Real estate and stock market assets are the top investment sectors, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
eToro is one of the most popular online brokers of the moment, standing out for its commission-free trading in stocks and ETFs. The broker is also a leader in social trading and a pioneer in copy trading, two techniques that have become essential for new generations of investors.
Popular for the wide variety of financial instruments it offers, eToro is an online broker suitable for all levels of investors. It is known for its simple applications, transparent pricing system, user-friendly interface and social trading features.
eToro is a brokerage company that was founded in Tel Aviv in 2007. It was founded by three Israeli businessmen: Yoni Assia, Ronen and David Ring. Its trading platform currently has over 11 million users worldwide. Today, eToro is present in over 150 countries, including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, and France.
The rise in popularity of the platform is mainly due to the concept of social trading and especially the copy trading feature. These two options allow the platform's investor communities to take advantage of numerous trading tools. These have the ability to automatically duplicate the investment strategies of the most successful traders.
eToro has raised over 162 million USD since 2007. The company has a market capitalization of about 800 million USD. This means that there is no risk of the company going bankrupt. In addition, traders have strong capital protection.
The deposited funds are automatically insured up to €1 million. This insurance guarantee is provided by Lloyd's of London. In addition, European regulations also require a statutory cover of €20,000 for each user's capital.
On the other hand, CFD trading also provides traders with some protection. In the event of adverse price movements, losses on CFDs cannot exceed the initial bets. This means that traders are not required to make any additional contributions.
Compared to other online brokerage platforms, eToro offers very responsive customer service. Its support teams provide professional assistance. In addition, the broker offers several ways to reach them, including email, chat, and social networks.
The company furthermore offers a Help Center where a FAQ is available. It also provides customers with a button to submit a request to the site's experts, who generally respond within a few hours.
A dedicated customer service is assigned to all traders who have an account balance of over 5,000 Euros. For those who have more than 25,000 Euros in their accounts, customer service becomes a priority.
The chat is also supported 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday. The platform's social trading network also allows you to benefit from the help of its millions of users with both site operations and trading in general.
eToro's educational offering is very comprehensive and includes a detailed and comprehensive guide to the fintech industry. This guide allows you to master the platform and the world of trading in 18 steps. The only drawback is that it is only available in English. Beginners can also benefit from the insights of popular investors or seasoned traders, who share their analysis and experiences via weekly webinars.
Moreover, it is accessible with a demo account, without going through the registration procedure. The demo account is offered free by the platform. This type of account allows you to use 100 000 € fictitious to practice trading on the real markets and quickly assimilate the features and fees of the site. You will also learn about the market fundamentals of each type of financial asset by simulating trading strategies.
In addition, the platform also provides valuable daily market analysis. This is prepared by partner company TipRanks and is also available in video form. This allows traders to discover the investment opportunities of the day and to identify the most promising financial instruments.
eToro has a strong reputation for security. Its activity is regulated by the FCA, ASIC and CySEC, three major bodies in charge of the supervision of the world's financial markets. These institutions have issued licenses to approve the trading platform's activity.
This brokerage firm is a member of the ICF (Investor Compensation Fund) which was established in Cyprus by CySEC. It also complies with the standards set by the FCA, meaning it offers features that meet the needs of UK traders. As part of this, eToro launched the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This scheme provides for the compensation of users' funds in the event of the company's bankruptcy. The broker also has an Australian subsidiary that is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
In addition, the platform is approved by the ACPR (Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution), giving it the right to operate in France. The role of this authority is to ensure the stability of the financial system in order to prevent other financial crises. It is also responsible for protecting the users, members, policyholders and customers of the companies it supervises. In addition, the ACPR also plays a role in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
This online broker is also registered in the REGAFI (Registre des Agents Financiers de la Banque de France). However, the AMF does not regulate eToro, but has limited itself to its authorization. This means that in the event of a dispute, the AMF cannot be the mediator. However, all of these regulators require the separation of customer deposits from the assets of this brokerage. This guarantees additional protection for traders' assets in the event of the site's bankruptcy.
eToro users benefit from certain features that ensure a better appreciation of the investment environment. This reduces the risk of losing money. A two-factor KYC authentication system is available to all users. This system strengthens the protection of personal data, assets and funds of investors. The platform is also equipped with 256-bit SSL encryption to secure the network and data.
eToro is particularly attractive to traders because of its competitive and transparent pricing policy. Trading in stocks and ETFs is commission free. There are no fees charged to users' accounts for buying and selling these financial instruments. In addition, there is no cap on the volume of shares purchased. There is also no holding period.
However, it is important to note that the broker only supports US dollars. Deposits in Euros or other currencies must be converted beforehand. This is usually subject to interbank rates and a 0.5% commission before it can be used. However, apart from the conversion rate, the broker does not charge any deposit fees.
The trading platform earns money through three types of fees, including spread, i.e the broker's margin. It is the difference between the buying and selling price of an asset. Note that eToro charges a daily holding fee when an asset is held beyond a certain period of time following the close of a trading session. And finally, although there is no account maintenance fee, there is a €5 fee for each withdrawal.
Traders who enjoy trading CFDs benefit from very low commissions at eToro. This spread is set at 0.09%. On top of this there is a holding fee. However, for the assets in question, the spreads applied on the platform are generally very competitive. Moreover, these are largely compensated by the leverage offered by the broker.
However, eToro does charge an inactivity fee that you need to take into account. If you do not trade for 12 consecutive months, the broker will charge you $10 per month starting from the 12th month.
Traders can invest in a wide range of financial instruments on eToro. The platform allows traders to trade stocks, forex currency pairs, commodities, stock indices, ETFs and crypto-currencies among others.
Not all of these products are accessible directly from the platform, as they are mainly represented by CFDs. The latter allow you to benefit from a leverage effect, in order to quickly multiply your gains. On the other hand, these financial instruments allow you to avoid losing more than the capital available on the account.
eToro offers a choice of over 2,000 stocks where trading is commission free. These are assets that are listed on the world's largest exchanges, including Euronext Brussels, Euronext Lisbon, Euronext Paris, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Zurich, Oslo and Stockholm in Europe. In the US market, traders can operate on the NYSE and Nasdaq. Traders can also invest on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
In particular, you can buy and sell shares of the biggest companies, such as Google, BNP Paribas, Amazon, Bouygues, EDF, Netflix, FDJ and many others. The stocks are available live at eToro. These are also available in CFD form.
The foreign exchange market has the highest trading volume, with over 5 trillion USD traded every day. eToro provides easy access to over 50 currency pairs. Traders can take advantage of EUR/USD and EUR/GBP currency pairs. The platform also offers other secondary pairs such as NZD, CAD, AUD, CHF and JPY.
Presented in the form of CFD contracts, all major commodities are available for investment at eToro. You can trade oil, gas, gold, silver, copper and more.
At eToro, traders have 13 stock indexes to choose from. These reflect the most important trends in the financial market and include the best performing companies and the most profitable sectors. These instruments offer a certain stability that allows for a profitable investment. However, they are mainly recommended for medium and long-term investments.
Traders can use the platform to invest in the CAC 40, among other things. This index includes the 40 French companies with the largest market capitalizations. eToro also allows traders to invest in more than 370 of the best performing industrial players in the US via the Nasdaq. The SP500, the US Dollar, the Dow Jones, the German DAX 30, the FTSE 100 which represents 80% of the market capitalization of the London Stock Exchange, the Japanese Nikkei 225, the China A50, the US Dollar Dixie, the Dutch AEX, the Euro Stoxx and many others are also present on eToro.
Cryptocurrencies are attracting more and more traders. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have very promising valuation potentials. Bitcoin has gained more than 10,000% of its value since its inception.
At eToro, 26 of the most popular cryptocurrencies are available live and in CFD form. This way, investors can take advantage of leverage to quickly increase their capital via these digital assets.
The platform offers trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, IOTA, Dash, Tron, Stellar, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Ripple, Litecoin and many others.
There are many features available on eToro to make it easier for traders to reach their goals. In addition to the social trading feature, the platform also offers OpenBooks, Copyportfolios, a continuous social news feed, and a user-friendly interface.
With over 850 financial products, this broker is also easy to access via the internet through its Webtrader platform and Mobile Trader.
eToro has brought a real innovation to the world of investing in financial instruments with social trading. This concept has been available on the platform since 2010 and allows traders to enjoy the benefits of a real social network. It gives traders the opportunity to benefit from a community of several million users who have a trading activity. Each trader can thus enjoy a real online profile. This network offers sharing, comments and like feeds, which stimulate mutual support between members.
However, the most popular feature of eToro's social trading is copy trading. This allows network members to filter and select the most successful traders to automatically copy their strategies. This ensures that beginners can learn the fundamentals of the markets easier and faster. Indeed, the techniques of the selected traders are displayed.
On the other hand, the platform also displays a regular ranking of the best investors in a section called Popular Investors. This feature allows you to track up to 100 trader profiles simultaneously.
To use copy trading, simply select a financial instrument and choose from the most experienced investors. Then, the details of the operations carried out by the latter are displayed. All that remains is to activate the function to carry out the same operations automatically.
Note that the copytrading feature is only available to users who have made a minimum deposit of $200 to their accounts. This service can also be considered as an indicator of market sentiment. For each position copied, a $1 fee is charged.
In addition to Copytrading the platform also allows the use of the CopyPortfolio feature. The latter is a service in which portfolios that have been specially selected by eToro are grouped. These portfolios are however limited by a minimum investment of $1000.
The CopyPortfolio allows you to invest in the most successful traders through the Top Trader CopyPortfolio. The top performing markets are also available via the Market CopyPortfolio.
On the other hand, traders who use the service can also access the strategies developed by eToro's partners via the Partner CopyPortfolio. Note that each CopyPortfolio is automatically supported. In fact, the funds invested are regularly managed, analyzed and optimized by the platform's analysts.
This program was created by eToro to bring together the most experienced and successful traders. These investors are entitled to unique privileges, including regular compensation for sharing strategies with other traders.
On eToro, traders can choose to hold real cryptocurrencies or via CFDs. Thus, by purchasing digital assets, it is possible to hold them in the eToroX wallet. The latter is a trading platform specifically dedicated to crypto assets.
By opting for crypto CFDs, however, investors benefit from contracts for difference. This makes it possible to sell without owning the crypto. The main point here is to bet on future price trends and use leverage to maximize gains.
However, it is impossible to transfer cryptos held on eToroX to another platform or wallet. However, there are many CFDs indexed to BTC available there. These allow you to bet on future changes in the price of Bitcoin against the major fiat currencies. You can invest in BTC/USD, BTC/EUR, BTC/GBP, BTC/JPY, BTC/AUD, BTC/NZD, BTC/CAD, BTC/CHF and more.
You can also find CFDs that represent the trend of the BTC price in relation to other cryptos. eToroX offers ETH/BTC, BTC/EOS, BTC/XLM and other pairs. The eToro crypto platform also allows you to speculate on the GOLD/BTC price.
eToro offers two types of accounts, including the eToro Demo account which is free. This simulation interface is available upon registration.
The standard eToro account, on the other hand, can only be accessed after a minimum initial deposit of $50. To join the Popular Investor program, a minimum deposit of $1000 is required.
To create an account with eToro, all you have to do is register on their site by filling in the required information, i.e your first and last name, a screen name, email address, password and phone number.
Next, you need to complete your profile by answering some questions to comply with regulatory requirements. These questions allow the platform to define the maximum limit of funds that you can deposit. After this step you will be able to deposit $50 on your account to access the standard interface.
To complete your registration with eToro, it is your responsibility to verify your account. This step is not mandatory, but it does increase the deposit limit. There are three parts to this process, including verifying your phone number with a confirmation code received via text message. You will then need to upload the front and back of your ID card and provide proof of address.
