eToro is one of the world’s leading social investment network. At eToro you can connect with millions of experienced investors from more than 140 countries, a good sign that we are not dealing with fraud but with a trustworthy company.
In this review, you can find updated information on commissions, usability, pros and cons, and other questions of interest in the portal.
What is eToro?
eToro is a social trading website that operates by exchanging CFDs, specialized in the Forex market, commodities, and indices. Since its founding in 2007, eToro has expanded its influence globally. The main differentiation of eToro is that it’s designed as a social network for traders, to create a greater user experience.
On this platform, you can invest in CFDs on stocks, ETFs, indices, commodities, currencies, and cryptocurrencies, but with the great particularity of having the functionalities of a social network focused on investments, so that you can see, follow and even copy investments of other traders.
As for security, it offers you good guarantees to deposit and invest your money through its platform. These guarantees derive from their registration and supervision by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission (CySEC), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which regulates and supervises the behaviour of the platform in each market. From what we can see, eToro is regulated and supervised by bodies that give it an adequate level of security for the investor.
Who eToro is for?
This website has become a reference on the internet, especially due to the operations with cryptocurrencies. Many of its members copying each other’s operations. In recent years eToro has continued to grow by hundreds of thousands of new users supported by its marketing campaigns, especially in the sports field where it currently has prestigious sponsorships worldwide.
You also have the possibility of manually investing in currencies, stocks, raw materials, and stock indices, but the greatest advantage of this broker, compared to its competitors, is the powerful system of copying trades from other traders.
Therefore, it is not strange to think that if you still do not have much experience or knowledge about investing in CFDs, this company offers you a website that, without a doubt, can help you a lot to take your first steps, taking other investors as an example.
eToro Markets
The first thing that we must define will be the financial assets that we can operate with this broker. Keep in mind that CopyTrading services are based on copying other traders, who in turn invest in the following assets:
- Currencies: you can trade in several currency pairs.
- Commodities: operate in gold, silver, copper, oil, natural gas, and even platinum.
- Cryptocurrencies: eToro has 16 cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Ripple (XRP), Dash (DASH), Litecoin (LTC), Cardano (ADA), Iota (MIOTA), Stellar (XLM), Eos, NEO, Tron (TRX), Zcash (ZEC), Binance Coin (BNB), and Tezos (XTZ). The company has long supported cryptocurrencies, their promises to expand their offering are reasonable and accurate. Overall, eToro is definitely a very good platform for trading cryptocurrencies.
- Shares: you will find all those that are listed on the main Stock Exchanges, in which you will have many actions of all kinds to choose from.
- Stock indices: the most popular internationally.
- Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs): these are investment funds whose shares are listed on a regulated market. There are more than 50 of these assets available to trade on the eToro platform.
eToro Deposits, Withdrawals & Fees
1. The payment methods
Before we get into details, the payment methods accepted in eToro include; credit and debit cards, PayPal, NETELLER, iDEAL, Skrill, Fast transfer, Klarna, Wire transfer, and online banking. It should be noted that the available payment and withdrawal methods may vary depending on the country you are in.
2. Minimum deposit required
Your money can be deposited into your eToro account in four simple steps:
- Log in.
- Click on “Deposit funds”.
- Enter the amount and currency.
- Select a payment method.
The minimum required is generally considered quite reasonable. Several systems are offered to deposit money, depending on the one chosen the process will take more or less. This is a brief summary:
- First and subsequent deposits: minimum of $50
- For deposits made by wire transfer, the minimum required for initial deposits and subsequent deposits is $500.
- The maximum deposit figure varies on the payment method chosen.
Expect from the wire transfers, which will take 3-5 days, the transactions will be instantaneous and will have a maximum deposit. Credit or debit cards and WebMoney offer the highest deposit figures at $40.000 and $50.000 relatively. The maximum for Neteller and Skrill is $10,000 and 20.000$ for PayPal.
The minimum deposit amount (except for the first and whatever the chosen payment method) is $50. But it can also vary depending on the location, so if you have any questions on this matter it would be advisable to contact eToro customer service.
3. Minimum volume to trade cryptocurrencies
The minimum investment size for cryptocurrencies on eToro is $25. Notably, this figure is lower than that associated with traditional currencies, stocks, ETFs, commodities, and indices. The minimum amount required to copy another investor from the platform is $200.
4. eToro Money Withdraw
Withdrawing money is simple and must be done with the same method of the deposit was made, or if not possible, the investor will be asked to choose another system. Whichever is chosen, withdrawals on eToro must be at least $50 and carry a fee of $25.
These are the options and their characteristics:
- Credit and Debit card or bank transfer: it can take up to 8 business days.
- Neteller, PayPal, Skrill, WebMoney: between 1 and 2 business days.
5. eToro Fees
First things first, you need to open an account, which is totally free with no management or ticketing fees. Moreover, the charged and stock investment has no commission at all. Also, as previously mentioned, the withdrawals incur a low fee of $5 and there are no clearance fees.
The fees associated with eToro work differently than many other investment platforms, as we have explained above. This may vary depending on the product in question. The most known trading fees are the following:
- Stocks & ETF: When buying a stock or an ETF on eToro, you gain ownership, and the underlying asset is held in your name. There is no commission charged at all, neither in management, rollover, tickets, or additional brokers fees.
- Cryptocurrencies: When buying cryptocurrencies, you gain ownership of the assets. The only trading fees charged by eToro are spreads, as detailed in the table below. The spreads are the difference between the Buy and Sell prices of a certain asset. Spreads are a common way in which trading platforms charge fees.
- CFDs: This is a popular way of trading different assets that allow greater flexibility. CDF trading doesn’t involve the acquisition of real assets and incurs spreads and overnight fees. And to measure the change in the price of one currency in relation to another it uses PIPS (percentage in point), the smallest price change that a given exchange rate can make, and, therefore, refers to the very last digit of a price. These will differ in currencies, commodities, and indices.
Accessibility and Safety
eToro offers its own proprietary trading platform, not as other brokers in the investment industry who rely on third-party solutions to trade. To simplify use, the eToro trading platform offers immediate access to all system options.
Accessibility is a key aspect of the platform, with a variety of menus and options available to investors. Markets can be filtered by categories such as stocks, commodities, currencies, and indices, and other filters can also be applied. There are a host of options available, while the security provisions built into the system have also been praised.
Security is an important aspect of any trading platform and this applies to eToro as well. Therefore, it is reassuring that the company’s developers have gone to great lengths to secure the platform, with brilliant encryption and many other built-in security features. It has gained an outstanding reputation for safety and security and this is fully deserved.
Pros and Cons
In our opinion, you can trade on this platform safely and reliably with the most attractive values on the market by copying the operations of other followers with the highest profit percentages.
Compared to its competitors and other platforms the percentage of criticism on eToro is lower than usual which confirms that this website is legit.
1. Pros
- Free investment in stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies.
- Very intuitive platform.
- Ease of use for newbies.
- It is a regulated broker with strong security features
- It has social trading
- It offers a wide range of financial instruments.
- Reasonable rates apply.
- Little minimum deposit money required.
- Many savvy investors are available.
- Established cryptocurrency platform.
2. Cons
- High commissions on some assets.
- Customer service can be improved.
- Slow money withdrawals.
- The accounts are only available in dollars not in euros.
- Scalping not allowed.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, eToro is one of the most established investment platforms in the world and certainly one of the most successful. It offers a safe and secure environment, with a host of different investment options, and is especially geared towards ensuring that beginners can use the platform effectively.
The great versatility of eToro for the cryptocurrency niche allows you to diversify your investment strategies in this world of digital assets.
Furthermore, eToro was one of the pioneer platforms to adopt cryptocurrencies and this means that those who wish to try cryptocurrency investing on the platform are very well served. The fees are also fair and overall, we can recommend eToro as an ideal solution for investors of all levels of experience imaginable.
The truth is that trying eToro is a very interesting experience since it is not a typical CFD broker, but a social investment platform, in which users share their investments in such a way that other users can imitate them and benefit from their knowledge, with the added attraction that in this online investment platform all of this can be automated.