eToro Review 2020 – The Lazy Traders’ Guide to Know Everything

First of all, before we start this review of eToro, we have to give a disclaimer that CFDs are complicated instruments that are never guaranteed to provide you supplemental earnings. In fact, there is a very high risk that you might lose your money when doing this. Around 75% of all retail investors experienced a loss while trading CFDs. Make sure to keep this in mind before attempting to use this platform yourself.

eToro Platform Overview

Online trading platforms are a dime a dozen nowadays, but there are some out there that always manage to stand out from the crowd. One of these is eToro, a trading platform that has been around since 2007.

Currently, eToro has millions of registered users. The company has managed to revolutionize forex and commodity trading throughout the years.

In this detailed review, we’ll take a look at eToro and why you should consider it as your online broker. We’ll also tell you other information that you should know before jumping in.

Without further ado, here’s our eToro review!

Is eToro safe?

One of the first things that people always ask is whether eToro is safe to use or not. Is eToro legit? Is it a scam? Is it worth depositing my money into?

The short answer is yes, it’s a safe website. The long answer is that eToro is regulated by three regulatory bodies and has a license to operate, so yes, it’s completely safe to use.

There regulatory bodies :

eToro (Europe) Ltd., a Financial Services Company authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission (CySEC) under the license # 109/10.

eToro (UK) Ltd, a Financial Services Company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the license FRN 583263.

eToro AUS Capital Pty Ltd. is authorised by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to provide financial services under Australian Financial Services License 491139. )

Also, they recently got there Licence for in the USA as well, this is an big deal because it is well known in the industry that the US license is the most difficult to get approved for.

eToro USA is operated by eToro USA LLC, which is registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business.

eToro: Company History

Many people know eToro as the world-leading social trading platform, but it’s actually a lot more than that.

eToro has been around far longer than most people expect, it was established way back in 2007.

Over these years they have added many things more like currency, forex,  etc. to there platform. And have now grown out to one of the biggest players in the industry.

How eToro was established

In 2007, a trio of entrepreneurs consisting of two brothers and their friend decided to come up with an online platform that can be used by traders from all around the world. The main goal was to build a place for these traders in order to trade whatever kind of financial instrument they prefer.

The three entrepreneurs also wanted the trading platform to be standalone, meaning it won’t need any support from a traditional financial institution such as a bank. They also wanted to provide traders with various tools that could help with trading.

The eToro Timeline

This began the first appearances of eToro on the World Wide Web, although it wasn’t named like that yet. This early version was an interactive website that was very easy to use for traders and contained graphs that could be used for market analysis.

For two years, the three worked on improving this. In 2009, they launched another early version of the platform, the Web Trader. It improved trading a bit for traders, since it now gives them access to specific tools based on their skill level.

Another 2 years of tweaking passed, and in 2011, the first social trading forum in the whole world, OpenBook, was launched. The timing was rather good, as this was also the start of the rise of now-popular social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.

2012 rolled around and eToro added more financial instruments to its roster, namely stocks. Before this, it only offered commodities and currencies.

By 2013, eToro had already launched its mobile app for both iPhone and Android. Since smartphones were already becoming more popular at this point, the company managed to gain a lot more traders this way. Activity levels on the platform increased immediately. eToro then started offering Bitcoin, around the same time that interest in Bitcoin was rising quickly.

In 2016, eToro launched CopyFunds, a feature that allowed traders to invest in portfolios that were professionally managed.
The company increased its reach in 2017, to over 100 countries internationally. eToro also started allowing traders to trade in more currency options.

And now, as of this writing, eToro has millions of active traders around the world, from roughly 170 different countries.

Who can use eToro?

Anyone can use eToro, or at least, anyone above the age of 21 in 170 countries internationally. That said, there are some countries that are still not included in the list. This includes countries such as Albania, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Japan, Iran, North Korea, Serbia, Sudan, Syria, and Turkey.

Open an eToro account

Opening an eToro account is very easy.

The first step is to register using your Facebook account or your Google email address. Once you’ve supplied this, you can now start trading using your demo account on the platform.

That said, you need to take extra steps if you want to trade using real money on eToro.

Before anything else, you need to verify your identity and address first. This can be done by uploading all the necessary documents, namely, a proof of identity and a proof of residency.

Your proof of identity could be one of your government IDs or your passport. Meanwhile, your proof of residency can be a copy of your bank statements or your utility bills.

Once this is done, you’ll be able to deposit money to start trading with your real account on the eToro platform!

Additional rules for trading

Although registering an account on eToro is fast and hassle-free, there are some additional rules that you must take note of before you can be allowed to trade.

One, although the minimum deposit is $200, if you’re doing a bank transfer, the minimum amount is actually $500.

If you live in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Russia, you also need a $500 minimum initial deposit instead of $200 to start trading on the eToro platform. But if you’re from the United States of from Australia, you only have to deposit $50.

Lastly, if you’re from Israel, you’ll need to deposit a whopping $10,000 first before you can trade on eToro.

What are the account types on eToro?

There are two account types at the moment offered by eToro.

The first account type is the live account, also known as the real account. This account allows traders to use real money in trading. If your goal is to use the platform to gain real-world leverage, then this is the account you should be using. Do take note though that majority of traders actually lose in trading, so you better be careful when using this account.

The second account type is the eToro demo account, also known as the virtual account. True to its name, the demo account allows traders to use virtual money in trading. This account is completely risk-free, which means you can use it to test new strategies and techniques without the risk of losing your hard-earned cash.

eToro Account Tiers

eToro’s real account also has tiers, depending on the balance that is maintained in the account.

The tier program is called the Popular Investor program, and it has four levels: cadet, rising star, champion, and elite. Depending on which program you’re in, you can have all kinds of special perks and privileges, from monthly payments, to spread rebates, to management fees.

The good thing about eToro is that unlike other trading platforms where the focus is on the amount of deposits, eToro’s focus is on the amount payments that you receive from trading. This encourages healthier trading among members. If you want to increase in level, you should focus more on increasing your wins rather than trading continuously regardless on the win rate.

eToro VIP Account

eToro also has a VIP club membership. For this program, there are five tiers available: Silver, Gold, Platinum, Platinum+, and Diamond.

Obviously, higher tiers get more benefits, such as market analysis and live webinars for Gold members, no withdrawal fees and exclusive assets for Platinum members, a subscription to Financial Times and tickets to sporting events for Platinum+ members, and an invitation to the prestigious eToro Diamond Gala event for Diamond members.

All VIP members, including Silver members, get a dedicated account manager and daily market summary, however.
The balance that needs to be maintained for these accounts start at $5,000 for Silver members and $250,000 for Diamond members.

eToro Platform

The eToro trading platform is one of the cleanest and easiest platforms we’ve ever tried before. It’s very easy to use, even for complete beginners, since everything you need is already on the site.

It’s also very easy to do things like placing trades, creating watchlists, and selecting additional instruments.

Indicators & Tools

What’s a trading platform without its own set of indicators and tools, right? Luckily for aspiring traders, eToro also has tools to help with research and analysis.

First of all, there’s a standard economic calendar that shows all upcoming and current events that can influence your trades.
Second, there’s a social trading feature called CopyTrader where all users will be able to see what other people are saying on the eToro platform. You can use this feature to get some ideas for your trades.

There’s also a market research tool embedded in the site, TipRanks, which shows important news headlines. This is very important if you’re trading an instrument that is highly dependent on external events.

Of course, you have your standard indicators, as well. Except eToro did exceptionally well in this aspect and added a total of 67 indicators on the website. Don’t be overwhelmed, you can read our guides here at Toro Demo Trading if there’s anything you don’t seem to understand about a specific indicator.

You also have access to drawing tools like lines and rectangles, to help you out better in your trading strategies.

CopyTrader

As mentioned above, CopyTrader is what eToro calls its social trading feature. With this feature, you can see and copy the portfolio on other traders on the platform. And not just a single trader, either. Amazingly enough, you can copy the portfolio of up to 100 traders at the same time.

 

The feature also allows you to browse other traders’ profiles, see their risk scores, check their portfolio’s monthly and annual performance, and other important statistics that can help you decide whether or not you should be copying them.

Mobile Version

If you’re always on the go, you’ll be glad to know that eToro also offers a mobile platform. Trading has certainly never been easier with a platform like eToro.

The Android app looks pretty much like the desktop version, although it does lack a bit in a few aspects. Drawing tools, for example, are not present on the mobile app. Also, from 67 indicators on the desktop version, traders only have access to 5 indicators on the mobile app.

eToro Offerings

eToro offers a whole slew of assets and instruments for any trader out there.

Forex

eToro offers 47 currency pairs at the moment, all from various currency markets around the world. This includes currency pairs like EUR/USD, AUD/USD, and GBP/JPY.

Stocks

There are currently a limited number of stocks available on eToro, from 17 stock exchanges around the world: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Euronext Brussels, Euronext Lisbon, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Milan, New York, Nasdaq, Oslo, Paris, Saudi Arabia, Stockholm, and Zurich.

This might seem like a lot to you, but actually, not all the stocks from these exchanges are available for trading. Typically, it only includes the most popular stocks, such as Apple or Tesla. Smaller companies are not included, however. For instance, you can only trade 10% of the total number of all available companies on the Nasdaq exchange on eToro. The same goes for the other exchanges on the platform.

Indices

eToro also offers a collection of stock market indices on the platform. There are 13 at the moment, such as the Dollar Index and the S&P 500 Index, which includes 500 large companies publicly available on the Nasdaq and the New York stock exchanges.

ETFs

ETFs are also available on eToro. Right now, there are 83 ETF options on the platform, and each one is laid out in tiles to make it easier to decide which one you want to trade in. Many of these tiles also have additional information to help traders further.

Commodities

eToro offers commodities for trading as well. You can invest in gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium, cocoa, and oil, among many others.

CFDs

What’s a CFD broker without CFDs? eToro provides access to trading options on 1,933 CFDs. This is actually a pretty good number compared to other brokers.

eToro Fees

Fees are unavoidable when you’re using an online trading broker. Like many other platforms out there, there are two kinds of fees that you will encounter on eToro.

The first one, trading fees, is what you incur when you actually trade. It includes financing rates, conversion fees, spreads, and commission. The second one, non-trading fees, is what you incur outside of trading. For instance, this includes fees for inactivity or fees when you’re withdrawing from your account.

Both eToro’s trading and non-trading fees aren’t actually very high, especially when compared to other websites. It also offers real stock trading with zero-commission fees.

Our only gripe here is that eToro’s forex fees are higher than average. That said, it’s important to note that eToro forex fees are still not the highest out there.

Deposits and Withdrawals

It’s not very difficult to deposit and withdraw on eToro. Just make sure that the accounts you’re using the deposit and withdraw money match the name you have on the platform.

Deposits

As mentioned above, the minimum initial deposit is $200. You can deposit via various options, such as bank transfer, credit/debit card, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, China UnionPay, and Klarna/Sofort Banking.

If you want instant posting of your deposit, you should choose credit/debit card or other electronic wallet options, but there are transaction limits depending on what you’re using. Credit/debit cards have a limit of $40,000, and electronic wallets have a limit of $10,000 or $30,000.

On the other hand, there’s no maximum transaction limit if you choose to deposit via bank, but it takes around 4-7 business days in order for your bank transfer to go through.

There are also no deposit fees on eToro, but currency conversion fees can be high – as high as 2.4%, in fact. The platform only uses USD accounts, which means whatever currency your money is in will first have to be converter into USD.

Withdrawals

Contrary to deposits, withdrawals on eToro costs a hefty fee of $5 per transaction. This is certainly high compared to other brokers of its kind.

In addition to this, eToro also imposes a minimum limit of $30 on all withdrawals. That means that if you only have $20 on your account and would already like to withdraw it, well, it’s simply not possible.

You can withdraw money the same way you would deposit money; via credit/debit cards or electronic wallets. Your identification must also match in order for the withdrawal to go through. If there’s a discrepancy, your transaction won’t be pushed through.

In our experience, withdrawals take a bit faster than deposits. You can typically get your withdrawal anywhere from 1-3 business days, as opposed to 4-7 for deposits. Of course, this still depends on the payment provider you choose. For instance, if you withdraw to your PayPal account, you’ll be able to receive the payment in just 1-2 business days.

Customer Service

eToro offers various ways to reach its customer service team.

Based on user experiences, it typically takes less than a minute to get connected to someone on the team.

Bonus Features

Think that’s it? Actually, eToro still has a few more things to offer.

 

• Additional security features. Traders have the option to allow two-factor authentication for their accounts. This is very helpful for those who are concerned about making their account more secure.
• Multiple language support. At the moment, eToro supports 21 languages, a large number compared to the majority of other brokers.
  CopyTrading. Although eToro only has manual trading, it’s still possible to copy what instruments other traders, or other groups of traders, are trading.
• Currency wallet. There’ a separate mobile app for all the currencies on eToroX. It looks very similar to eToro’s mobile app, and you can even access social trading from this app.
• Notifications. Not all brokers offer push notifications, but eToro does. On the web version, you can get a browser notification every time one of the assets on your watchlist reaches its target price, or when an order gets fulfilled. On the mobile version, you get an app notification.

eToro FAQs

1. When did eToro start? eToro started in 2007.

2. Who created eToro? Two brothers, along with their friend, started eToro. Their names are Ronnen and Yoni Assia and David Ring.

3. Where is eToro’s headquartered? eToro has multiple offices around the world.The main HQ is located in UK.

4. How many active traders are there on eToro? As of this writing, the number of traders is around 9 million.

5. What’s the minimum deposit on eToro? $200 is the minimum deposit.

6. How much are fees on eToro? This depends on what you are trying to do. Deposits are free, but currency conversion and withdrawals are quite expensive compared to other brokers.

Conclusion: eToro Review

eToro is a great platform for beginners and experience traders alike who are especially interested in trading currencies.

Indeed, eToro is one of the best platforms out there that you can use if you value safety, convenience, and ease-of-use. Also, if you’re interested in social trading, you’re going to love eToro’s included features.

Sign up now for free in order to get started on eToro! If you need any help, you can always check out our articles here on Toro Demo or ask us in the comments below!

Good luck trading on eToro!

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eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFDs.

Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 67% 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.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs and makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared by our partner utilizing publicly available non-entity specific information about eToro.