  • EUR/GBP spread: 4 pips
  • EUR/USD spread: 3 pips

Cryptocurrency

Etoro is known for its appealing cryptotrading conditions. They offer a crypto-wallet service for their members, a wide range of cryptocurrencies can be traded here, and the spreads are tight. For Bitcoin, the spread is 1% or even lower. For Ether, it is 2%.

Examples of available cryptocurrencies: BTC, BCH, ETH, DASH, LTC, ETC, ADA, XLM, EOS, NEO, ZEC, XRP, BNB, MIOTA

Leverage

The maximum leverage available at eToro is 1:400.

For some geographical locations, trader classes and instruments, the cap is considerably lower than this.

Regulation

eToro is based in Cyprus and is thus subject to Cypriotic legislation, including the financial service provider rules applied by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission (CySEC).

eToro is registered as a Cyprus Investment Firm, with the registration number 109/10.

eToro is also registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Trading platform

eToro have their own unique trading platform called eToro CopyTrader. It incorporates features from both the old Openbook and the Webtrader.

A big plus with eToro’s platform is the ability to copy trades and allow other traders to copy your trades. If you become a Popular Investor, the trades done by your “copycats” can earn you a nice additional income and get you rebates on the spreads. You must fulfill several requirements to qualify as a Popular Investor, including depositing a minimum of 1,000 USD.

Trading on mobile devices

Trading apps for eToro are available for iOS and Android, to make it easy to trade on smartphones and tablets.

The apps are well designed and smooth to use, and eToro is striving to keep them small to prevent them from taking up a lot of space on your mobile device.

Trading accounts

Many trading sites offer several different trading account types, but eToro gives everyone the Standard Account. To start a Standard Account and begin trading with real money, you need to deposit a minimum of 200 USD.

Demo account

With an eToro demo account, you can learn how the platform works without risking any real money, since all trades in the demo account are made with play-money.

Crypto wallet

Important: In some countries, this wallet is not available.

A big plus with eToro is that they actually give you a real crypto-currency wallet, so you are able to propertly own cryptocurrency rather then just gaining exposure through CFD:s and similar.

The crypto-wallet is on-chain and you can keep several different cryptocurrencies in it, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum. The wallet has suppport for multi-signature sign in for added security, and you can view your blockchain transactions without exposing your private key.

Both eToro mobile apps (for Android and iOS, respectively) work with the crypto-wallet. You can make transactions crypto to crypto and crypto to/from traditional currency.

Customer support

The customer support is staffed around the clock Monday through Friday, but is closed Saturday and Sunday.

You can contact the support through email.

Transactions

Examples of accepted transaction methods:

  • VISA
  • MasterCard
  • Diners
  • Neteller
  • Skrill
  • WebMoney
  • PayPal
  • Yandex
  • China UnionPay
  • Bank wire transfer

Withdrawals

When it comes to withdrawals, eToro is far from the best in the business. They are fairly slow to process withdrawal fees, the minimum withdrawal is fairly big, and you aren’t allowed to make even one fee-free withdrawal per month.

Withdrawal requests are typically processed within 3 business days.

The minimum withdrawal amount is 50 USD.

You will be charged a 25 USD withdrawal fee on each withdrawal. If there is a need for currency conversion, you will also be charged a conversion fee.

Examples of conversion fees (at the time of writing):

  • CAD/USD: 250 Pips
  • EUR/USD: 250 Pips
  • JPY/USD: 250 Pips
  • AUD/USD: 100 Pips
  • GBP/USD: 50 Pips
  • RMB/USD: 50 Pips
  • RUB/USD: 50 Pips

Excluded countries

Examples of excluded countries:

  • USA
  • Japan
  • Iran
  • Turkey

Traders can not use eToro from exclued countries.