eToro

eToro is a broker chiefly famous for social trading and copy trading, but it is possible to use this broker for traditional, manual trading as well. All trading takes place on the proprietary eToro trading platform which comes with very handy features for social trading and copy trading. The platform is available for use directly in the computer’s browser window and as a mobile app for iOS and Android.

The minimum deposit is 50 USD which his a bit higher than some of the competitors, but still well within the range for most small-scale traders.

With eToro, you can speculate on forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, indices, ETFs, NFTs, and commodities.

eToro was founded in 2007. The new platform with its emphasis on strong support for social trading came three years later and helped promote the concept to a wider audience. This broker now has over 30 million registered users world-wide in over 100 different countries. The company is headquartered in Israel, but has offices in several other countries as well, including Cyprus, the UK, United States, and Australia.

What type of broker is eToro?

eToro is a Straight Through Processing (STP) broker. All orders are processed using liquidity providers.

This broker offers quick execution speeds.

If a market is closed, orders will be processed at the best price available when the market opens again.

Regulation

Etoro is active through various subsidiaries around the world to comply with local laws and license requirements.

• eToro (Europe) Ltd is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), license number 109/10. Since Cyprus is a European Union membership country, EU regulations also apply.
• eToro (UK) Ltd is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), license number 583263.
• eToro AUS Capital Limited – is regulated by the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), license number 491139.
• eToro (Seychelles) Ltd is regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles (FSA), license number SD076.

CySEC, UK FCA and ASIC are all considered strict authorities when it comes to limiting leverage for non-professional traders. If you trading falls under the auspices of any of these entities, your leverage will be capped fairly low, unless you are classified as a professional trader. The broker is also required to have Negative Account Protection for all non-professional traders. If this applies to you, make sure you understand how it works before you start trading.

The Seychelles does not this type of rules in place to prevent non-professional traders from doing heavily leveraged trades.

Account type

There is the Standard account and the swap-free version of the Standard account.

eToro does not offer speciality accounts such as MAM and PAMM or account types designed with specific trading strategies in mind.

With the Standard account (or swap-free version of it), you get access to the full eToro offering of instruments, tools and features.

How to open a real-money account at eToro

It did not take me much time nor effort to open a real-money account with eToro.

1. I went to the eToro site and selected “Sign Up”.
2. I entered the requested personal information, including my email address. I entered the username and password I wanted to use for my eToro account.
3. I agreed to the terms and conditions, and to the privacy rules.
4. I selected “Create Account”.
5. I link was sent to my email and I used it to verify the email address.

Tip! To do it even faster, you can use your existing Google or Facebook account.

Before I could start making withdrawals, I also had to complete a verification process. I needed to upload copies of my ID and a household bill as proof of identity and residency. It took a few days before eToro approved my proofs, which was annoying.

How to open a free play-money demo account at eToro

When you open a free demo account here, you get $100, 000 in play-money. That way, you can explore the platform and feel how it is to use it for trading. The copy trading feature is also available in demo mode, which is a big plus.

Opening an eToro demo account is easy and I completed the process very fast.

1. I went to the eToro site and selected “Sign Up”.
2. I created a username and password. I entered my email address. (If you want to, you can use your existing Google or Facebook account for this step.)
3. I agreed to the terms and conditions.
4. I selected “Create Account”.
5. Important: I clicked on “Switch to Virtual” in the bottom of the menu on the left-hand side.

Forex speculation at eToro

Over 50 forex assets are available for speculation, including major, minor and exotic currency pairs.

Examples of available forex pairs:

• AUD/NZD
• AUD/USD
• EUR/AUD
• EUR/GBP
• EUR/USD
• GBP/USD
• NZD/USD
• USD/CAD
• USD/CHF
• USD/JPY

Can I speculate on cryptocurrency here?

A lot of the forex speculation here takes place using Contracts for Difference (CFDs). That way, you can gain exposure to currency exchange rates without actually buying, owning and selling currency. Leverage is available for forex CFDs.

Yes, eToro offers speculation on a range of cryptocurrencies. Over 80 different cryptos are available. You can for instance gain exposure to Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ether, Monero, Ripple, and Dash – just to mention a few.

Speculating on other asset types

In addition to forex and cryptocurrencies, you can use this broker to gain exposure to a variety of other assets and products, including stocks, indices, ETFs, and commodities. It is currently also possible to do some NFT speculation.

Stocks

Over 3,000 company stocks are available for speculation here. They come from nearly twenty different stock exchanges around the world, and it is easy to obtain a high level of diversification when it comes to both geography, industry and company maturity.

Examples of represented companies: JP Morgan, NetFlix, Apple, Tesla

Sometimes, eToro is really quick on the ball and offers speculation on new stocks and IPO listings.

Stock indices

Examples of available stock indices: Dow Jones 30, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, FTSE 100

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)

The list includes over 300 exchange-traded funds, including well-known ones such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, the Invesco QQQ, and the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF.

Commodities

Over 30 different commodities are available for speculation, including energy, metal and agricultural products. You can for instance gain exposure to the price of crude oil, gold, platinum, wheat, and sugar.

NFTs

eToro traders can explore and trade non-fungible tokens (NTFs) from a MetaMask wallet.

Commissions

A lot of the trading a eToro is commission-free. Instead, the broker makes money from the spreads. If this is a suitable model for you or not will depend largely on your trading strategy. Always check the specifics for the deal you are interested in beforehand.

The crypto trading fee is 1%.

The ETF trading fee is 0.15%.

Spreads

The spreads are not the tightest in the business. This is not surprising, since eToro offers a lot of commission free trading. With that model, brokers tend to offer wider spreads instead, to compensate themselves for not getting any commission money from the traders.

While using eToro, I have seen floating spreads from 1 pip on EUR/USD fx CFDs. For CFDs based on EUR/GBP, the floating spreads started slightly higher, and for CFDs based on GBP/USD they started at 2 pips.

Leverage

In some parts of the world, how much leverage brokers can give to non-professional traders is capped by law and/or license requirements. Examples of such places are the European Union, the United Kingdom and Australia. How much leverage a non-professional trader can access will therefore vary.

These are the current levels offered by to non-professional traders in the European Union (by eToro (Europe) Ltd), the United Kingdom (by eToro (UK) Ltd) and in Australia (by eToro AUS Capital Limited).

• Major Forex Pairs – 1:30
• Minor Forex Pairs, Indices and Gold – 1:20
• Other commodities – 1:10
• Stocks & ETFs – 1:5
• Cryptocurrency – 1:2

In parts of the world where eToro does not have to take such low caps into account, they tend to offer much more leverage. (You also get access to bigger leverage if you are classified as a professional trader.)

These are the current levels offered by eToro (Seychelles) Ltd:

• Major Forex Pairs – 1:400
• Commodities and Indices – 1:100
• Minor Forex Pairs – 1:50
• Stocks & ETFs – 1:10
• Cryptocurrency – 1:5

The eToro trading platform

With eToro, you will not get access to any third-party platform. Trading takes place on the proprietary eToro platform. It opens directly in the web browser of your computer, and there are also mobile apps available for iOS and Android.

For some traders, it will be a negative that it is not possible to download the platform and install it on your computer.

Using the platform

Navigating and understanding the eToro trading platform is pretty easy and it is fairly minimalistic in its design.

Examples of popular features:

• Portfolio performance dashboard
• Market sentiment graph
• Watchlists
• Customizable price alerts
• Integrated news feature for each asset, including news evaluation

How to make a forex trade

1. Locate the instrument. You can for instance use the search bar at the top or pick an instrument from your watchlist.
2. Click on the currency pair.
3. Select “Invest”.
4. Select “Buy” or “Sell”. (Toggles are located at the top.)
5. Adjust the value. (Or, alternatively, switch to “Units” and enter the number of units.)
6. Set your stop-loss point and your take profit point. If you want to use leverage, this is the time to enter that too.
7. Click “Open Trade” to confirm your order.

What is the difference between“Trade” and “Order” on the eToro platform?

A trade is placed under current market conditions.

An order is a request to open a position at a later time to the current market price.

TradingView for technical analysis

The platform incorporates charts from well-known TradingView. You can use 5 chart types, 9 time frames (1 minute to 1 week), over a dozen drawing tools, and 60+ technical indicators.

Copy trading with eToro

The broker eToro is famous for not only offering but actively promoting copy trading and having a wide range of features available to anyone interested in copy trading. The eToro CopyTrader is an easy-to-use tool where you can compare other traders’ portfolios and performance. If you find a trader you wish to copy, use the CopyTrader to mirror their positions automatically.

To find suitable traders to copy, you can use the filter feature.

How to get started

1. Select “Discover” in the dashboard menu.
2. Scroll down to the CopyTrader section.
3. Select “View All” to see available traders that you can copy. Use the filter to search for traders in accordance with your preferences.
4. Select a trader and click “Copy”.
5. Select the amount of funds to invest.

What is the minimum investment required to copy a trader?

The minimum investment amount required to copy a trader is $200, but the minimum trade size is just $1.

Can I explore the eToro CopyTrader using my demo account?

Yes, the copy trading service works in the demo account. This is great, since you can learn how everything works without putting any real money on the line.

What is the Popular Investor Program?

Traders who have a public profile and allow other traders to copy them can be rewarded by the Popular Investor Program if they become leading traders. A trader must fulfil certain requirements, such as having a minimum of $1,000 in unrealized equity, at least two months of trading history, and a low risk score.

The eToro Smart Portfolios

This is a special feature at eToro. They are ready-built investment portfolios put together by eToro’s own analysts to suit various preferences. By using this feature, you can very quickly purchase an investment portfolio instead of gradually building one yourself

You can for instance pick sector-specific portfolios or portfolios designed for high dividend yields.

What is the minimum investment required for a Smart Portfolio?

The minimum investment required is $500, which puts this service beyond the reach of many novice investors who are starting out small. This is is a bit of a minus since beginners are probably the ones most likely to want someone else to curate their portfolio for them. On the other hand, it is understandable that eToro has put a lower limit on this service that is high enough to not make proper portfolio diversification overly complicated.

Crypto staking rewards at eToro

An unusual feature at eToro are the crypto staking rewards. Users can receive rewards for holding digital currency in their internal wallets. It is a bit similar to earning interest on the money sitting in your bank account but for cryptocurrencies. Rewards are paid monthly and in the same cryptocurrencies that yielded them.

Trading hours

Trading hours will vary depending on the underlying asset. Information is published at the Market Hours page on the eToro site.

The platform itself is active 24/7.

Standard trading hours for forex: From Sunday at 23:05 GMT +1 to Friday 22:30 GMT +1.

Standard gold market hours: From Sunday at 23:00 GMT +1 to Friday 21:30 GMT +1.

Inactivity fee

An eToro account is not labelled inactive until there has been 12 months of no activity. I appreciate this; some other brokers will classify your account as inactive much quicker and I find that stressful. There are many good reasons to take a break from trading for a few months, and brokers who start charging an inactivity fee after just 3 months of no trading are, in my opinion, putting undue pressure on people to return to trading when they might not be ready. Getting a grace period of a full year before you have to start paying the inactivity fee is much more reasonable.

The inactivity fee as eToro is $10.

The eToro Club

The eToro Club is a loyalty club that rewards its members with various perks for depositing and trading, such as reduced fees, access to market analysis and summaries, and various discounts. Sometimes, the club arranges VIP events.

The different tiers have different treshholds:

Bronze: Start level, no threshold

Silver: $5,000

Gold: $10,000

Platinum: $25,000

Platinum +: $50,000

Diamond: $250,000

Examples of perks on the Silver Tier:

• Free tax report and 5% tax return discount
• eToro Money Visa debit card
• 85% crypto staking
• Account manager
• Access to smart portfolios

Customer support

How to best access the eToro customer support will depend on your country of residence and level in the eToro Club (some levels get special support channels).

In some countries, you can reach eToro without making a call abroad.

Example:

1-888-271-8365 (USA)

+61 2 8016 9335 (Australia)

The general email address is support@etoro.com, but there are also national addresses available for some countries, such as info@etoro.com.au (Australia).

On the eToro site, anyone can use the inquiry form to reach the support.

The eToro live chat support is only open to registered clients (i.e eToro club members). It is available 24/7.

Support languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew

Deposits and withdrawals

This broker accepts a long list of transaction methods, including selected credit/debit cards, e-wallets and bank wire transfer.

I would be happy to see eToro accept cryptocurrency transfers in the future, but there are still fairly few mainstream brokers that do this, so I am not really surprised to see that eToro is not doing either.

If you do a transfer in any other currency than USD, it will be converted at the current market rate and you need to pay a conversion fee.

Examples of accepted transaction methods

All methods in this list are suitable for quick deposits, except wire transfer which can take 4-7 days.

Deposit method	Supported currency	Maximum deposit
Rapid Transfer	USD, EUR, GBP	$5,500
PayPal	USD, EUR, GBP, AUD	$10,000
Skrill	USD, EUR, GBP	$10,000
Neteller	USD, EUR, GBP	$10,000
POLi	AUD	$10,000
Przelewy 24	PLN	$11,500
Klarna/Sofort	EUR	$30,000
Credit/Debit Cards	USD, EUR, GBP, AUD	$40,000
iDEAL	EUR	$50,000
eToro Money	GBP	£250,000
Wire Transfer	USD, EUR, GBP	No maximum

The e-wallet eToro Money

This is a special eToro e-wallet (digital wallet) which can be used to make deposits to and withdrawals from eToro accounts. So far, it is only available in the United Kingdom and European Union.

By using eToro Money, you can avoid paying the regular fees. Deposits are instant and you can use the e-wallet to avoid fees and currency conversion charges. For more information about the details, contact the eToro support team.

What is the minimum deposit into an eToro account?

This varies from country to country. In some countries, it is as low as $10. In others it is as high as $50. The transaction method can also impact the minimum. It is for instance not permitted to use bank transfer with this broker if the transfer is less than $500, which puts this transaction method well beyond the grasp of many micro-traders.

How to make a deposit

I make my deposits using my VISA card and the process has been quick and easy each time.

1. I log into the e-Toro proprietary platform.
2. I select “Deposit”. (It is in the menu on the left-hand side.)
3. I select currency from a drop-down menu.
4. I select payment method from another drop-down menu.
5. I enter the required details about my credit card. Exactly which details you will be requried to enter will depend on which payment method you have selected.
6. I click “Deposit” to confirm the transfer.

Withdrawals

• For most transaction methods, eToro will charge you $5 do process your withdrawal request. This is a minus for eToro, as many of the competitors do not charge for this or only charge if you make more than one request per month.
• A conversion fee will apply if you withdraw funds in another currency than USD.
• Very quick withdrawals are possible with the e-wallet eToro Money. For most of the other methods, expect at least 2 days of processing time. Wire transfers and credit/debit cards can take up to 10 business days to process.

Base currency for the account

Unlike many of the competitors, eToro does not give you the option of choosing from a list of currencies when you start your account. With eToro as your broker, the base currency for your account can only be USD. No other currencies are available.

Educational resources

The eToro Academy is filled with educational material, including videos, webinars, tutorials, step-by-step guides, and pod casts. You can also join and utilize eToro community forums for traders.

Some brokers simply add a mountain of info without much order, but eToro has – fortunately – put in a well-functioning filtering system that brings system to the Academy and makes it easy for me to find what I need. I have for instance been able to filter not just for a certain topic, but also for my experience level regarding that topic. This really saves time and makes the Academy more useful.

Examples of topics:

• Trading with leverage
• Dividend investing
• Automated trading strategies
• Cryptocurrency trading

Research and analysis

• Weekly market research and asset class analysis by the eToro experts.
• The eToro Digest & Invest section publishes video interviews with guest speakers.

Questions and answers

Do I have to pay a special fee for using CopyTrader?

No

Do I have to pay a special fee for using the Smart Portfolios feature?

No

Can I get a swap-free account?

Yes, a swap-free version of the eToro Standard Account is available. This type of account is also known as Muslim / Islam / Sharia / Halal account.

How big the welcome bonus?

Just like many other brokers active in strict countries such as the UK and Australia, eToro is not offering big welcome bonuses to non-professional traders.

Occasionally, they will run campaigns where a new sign-up can get a small welcome bonus, e.g. make a first deposit of at least $100 and get a $10 welcome bonus. It is really not much to write home about.

Can I get a referral bonus?

Yes, but conditions apply. With the Invite Friends program, you can get a $50 bonus for each referral, but the new trader must fulfil certain requirements for you to get the bonus, including opening at least one trade of $100 or more.