What Is Etoro And How Does The Social Trading Platform Work?

In this review, we will describe eToro, what it is, what it does, what its features are, and why it is one of the preferred investment platforms for many investors around the world.

So without further ado, let’s get started!

eToro is a well-known Israeli financial technology company, a social broker established in 2007. It is one of the most famous brokers in the world.

eToro serves UK clients through an entity regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and Australians through an entity regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). All other clients are served by a Cypriot entity regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

eToro is not listed on any stock exchange, does not disclose its annual report on its website, and does not have a parent bank. In other words in a private company.

eToro is considered a safe company to invest in because its subsidiaries in the UK and Australia are regulated by top-tier financial authorities and it is a well-known fintech company around the world.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Investing With Etoro

eToro offers commission-free stock trading. Account opening is quick and hassle-free. It has innovative features like social trading, which allows you to copy the strategies of other traders on the platform.

On the downside, eToro’s forex fees are high and withdrawal can be slow with a $5 charge. Also, it only offers the dollar as the base currency for deposits and withdrawals in the eToro Wallet.

Main Features And Highlights Of Etoro

As a leading open market broker for small investors, eToro offers the following features to consider:

Regulated Countries: UK, Cyprus, Australia
Trading Fee Class: Very Low
Inactivity Fee Charged: Yes
Withdrawal Fee Amount: USD 5
Minimum Deposit: USD 200
Time to Open an Account: 1 Day
Credit Card Deposit credit/debit card: Available
E-wallet deposit available: Yes.
Number of base currencies supported: 1
Demo account provided: Yes
Products offered: Stocks, Exchange Traded Funds, Forex, CFDs, Cryptocurrencies.

Etoro Trading Fees

eToro trading fees are low. (However, read the section criticizing the company. Like everything there is always a small print in everything).

We know that it is difficult to compare the trading fees of CFD brokers. So how do we approach the problem of making your rates clear and comparable? We compare brokers by calculating all fees for a typical trade for selected products.

We have chosen popular instruments within each asset class:

CFDs on stock indices: SPX and EUSTX50
CFDs on shares: Apple and Vodafone
Forex: EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, EURCHF and EURGBP

A typical trade means buying a leveraged position, holding it for a week, and then selling it. For volume, we choose a position of $2,000 for stock index and stock CFDs and $20,000 for forex trades. The leverage we use is:

20:1 for CFDs on stock indices
5:1 for CFDs on shares
30:1 for forex
These general reference fees include margins, commissions, and financing costs for all brokers. Let’s see the verdict on eToro fees.

Stock Fees And Etf Fees

eToro offers commission-free real stock trading. As of May 2020, this is valid for all countries, but clients in Australia can only trade US stocks commission-free. Please note that with the free feature, you are buying real shares, not a CFD product and you cannot use leverage. eToro used to be primarily a CFD broker and they also allowed you to trade stocks and ETFs as CFDs if you set the leverage to more than one. For this CFD product, eToro charges high fees, meaning the spread (the difference between the bid and bid prices) which is low.

CFD Fees

eToro generally has high CFD trading fees. Compared to their closest competitors, their rates are roughly in the same range.

Forex Fees

eToro’s forex fees are high, although still lower than those of the MarketsX broker.

Inactivity Fees

eToro has decent inactivity fees, charging $10 per month after a year of inactivity, but simply logging into your account already counts as activity. The withdrawal fee has recently been reduced to 5 dollars.

What Is The Minimum Deposit On Etoro?

In most cases, the eToro minimum deposit required is $200. It is different for the following countries:

If you are from Israel, it is USD 10,000.
For residents of Australia and the US, the minimum first-time deposit is $50.
For residents of Russia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, the minimum first-time deposit is $500.

The minimum amount for a bank transfer is USD 500.

Account Types

eToro offers two very simple types of accounts: there is a real account, as well as a demo (or virtual) account, where you can test the platform with play money, learn how it works, and prepare for real trading operations.

How To Invest In Etoro

Investing in eToro is very simple and so is the account opening process. In addition, it is also very fast, since it is possible to open an account in one day.

You must start by registering with your email account or with your Facebook or Google+ account. And that’s pretty much it, you can immediately access the trading platform and start trading with a $100,000 demo account.

If you want to go further and fund your account with real money, you need to verify your identity and residency by uploading the required documents:

Proof of identity: copy of your passport or personal identification.
Proof of residency: a copy of a utility bill or bank statement showing your name.

Account Base Currencies

eToro only allows dollar accounts, which means that eToro will convert your funds to dollars. For example, if you deposit euros via bank transfer, a fee of 50 pips will apply on funding (which is around 0.46% of the deposit amount) and the same fee will also apply when you withdraw euros via bank transfer. For other methods, such as credit cards, a higher fee applies to some currencies. Alternatively, you can deposit in dollars, for example using your credit card. In that case, your bank will perform the conversion at its own rate.

Why Does This Matter?

For two reasons. If you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account or trade assets in the same currency as your account’s base currency, you do not have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is to open a multi-currency bank account with a digital bank. Revolut or Transferwise offers multi-currency bank accounts with great exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

However, eToro claims that you can use your Revolut account to deposit and withdraw in Euros and British Pounds. Revolut payments in dollars are not supported, so this means you cannot save the Etoro dollar conversion fee with Revolut.

Deposit Fees And Options

Similar to other CFD brokers, there are many deposit options:

Bank Transfer
Credit/Debit Card
PayPal
Skrill
Neteller
China UnionPay
Banking Klarna/Sofort.

In some countries, eToro may require the first deposit to be made by credit/debit card or bank transfer and subsequent deposits can only be made with e-wallets.

A bank transfer takes 4-7 business days and there is no maximum deposit. By comparison, while credit/debit card and e-wallet deposits are instant, there are limits per transaction: $40,000 for credit/debit cards, and $10,000 or $30,000 (Klarna) for eWallets. .

You can only deposit money from funding sources that are in your name.

On the other hand, the minimum deposit with eToro is 200 US dollars, as we have already pointed out.

eToro does not charge any deposit fees but does have currency conversion fees, which can be high, for example up to 2.4% to deposit euros by card. Please note that a 50 pip charge is not the same percentage in AUD to USD conversion versus EUR to USD conversion.

Etoro Fees And Withdrawal Options

eToro has a $5 withdrawal fee, which is high compared to other CFD brokers. Also, eToro has a minimum amount limit of $30 for withdrawals.

The withdrawal options are the same as the financing options: you can withdraw money via bank transfer, credit/debit card, or e-wallets, similar to other CFD brokers.

How Long Does It Take To Withdraw Money From Etoro?

We tested withdrawal via bank transfer and it took 2 business days.

How Do I Withdraw Money From Etoro?

Click on the ‘Withdraw Funds’ tab in the menu on the left.
Enter the amount you wish to withdraw (in dollars).
Complete the electronic withdrawal form as required.
Click ‘Submit’.
You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

Trading Platform

eToro offers a well-designed and user-friendly web trading platform. In addition, social trading is also available. On the other hand, customization is limited.

eToro’s platform looks modern by today’s standards.

The web trading platform is available in at least 21 languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, French, German, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Malay, Chinese, Czech, Polish, and more.

Appearance And Usability Of The Platform

eToro’s trading platform is a feast for the eyes. With its clean design and great features, eToro did a great job of combining good design with functionality. Menus and buttons are where you’d expect them to be, everything is labeled correctly, and the color scheme is nice.

However, it is difficult to customize, since the panels are fixed. An exception is a watchlist, which is easy to configure to the user’s liking.

Login And Security

eToro has a very secure and optional two-step login system. This can make signing in more complicated, but it also gives you additional security.

Search Functions

Built-in search is predictive and easy to use. You can type the name of a company or product and you will see the results. Plus, you can easily search using company stock codes.

Order Placement

Placing sell and buy orders on the platform is self-explanatory since the website of this broker allows you to do it very easily.

You can use the following types of orders: market, limit, stop-loss, trailing stop-loss.

Alerts and notifications

You can easily set price alerts and notifications. eToro’s alert feature lets you know when an asset reaches a target price and you also get a notification when your order is complete. On the web platform, this takes the form of an icon update or browser notification. On mobile, it’s a push notification.

Portfolio reports and rates

You will surely want to know how your portfolio is performing and how many fees you have paid. You can decide how you want to see your portfolio reports: a list of your assets or a pie chart showing your current portfolio are options that you can configure within the platform.

Finding the rate report is quite tricky at first. Click on the ‘Portfolio’ tab, then go to ‘History’, and under the gear icon on the top right, you can access and download your account statement. This is a well-structured pdf file that shows all of your cash flows, including fees. When you are following someone, you will see all operations separately. However, the fees are not added together but are listed individually by fee deduction.

Smartphone trading platform

eToro’s mobile platform is very well-designed and intuitive. It is a pleasure to use it.

The eToro mobile trading platform is available for iOS and Android.

It is available in the same 21 languages ​​as the web trading platform.

The mobile platform has the same great functionality as the web platform. Use intuitive features specific to mobile devices, such as push notifications or good touch interactions. For example, you can swipe left and right on your portfolio to access charts or open a new trade.

Markets and products

At eToro you can trade CFDs and forex, as well as real stocks, ETFs, and many cryptocurrencies. In addition, the broker also offers innovative services such as social trading and CopyPortfolio.

eToro is primarily a forex and CFD broker. However, you can also trade real stocks, ETFs, and many different cryptocurrencies. eToro also has some nifty features like social trading (Copy People) and CopyPortfolio.

So, let’s discuss the eToro markets and products.

All non-leveraged buy positions for stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies are traded as real assets. This means that when you buy stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies without any leverage (i.e. the leverage is set to one), you will be buying real stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies, not CFDs.

All other positions are CFDs:

Leveraged buy positions and all stock, ETF, and cryptocurrency sell positions
all forex, commodity, and indices positions
Within CFDs, in addition to the traditional way of trading, you can:

Follow and copy the trades of other traders (this is Copy People, also called social trading), or invest in a compiled CFD portfolio (this is CopyPortfolio).

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

At eToro, you can trade an average number of products. For example, there are fewer share CFDs available than at Plus500, another CFD broker. The same can be said for currency pairs and commodities. On the other hand, eToro offers a wider range of stock CFDs and ETFs than its closest competitors, and you can also trade many of the most popular cryptocurrencies.

To manage the level of risk to your liking you can change the default leverage level of the products.

Changing the leverage manually is a very useful feature when you want to reduce the risk of a trade. For example, instead of trading with 5:1 leverage, you only trade with 2:1 leverage in the case of stock CFDs. Be careful when trading forex and CFDs as the preset leverage levels are high and can lead to huge losses on every trade.

What are CFDs?

Since most of eToro’s investment options are made through CFDs, it is worth explaining what they are.

First of all, I must clarify that this fragment has been added later, so we will talk about CFDs later, although it seems that the subject has not been explained.

Definition of CFDs: CFDs are not tangible investment products, but rather are virtual investments or financial derivatives. These financial derivatives respond to the name of CFDs (in English contracts for difference). In some EU languages, this is translated as contracts for difference and they are investments in which a trader agrees to buy a representation of security (such as a share or a commodity) for the price corresponding to the underlying asset, that is, for the price of that share. or commodity, or even cryptocurrency.

The trader then agrees that he will sell that asset either at a profit or a loss. The CDF, therefore, does not give us ownership of a share or commodity, but of an asset that reflects the value of that commodity or share, including futures or cryptocurrencies. Finally, the operator must get rid of this investment, that is, he is obliged to sell his participation, although technically he can maintain his operation for a long time.

Copy trader

eToro has two distinctive innovations that make it different from any other broker on the market, both with great features, CopyTrader and CopyPortfolio.

CopyTrader is the so-called social trading feature. What is eToro good at? Okay, this is all! One by one you can copy the portfolio of other traders who also trade with eToro. This can be very useful. You can browse the profiles of other eToro traders, checking their past performance on a yearly and monthly basis. Your wallet is also public information. Additionally, eToro also applies a risk score to each trader. There are tons of more stats for each profile like trades per week, average wait time, and chart performance, and you can also view their detailed profiles as well as their news feed comments. Imagine Facebook profiles, but with less inspiring quotes and more really valuable information.

The minimum amount you can invest in trade is $200, while the maximum is $500,000. Also, you can copy a maximum of 100 operators simultaneously.

There is one drawback of CopyTrader: you cannot close part of your position, only the full amount.

Copyportfolio

CopyPortfolio is practically an investment fund, but under the cover, it is a CFD portfolio. Whereas with CopyTrader you followed a trader, with CopyPortfolio you can invest in a theme or a portfolio of the top eToro traders.

Investing in themes means, for example, investing in a portfolio of large banks or cryptocurrencies. For example, the cryptocurrency portfolio consists of the largest cryptocurrencies, weighted by market capitalization.

The other way to invest through CopyPortfolio is to invest in a portfolio made up of multiple “star” traders.

You can select the degree of risk, the type of markets in which you want to invest, and the type of funds and profitability that the portfolio has had historically and in popularity. Keep in mind that to invest in these portfolios you must have a certain level of minimum assets, which can be from $1,000 or even more.

There is also a crypto copy portfolio available.

The proportion of CFDs in the specific CopyPortfolio is indicated. You can check the performance and asset distribution, and read the investment strategy. CopyPortfolios are created around a theme using eToro’s algorithms or eToro’s third-party partners. All of this may seem a bit complicated, but at the end of the day, this means that you can easily invest in a quasi-fund. There is a minimum investment amount for CopyPortfolio, which is USD 5,000. eToro also checks Your financial knowledge to determine if CopyPortfolio is right for you.

Stocks and ETFs

If you buy shares or ETFs without leverage, you are buying the actual asset, not a CFD. This feature is generally not offered by other CFD and forex brokers. In that regard, eToro’s selection of 17 stock markets to access is excellent. However, when compared to brokers like Saxo Bank (~35 markets) or Interactive Brokers (~80), it is poor. Keep in mind that if you are shorting (selling a stock you don’t already own), you are always trading a CFD.

At eToro, you have access to the following 17 stock exchanges:

Amsterdam
New York Stock Exchange
Nasdaq
Euronext Brussels
Euronext Lisbon
Frankfurt
London
Paris
Madrid
Milan
Zurich
Oslo
Stockholm
Copenhagen
Helsinki
Hong Kong
Saudi Arabia

However, you can only trade the most popular stocks. For example, the number of shares traded on the Nasdaq with eToro is currently 370, which is only about 10% of the companies listed on the Nasdaq market.

Why would this matter to you? If you only trade the most popular stocks, like Microsoft or Apple, you probably won’t notice the lack of smaller stocks. From time to time, eToro will make new shares available for trading, usually in a batch. For example, on March 30, 2020, they added 185 new stocks, including a very trendy one, Zoom Technologies. However, if you had to wait for eToro to add the shares, you missed out on the initial rise of these shares, which is not a very good thing for a committed investor.

Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency prices can fluctuate widely and are therefore not suitable for all investors. Cryptocurrency trading is not overseen by any European Union regulatory framework such as MiFID or by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission SEC. Therefore, when you use the eToro Cryptocurrency Trading Service, you will not get any protection for investors from market manipulation.

You can trade a wide variety of cryptocurrencies on eToro’s standard trading platform, much more so than with other brokers. Among the currencies that we can find for trading in eToro are:

Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Ethereum
Ethereum Classic
Wave
Litecoin
Cardano (ADA)
IOTA
TRON
ZCASH Binance Coin
BNB
Star Dash EOS NEO Tezos XRP

Technically, when you buy any cryptocurrency, you will own the actual currency. When you trade short, it is a CFD.

As a US resident, you can invest a lot of money in cryptocurrencies, there are no CFDs involved.

To learn more about this type of trading (short or CFDs), read eToro’s CFD overview.

Research

eToro has good technical analysis tools. There are some analyst recommendations and market sentiment indicators available, but no comprehensive fundamental data.

Research is available in 21 languages ​​(the same languages ​​that are available on the web and mobile trading platforms).

Recommendations

For some popular stocks, you can find recommendations, such as analyst consensus (buy/hold/sell), average target price, hedge fund sentiment, and insider sentiment. In some cases, you can also read analyst reports. Unfortunately, these research features are only available for a very limited number of actions.

Fundamental data

Some basic fundamental data on stocks is available on the eToro platform. This includes the company profile and some very basic metrics and ratios like P/E, EPS, Dividend, Yield, and Beta. No fundamental data is available for asset classes other than shares.

You can also subscribe to a daily market analysis newsletter where you get a helpful list of market highlights.

Graphics

eToro’s charting tool is quite good and you can use many, about 70 technical indicators. It’s nice to see that the charts are automatically saved, so you don’t have to spend time setting up your indicators over and over again. On the downside, you can only see data up to 6 months in the past, as you cannot set a horizon further back in time.

News feed

The news source is not an official news source. Rather, it’s like a market-themed Twitter feed, displaying messages posted by users and analysts. Hashtags (#) are used for topics and dollar signs ($) for assets. It’s not really a great feature and doesn’t seem to add much to technical analysis, but it certainly adds some social aspect to trading.

Customer service

eToro’s customer support is good: you can communicate with them on various channels and get quick and relevant answers. On the other hand, you can’t reach them on weekends and it’s hard to find the live chat service on the website and even then they are offline quite often.

You can contact eToro customer support via live chat and a web-based ticketing system where you will receive a response via email. This system is always fast and reliable according to the tests carried out by analysts of American brokers.

On the other hand, customer support cannot be contacted on weekends and it is difficult to find the live chat feature on the website as it is hidden in the FAQ under the “Help Center” link.

eToro’s customer service is theoretically available in all 21 languages ​​offered by the web and mobile trading platforms.

Education

eToro’s educational tools are limited, with only a few medium-quality trading videos available.

To practice, you can use a demo account. Other educational tools are not strong on eToro. There is a short video tutorial on how to use the platform and some basic educational videos on investing and the financial markets.

The content discussed is intended for educational purposes only, mostly practical (on mastering the platform), and should not be considered investment advice.

Safety

eToro is regulated by top-tier financial authorities like FCA, ASIC, and CySEC. However, it is not listed on any stock exchange, does not disclose financial information, and does not have a parent bank.

Is etoro regulated?

Yes, this broker is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

The company is based in Israel and was founded in 2007.

Is etoro trustworthy?

eToro is a platform that over the years has proven to be reliable, providing its users with a high level of security.

To be sure, we strongly recommend that you check two facts:

How are you protected if something goes wrong
What is the broker’s track record

How are you protected with etoro?

eToro operates under the supervision of three legal entities and serves clients based on their residence. This is important because the entity you belong to defines the amount of protection you get.

Citizens of the United Kingdom can open an account with eToro (UK) Limited and will therefore be protected by the FCA. If eToro becomes insolvent, UK eToro clients can expect to be compensated up to the maximum amount of £85,000 guaranteed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Australian clients are served by eToro Australia, which is regulated by ASIC, the Australian financial authority. However, ASIC does not provide any mandatory protection to the investor for a pre-set amount.

Other investors will have their live trading accounts with eToro (Europe) Limited, which is regulated by the Cypriot watchdog, CySEC. The amount of investment protection coverage on eToro Europe is a maximum of €20,000. This threshold is set by the Cypriot Investor Compensation Fund.

There is no protection for investors who trade cryptocurrencies.

eToro also provides negative balance protection for spot Forex trading and CFDs, but only for retail clients in the European Union. Professional and non-EU clients are not covered by any negative balance protection

For more details, please refer to eToro’s description of its regulation and license.

Background

eToro was established in 2007. The longer a broker has been around, the more proof we have that they have successfully survived previous financial crises. This means that you have already survived a crisis, which is a good sign. eToro is a privately owned fintech startup, whose owners include venture capital funds like Commerz Ventures Gmbh, the venture capital arm of Commerzbank, as well as Israeli, American, and Chinese investors. eToro is run by Yoni Assia, its well-known founder, and CEO.

eToro is still considered a startup. It is not listed on any stock exchange and does not provide regular financial statements to the public. Therefore, it is difficult to know anything about its financial performance. It also does not have a parent bank, which could help provide eToro with capital in the event of tough times. At the same time, being regulated by top-tier authorities is a great sign of eToro’s safety.

Criticism of etoro

Although eToro is a legitimate company and we have already made it clear that it is not a scam, the big criticism for this company is that their fees are very high. Technically eToro advertises itself as a commission-free broker and this is true, they do not charge you a commission on trades. However, in each operation, we find that the spreads or the difference between buying or selling are very high. As most of the operations that are carried out are using CFDs, the trader will necessarily have to close his position at some point. To compensate for this investment, the difference between buying and selling in favor that the trader has to recover is very high. This greatly hinders short-term investments, since the short-term variations in each of the CFDs are not significant.

Specifically, we can say that due to the high spreads, eToro is not a recommended trader to carry out operations with a high degree of leverage, expecting returns from small variations in the short term.

Due to its high spreads, eToro might be a better option for investors who want to have long-term trades and who know very well what type of assets they are investing in.

Another criticism that has been heard of this broker (mainly on YouTube) is that the currency conversion rates from euros to dollars or from other currencies to dollars are too unfavorable for the investor. In this sense, if your savings account or your credit card does not have dollars as the base currency, you will lose a lot of money in currency conversions.

Conclusions

eToro trades stocks commission-free. Account opening is quick and hassle-free. It also has many innovative features such as social trading and copying other (successful) traders.

However, it has some drawbacks. Forex fees are high and eToro only allows USD accounts, which means deposit and withdrawal conversion costs can be high in some cases. Live chat is hard to come by and their educational materials could be better. As we have mentioned in the reviews section, the spreads are quite high.

Overall, we recommend eToro for its social trading feature and commission-free stock and ETF trading.

Risk disclaimer

eToro is a multi-asset platform that offers both stock and crypto asset investing as well as CFD asset trading.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Crypto assets are volatile instruments that can fluctuate widely in a very short period and are therefore not suitable for all investors. Apart from CFDs, trading in crypto assets is not regulated and therefore not supervised by any regulatory framework of the European Union,

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Who owns etoro?

At the time of this eToro review, it is a private company, therefore it is not required to publish its ownership structure. What we do know is that eToro has no banking parent company (little chance of a bailout in the event of bankruptcy) and currently operates under two legal names. The well-known founder and CEO of eToro are Yoni Assia.

eToro is funded by venture capitalists. Here are some of them:

Anthemis Group, United Kingdom
BRM Capital, Israel
CommerzVentures GmbH, Germany
Cubit Investments, Israel
MoneyTime Ventures, United States
Ping An, China
Spark Capital, United States

About yoni assia

Yoni Assia is the CEO and one of the co-founders of eToro, as the company was started in cooperation with his brother Ronen Assia and businessman David Ring. However, throughout the company’s history Yoni Assia has been the company’s most visible figure, even featured in Forbes magazine. Assia is a member of the YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), has been included by Financial News in its prestigious Fintech 40 classification and by City AM as Fintech 100 top influencer, and was named by Fortune one of the 40 under 40, the 40 youngest entrepreneurs 40 years old in the year 2020.

Assia defines himself as a libertarian, passionate about technology, the internet, and even cryptocurrencies. In a recent interview, he stated that he expects cryptocurrencies and NFTs to play a very important role in the new economy.

How does etoro make money?

eToro makes money through various fees and the trading services they provide on their website. Although eToro does not publish its financial statements, eToro’s main source of income likely is:

Spreads – Spreads are the gap between the price at which you and the broker buy/sell. Simply put, if an Apple stock costs $100 at market price, eToro will charge $100.1 for it. EToro keeps the difference of $0.1 per CFD.

eToro Overnight Fee – For this you need to understand two things, leveraged trading, and lending. Leveraged means that you can trade with more money than you have. Let’s say you want to trade an Apple stock with 1:10 leverage and you have $10. This means that with leverage you can buy $100 worth of Apple with your ten dollars, since eToro will lend you the missing $90, and will charge you a fee (interest) for this loan.

Other Non-Trading Fees – eToro charges fees for various services on its website, which are not directly related to trading, also known as non-trading fees. Some examples of non-commercial rates are:

Withdrawal Fees ($5 per transaction) – You pay to withdraw your money
Conversion Fees – You pay when eToro converts money to fund your account

Is etoro safe?

eToro is regulated by CySEC in Cyprus, ASIC in Australia, and FCA in the UK. This is a good thing. eToro is not listed on any stock exchange nor does it publish its financial data. In general, the opinion of Muy Financiero is that eToro is not a scam and is one of the most recognized brokers on the market with a high level of reliability.

How does the etoro copy trade work?

The eToro CopyTrade, also known as CopyTrader, is a tool for social trading, which works by copying other people’s trading decisions or other people copying your trades.

Today CopyTrade has evolved and allows multiple options. You can search for traders and other users, and see how they have historically performed with their portfolios. Once you find a trader you like, you can copy all their trading decisions, which are handled automatically by the platform. You can decide how much money you want to invest by copying another trader and you can close your investment whenever you want. If you wish, you can also earn money by having other merchants copy you.

It is important to point out that, as in the CopyPortfolio options, CopyTrader, a section that today is known as people, allows you to select the level of risk assumed by investors, select by markets in which you invest, minimum profits, investment periods and countries of origin.

Are etoro earnings taxable?

If you make a profit trading on eToro, these may be subject to tax laws and regulations. This always depends on the country of origin of your funds. For more information about eToro and taxes, we recommend that you contact the local tax authority in your country.

Etoro reviews

To know the opinions about this broker, nothing better than consulting the users of this trading platform. Thanks to the Copytrading system, many users of the platform have become famous thanks to their good investment decisions and have managed to become managers of large amounts of assets, those of their respective copiers, who trust their investment decisions.

The Wired website asked who the most popular traders were on the platform and asked them for their opinions on the trading experience at this broker.

The backgrounds of these investors range from professionals in finance or investment consulting to eclectics who love to learn about everything.

What the influencers of the platform think

Jay Edward Smith – who lives in the south of England – is the most copied investor in the UK, has close to 30,000 people copying his investment strategy, and is quite bullish on cryptocurrencies. Before becoming an eToro investor, Smith was a professional gamer and organizer of online sporting events.

Smith’s opinion? “My background in the gaming world has helped me with trading. If you look at games like chess, poker, PC strategy games like Dota and StarCraft, they all intersect with the world of investment and trading. All of these games are about managing risk correctly.”

Smith continues: “In addition, I have previously participated in major eSports tournaments around the world, traveling extensively to participate in them, and easily got used to the multicultural online community that is present on eToro as well.” True to his gamer nature, Smith uses Twitch, the video game streaming platform, to keep in touch with his copiers and followers. Overall, Smith sees his experience at eToro as highly satisfying and a great learning experience.

From the world of biomedical engineering to investing in etoro

South African-born Heloise Greeff is the UK’s third most copied investor with 20,700 copiers. She prefers to use YouTube and considers herself a “financial educator” rather than an influencer. Unlike Smith, she is not dedicated full-time to managing her investments at eToro. But like Smith, she has been able to develop her trading skills from her professional skills in other fields. As an AI researcher at Oxford with a background in biomedical engineering, Greeff thinks that trading and designing machine learning algorithms are “very complementary” activities.

“I rely heavily on machine learning for my fundamental and technical analyses,” says Greeff. She has a tool that can mine “word strings” from eToro and Twitter news feeds to figure out which way the market is going. She has also designed a proprietary algorithm to decide when to enter and exit financial positions. “In my daily work time, I use patients’ vital signs to predict when their health will deteriorate,” says Greeff. “You can use similar tools to predict when markets are going to get worse or better.”

Like Smith, Greeff sees his experience at eToro as positive and as a learning path that, in addition to giving him intellectual satisfaction, gives him peace of mind by having a solid source of income for retirement.

Opinions of other users

According to the Invest in Stock Market website, it is considered that the opinions of users about this broker are mainly positive, both in the facilities to operate within the platform, which is especially suitable for beginners, and to make cash withdrawals. . In general, eToro is a highly respected broker, it is not without reason that more than twenty million people invest on this platform.

Opinions of Latin American traders

In Latin America, eToro has gained great popularity due to the ease of trading and the fact that other trading platforms such as Robinhood Markets are not available. In the region, Argentine investor Esteban Opatril has gained great popularity as a trader on this platform. Esteban has been investing in eToro since 2020 and has consolidated his portfolio in this broker with ETFs from various international markets. For Esteban, investing in eToro is a way to safeguard money and deal with the inflation that exists in the region.

Recent company developments

Although eToro has been operating as a private company since its founding, in 2020 there has been speculation that the company could become a public company. In February 2021, eToro CEO Yoni Assia confirmed those rumors and announced that the company had plans to go public.

Specifically, Assia pointed out that eToro had signed a contract with the investment company Acquisition Corp V, which is a vehicle for special purpose acquisitions. Through this fintech company, eToro would be listed on the Nasdaq stock market as an investment technology company by the end of 2021. And although Assia did not declare that the listing of eToro on the Nasdaq stock market was an official fact, she did acknowledge that It was an important step for the company in more than fourteen years of history, which has established the company as one of the largest brokers in the world.

With information from Broker Chooser.