eToro Review
Introduction and Background information
Etoro, was founded in 2007 and has proved to be in its own class, charging much higher spreads that its competitors for regular CFDs and forex spot trading.
Account types
eToro offers different tyoes of accounts under three main categories
VIP accounts
Account tiers and
Cryptocurrency trading
VIP accounts: eToro offers a VIP club membership with five tiers ranging from gold to diamond for traders who maintain balances between $5k -$250k. Depending on the level, benefits vary from a dedicated account manager to discounted withdrawal and deposit fees, access to private signals, and exclusive assets, among other VIP-style account benefits.
Account tiers: This is the most popular Investor program on eToro , it is divided into into four different levels – from cadet to elite – where you can be eligible to receive various perks ranging from spread rebates to a monthly payment and even a management fee for those who reach elite status.
Cryptocurrency trading: eToroX charges 5% for exchanging crypto to fiat (based on an eToroX fee of 1% plus a 4% Simplex fee) and converts from crypto to crypto is only 0.1% with a minimum trade size of $20 and maximum of $10,000 per transaction. In terms of crypto trading costs, spreads at eToro range from 0.75% on Bitcoin (BTC) to as much as 4.5% on crypto-assets such as Miota (IOTA)
Instruments
eToro offers Forex(Spot Trading) comprising of 47 Currency Pairs and 1980 CFDs. easyMarkets offer cryptocurrencies traded as actual (This is available is available through the firm’s eToroX offering, regulated by the Gibraltar FSC, and registered in the US with FinCEN as a Money Service Business (MSB).) and as CFDs
They also offer Social Trading / Copy-Trading for investors that don’t want to be actively involved in trading
eToro is a top broker when it comes to trading cryptocurrency.
Education
Regulation
eToro is regulated in two tier-1 jurisdictions and one tier-2 jurisdiction, making it a safe broker (low-risk) for forex and CFDs trading.
eToro holds a record for the easiest to use platforms among other brokers in the forex markets. A beginner trader has a near zero chance will quit trading at the first attempt if he is first exposed to the eToro platform.
The eToro platform is easy to carry out basic operations and do things quickly, such as creating several watchlists and adding instruments by searching available markets, as well as placing a trade from each watchlist directly. eToro ranked Best in Class in the Ease of Use category, as well as for Beginners in 2020.
MetaTrader: Unfortunately, MetaTrader is not available at eToro
eToro has a winning combination of self-directed trading and copy trading. This has made them a leader in copy-trading
CopyPortfolios: eToro operates a copy-portfolio where it groups traders into a single fund so clients can copy trade. CopyPortfolios help bridge the gap for investors who want to use eToro on a passive basis, as they can create a portfolio based entirely on one or more CopyPortfolios.
Cryptocurrency tools: In addition to self-directed trading across 93 cryptocurrency CFD pairs, users can find crypto trading ideas and copy other individual crypto traders, as well as copy groups of traders. For investors looking to trade the underlying crypto assets, eToroX offers the eToro Mobile wallet app that acts as a custodian using a multi-signature scheme and nearly matches the brand’s forex mobile app.
Copy-trading quality: eToro’s network consists solely of manual trading as they do not permit automated trading. This increases the quality of their copy-trading platform.
Mobile Trading
Overall, eToro has done a great job with its mobile experience. Using the mobile app on Android, eToro maintains the look and feel of the web version. Functionality such as syncing watchlists helps to unify the platform experience across devices further.
Deposit and Withdrawals
eToro has a minimum initial deposit of $200
Fees (Spreads/commission)
eToro is a market-maker broker with a average minimum fixed spread of three pips on the EUR/USD, which is on the high end of the range when comparing with other brokers with fixed and floating spreads.
Execution
They are market makers
Customer Support
eToro has as an above average customer sevice rating with live chatting and email support.
Promotion
Conclusion
eToro is particularly adapted for investors looking for passive income considering their extensive copytrading platform. Beginners in trading will also fine their easy to use platforms and seamless integration across devices helpful in helping them gain traction as they make their baby strides.
eToro’s major down side would be its inability to service high volume traders as their high spreads and small maximum trade sizes would pose a great disadvantage.
