Whether you’re a complete beginner or a Forex expert, eToro has competitive features that you’re bound to love.
eToro literally allows you to copy the trades of other registered users. So whether you’re a beginner who doesn’t have the time to learn, or an expert who doesn’t have the time to trade, you just need to find a successful eToro trader. You can copy their trades — so any trade they make, you make. There’s no wonder the brokerage recently hit 13 million users worldwide.
Pros
- Excellent copy trading features
- User-friendly and well-designed
- Large investment selection
Cons
- Average research tools
- Number of currency pairs could be larger
- Limited availability to some U.S. residents
Visit eToroon eToro’s website
eToro was founded way back in 2007. The broker is regulated in two tier-1 jurisdictions and one tier-2 jurisdiction and has recently expanded its business to the U.S. Unfortunately, U.S. based clients are still limited to trading only with cryptocurrencies. However, that will most likely change soon, as eToro became a FINRA member a couple of months ago.
The broker currently offers 49 currency pairs, 13 stock index CFDs, and over 2,000 stock CFDs. While its investment offerings aren’t particularly varied when compared to competitors, eToro does offer enough variety for beginners and intermediate traders.
One of the brokerage’s highlights is its platform. Both the web-based and mobile versions are crisp and feature easy to use, functional designs. The web-trading platform also boasts a number of powerful tools, including full-featured charting and approximately 70 indicators.
However, eToro’s biggest standout feature is CopyTrader, which allows you to copy the trades, strategies, and portfolios of experienced traders. The platform allows you to see how well their investments have performed historically, as well as how risky their strategies are.
Simply choose a dollar amount to dedicate to a particular trader, and you will execute the same trades that they do – typically less than one second later. You can copy up to 100 traders simultaneously.
Copy trading is quite different from what most brokers offer – if you’re interested in this type of trading but still on the fence, eToro offers a demo account that lets you practice with $100,000 worth of virtual money.
The platform still has some antiquated fees, however. A monthly $10 inactivity fee is charged after 12 months without logging in, and a pesky $5 fee is applied whenever you withdraw funds.
The minimum spread has recently been reduced – clients can now trade EUR/USD with spreads as low as 1 pip. While this may be a step in the right direction, eToro still has a ways to go, as many competitors offer more appealing spreads.
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, the spreads that eToro offers are competitive but vary to a large degree – from the quite tight 0.75% for Bitcoin, to the rather wide 5% spread for Tezos.
If you’re interested in a more detailed assessment, take a look at our eToro review.