eToro Broker Review

eToro is a renowned social trading and multi-asset broker that provides direct trading and copy trading services to traders of all experience levels — offering Forex, stocks, cryptocurrencies, and a range of other financial assets.

This broker review will pay attention to the important factors you need to consider to know whether eToro is the right broker for you.

Key Pros and Cons

First, let us take a quick look at some of the merits and demerits that come with trading with eToro:

Company Information

Founded in 2007, eToro is an online trading broker that aims to make online financial trading accessible to traders across the globe. The broker allows traders to buy and sell various financial assets, including forex trading, stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, while also making it possible for traders to copy the trades of other traders.

The eToro brand is used by multiple entities with regulated offices in the United Kingdom (London), Cyprus (Limassol), Seychelles (Mahe), USA (New Jersey), and Australia (Sydney). These entities are as follows:

1. eToro (Europe) Ltd., regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission CySEC: office address: 4 Profiti Ilia Street, Germasogeia, Limassol, Cyprus.
2. eToro UK, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA; office address: 24th floor, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AB, United Kingdom.
3. eToro Australia, regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), office address: Level 19, 9 Hunter Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia.
4. eToro USA LLC, regulated by Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), office address: 221 River St., 9th Floor Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA
5. eToro Seychelles, regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles; office address: Room B11, 1st Floor, Providence Complex, Providence, Mahe’, Seychelles

With a community of over 20 million clients from across 140 countries, eToro is one of the leading social trading networks worldwide. They are built on the core values of simplicity, innovation, transparency, and quality.

One of eToro’s stand-out features is that it created a community of traders and investors, which is in contrast to the usual solitary feeling of trading online. Also, the CopyTrader functionality allows traders to copy the trades of talented, experienced, and professional investors.

The brokerage firm was founded by Yoni Assia and Ronen Assia and has significantly grown to include several team members with amazing portfolios.

Why Trade with eToro?

Here are some of the key features we like about trading with eToro:

Regulation

eToro is a multi-regulated online financial service provider:

In Australia, the broker is licensed and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which is a tier-1 financial service regulator.

In the United Kingdom, the broker is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

In the EU, it is licensed and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), which is a Tier 2 regulator, or less stringent, for example, than the ASIC, FCA, FINRA, or CFTC. eToro (Europe) Ltd is also registered with De Nederlandsche Bank N.V. (DNB) as a provider of crypto services.

In the US, eToro is authorized and regulated by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The broker’s services to traders in other parts of the world are handled by eToro (Seychelles) Ltd, which is regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles.

Here’s a breakdown of eToro’s regulation in different regions:

eToro’s strict regulation in multiple jurisdictions (with ASIC, FCA, CySEC, and others) is an indication of the broker’s reputation and its capacity to operate in various countries around the world, including in regions where other brokers are prohibited. For instance, some brokers are restricted from operating in certain countries due to their lack of regulatory licenses.

eToro takes the necessary precautions to ensure that clients’ funds are secured and protected by industry-leading security protocols. Client funds are held in segregated bank accounts at reputable tier 1 European banks. The broker employs the highest standards of cyber security and will never share clients’ private data without permission.

Overall, we can say that eToro’s regulation is commendable and can significantly help to improve trust.

KYC Procedure for Account Creation and Depositing

Registering with eToro is easy; it will take you only a few minutes to complete your profile. But you will have to provide some KYC documents for account verification, which can take a day or so.

Go to the broker’s website and scroll to the top-right corner; click on the “Sign Up” button, and then follow these steps:

1. Personal contact details: Fill in your name, email address, and telephone number. Alternatively, you can sign up with your Facebook or Google logins.
2. Additional contact details: Fill in your date of birth and address.
3. Choose a password: You are required to choose a strong password to ensure the security of your trading account.
4. Choose your trading platform: eToro offers an in-house-developed trading platform that is available as a WebTrader and a mobile app.
5. Declare financial status and funding: At this point, you are required to disclose your estimated annual income, the level of your savings, how much you will invest, and the source of your funds. While this might feel pretty uneasy, it is the industry standard.
6. Check the relevant box: By checking the relevant box, declare that you have read and agree with all the legal documentation of eToro, including Terms and Conditions, Order Execution Policy, Privacy Policy, and Risk Disclosure Notice.
7. Upload other KYC documents for verification: You are required to upload some ID documents, such as a Passport, National ID card, or Driver’s License, as well as proof of residency (utility bill or bank account statement), to complete your account verification process.

When you have completed your profile and uploaded your documents, you will need to wait for the broker to approve your account. This review is done within one business day. When the broker has approved your trading account, you will need to fund your account using any of the payment methods provided by the broker. Once your account is funded, you can start trading immediately. The minimum deposit required to start trading at eToro is $200.

Account Types

The following trading account options are available at eToro: Retail, Professional, Islamic, and Demo accounts. While the retail and professional accounts are live trading account options, the demo account is explicitly designed for practice purposes.

Islamic Account

eToro also offers a swap-free account type suitable for clients of Muslim faith, as there will be no interest fees credited or debited. The minimum deposit is $1,000.

Demo Account

In addition to the live trading account, the broker provides traders with the demo account. It is a practice account that comes loaded with $100,000 in virtual funds. New traders can use it to familiarize themselves with the broker’s platform before opening a real account. Seasoned traders can also use the demo account to test-run their trading strategies before implementing them on the live trading account.

Trading fees and other costs

Trading fees matter a lot in trading because they can affect profitability. This is why it is good to choose a broker like eToro with low trading fees. Just like other brokers, eToro’s trading fees can be categorized into two groups:

• Trading fees: spreads, commissions, and overnight financing rates;
• Non-trading fees: account management fees, deposit and withdrawal fees, non-activity fees.

Here is a breakdown of those two categories to know whether eToro really charges competitive trading fees.

Spreads

eToro’s costs are covered in the spread, and there are overnight/weekend fees for CFD positions. The implication is that their spreads are a bit higher than those of other brokers that offer raw spread.

At eToro, the spread starts at 1.0 pip for the currency CFDs. Here are the spreads for various major currency pairs:

• EUR/USD: 1.0 pip
• USD/JPY: 1.0 pip
• GBP/USD: 2.0 pips
• USD/CHF: 1.5 pips
• NZD/USD: 2.5 pips

Here, we compare the eToro’s spreads for EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/JPY with those of other brokers.

eToro’s spreads for commodity CFDs start from 2 points, which is actually the spread for copper. The spreads for other commodities are as follows:

• Oil: 5 points
• Gold: 45 points
• Silver: 5 points
• Natural Gas: 10 points
• Platinum: 35 points

eToro’s spreads for other assets are as follows:

• Stock CFDs: start from 0.09%
• Indices: start from 4 points
• Cryptocurrencies: start 0.75%

Commissions

eToro does not charge any fees on trades. Zero-commission means that no broker fee will be charged when opening or closing a trading position. They make money on the spread except where otherwise stated.
This means:

• No management fees
• No rollover fees
• No ticket fees
• No additional broker fees

Financing charges

CFD positions that stay open overnight incur financing charges relative to the value of the position. It is essentially an interest payment to cover the cost of the leverage that you use overnight. Weekend fees are overnight fees that are charged for keeping positions open over the weekend. Therefore, a weekend fee is triple the overnight fee.

Rollover (weekend/overnight) fees change from time to time based on global market conditions. Please be aware that fee changes always apply to open positions.

Overnight fees are charged every night between Monday and Friday at 17:00 EST for open CFD positions. In addition, the weekend fee (x3) is charged on Fridays for most stocks, ETFs, and indices CFDs and Wednesday for most Cryptocurrencies, Commodities, and Currencies.

The formula for the calculation of overnight financing charges that eToro uses is fairly standard and is as follows:

Fee x amount of units.

Deposit fees

eToro will not charge any deposit fees, which is a fairly standard practice among various online retail brokers – for more details see Deposit Methods

Withdrawal fees

eToro charges a low fixed fee of $5 for withdrawals to cover some of the expenses involved in international money transfers. FX rates apply to non-USD deposits and withdrawals.

Withdrawals are conducted in USD. Any other currency will have to be converted and, therefore, will incur a conversion fee – for more details see Withdrawal Methods

Administration fees

The broker does not charge any administration fees.

Inactivity fees

After 12 months with no login activity, a $10 monthly inactivity fee will be charged on any remaining available balance. No open positions will be closed to cover the fee.

Overall on Fees

While eToro offers zero commission fees and zero administration fees, its spreads are a bit higher than those of other brokers, especially for currency pairs. The broker also charges high fees on dormant accounts through inactivity fees. However, we like that there are no deposit fees, and the withdrawal fees are quite fair.

Desktop Trading Platforms

The broker provides traders with a proprietary trading platform that is designed to ensure seamless trading of multiple financial assets.

eToro Trading Platform

The multi-asset trading platform was developed in-house. Thanks to its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, it allows beginners and expert traders to trade over 2,000 financial assets with ease. The platform also features some social trading features.

Some of the essential features we love about the broker’s trading platform include the following:

1. CopyTrader
2. One-click trading functionality, which enables clients to open a new position with a single click.
3. ProCharts, a professional-grade technical analysis tool that allows you to compare charts from different financial instruments and different time frames.
4. Research Tab
5. Trailing Stop Loss
6. CopyPortfolios, which are ready-made, investment strategies, offering thematic investment, such as medical cannabis, driverless cars, and people-based portfolios.

WebTrader

The broker’s social trading platform is available as a WebTrader. This web version can run directly on modern web browsers — Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge — without the need to download or install any software first.

Copy-trading with eToro

eToro has an established social trading platform that is made up of over 20 million traders from about 140 countries. The social trading platform operates using the CopyTrader tool. With this tool, traders can get to choose the expert traders they want to copy by clicking on the “Copy People” tab.

In the eToro Copy Trading area, you will find various assessment parameters you can use to evaluate the traders to copy. By clicking on the statistics tab in the trader’s feed, you will discover the essential information about each trader, such as equity growth, maximum drawdowns, number of wins, number of losses, and so on.

eToro’s social trading is helpful for amateur and experienced traders alike. While new traders can benefit from the experience of seasoned traders, experienced traders can use the platform to interact with other expert traders.

Some of the top traders on eToro include Jay Edward Smith, Olivier Danvel, Jeppe Kirk Bonde, and more. eToro offers the Popular Investors Program. Eligible memebers of this program are only traders that are worth being copied by other traders. The program is very rewarding too. For instance, traders in the Elite Popular investor category can be paid up to 2% of their assets under management (AUM). This is to say that if you are managing an asset of $20.000.000 with 1000 people copying, then you can be sure to earn 400.000$ per year.

Mobile Trading Platforms

The broker also makes their proprietary social trading platform available as a mobile app. The mobile app narrows down the functionality of the social trading platform to the small screens of mobile handheld devices. It allows users to manage their portfolios, follow markets, copy traders, and perform any action available on the platform from their smartphone device.

The mobile app can be downloaded from the relevant app stores and used to trade and invest anytime and anywhere, provided an internet connection. You can access the app stores from eToro’s website.

Trading Instruments

eToro allows clients to trade over 2,000 financial instruments across different asset classes, including stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs on forex, indices, stocks, commodities, and more. The number is quite fair when compared with other big brokers, such as OANDA and Fusion Markets.

Forex

With an average of more than $4 trillion a day in trading volume, the foreign currency exchange (forex) market is reputed for being the biggest market in the world. It is known for its volatility, with changes happening in a matter of seconds, which makes it a great market for short-term speculation.

Forex pairs are traded via the eToro platform as CFDs, meaning you don’t need to purchase the underlying asset when you trade them. CFD trading means that the trades are executed in-house, so the broker is a market maker.

eToro offer over 40+ minor, major and exotic currency pairs, including EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, USDJPY, EURJPY & USDCAD, which is a bit fewer than what other forex brokers offer. But what truly makes eToro stand out is its social trading community that is by far the largest in the world. Experienced traders with a track record of success can display their trading profile, and interested traders can copy their trades. There are many parameters you can use to assess the trading records of the gurus to choose the one that meets your risk appetite.

eToro’s trading cost for currency pairs is fair, with the average spread on EUR/USD being 1.0 pip, and the broker doesn’t charge commissions. Being a market maker, trades are executed internally, with a good execution speed and no slippages. However, experienced traders don’t always like market makers because of the likelihood of conflict of interest. The maximum Forex leverage that can be accessed is 1:400, but for EU residents, that is only available to professional account holders. Retail account holders in the EU can only get a maximum of 1:30 leverage.

Stocks

Globally, stocks are renowned for being a mid-term investment that provides traders with a vast range of trading options. Economic events, such as earnings reports, new products, and changes in competitors’ stock prices, can affect the prices of stocks to a large extent.

At eToro, you can trade over 2000 stocks from across 17 exchanges, and you may choose to trade real stocks or CFDs. You trade real stocks by opening a non-leveraged position. When you open a non-leveraged position on a stock, the stock is purchased and held in your name. You can also trade fractional shares, where you can buy as little as a is $50 worth of a stock whose share price is $1,000. However, you can only go long on the stock and never short.

Trading stock CFDs allows you to trade in either direction: go long or go short. You can also make use of leverage to magnify your position size to increase your profit potential.

Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that are traded via decentralized networks that are based on blockchain technology, which is a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. Since cryptocurrencies are not generally issued by any central authority, they are still poorly regulated.

The crypto broker offers a good selection of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Cardano (ADA) & XRP. And the broker allows traders to trade cryptocurrencies as underlying assets.

The eToro’s investment committee offers a unique CryptoPortfolio investment strategy that offers exposure to the market.

Commodities

eToro offers access to various commodity markets, including oil and gas. Like other major gold brokers, on eToro you can also find precious metals such as gold & platinum. Interestingly, commodities are traded on eToro as CFDs, and traders do not need to purchase the underlying asset to trade them. At the moment, eToro offers about 31 commodity CFDs for trading. CFDs enable you to play sell (short) positions, leveraged trades, and fractional ownership. With a retail account, you can have a maximum of 1:30 leverage if you are an EU resident. For non-EU residents, the leverage can be higher.

ETFs

eToro offers over a hundred ETFs for trading, and you can either trade the real assets or the CFDs. All leveraged ETF positions in the UK, under FCA regulations, and all positions in Australia, under ASIC regulations, are executed as CFDs.

In the UK, you can invest in real ETFs by opening a buy (long) and non-leveraged position. The ETFs are purchased and held in your name. However, you can buy a leveraged position if you are trading ETF CFDs. CFD trading also allows you to take a short position on the asset. eToro’s ETF offering includes SPY, VXXB, TLT, HMMJ & QQQ.

Indices

eToro offers about 17 equity indices from different markets across the globe. The CFD broker allows you to trade indices as CFDs. Thus, you can open leveraged buy (long) or sell (short) positions. Popular indices offered by eToro include GER30, NSDQ100, DJ30, SPX500 & FRA40.

Trade Execution

eToro runs its model as a market maker. As you may know, the market maker trade execution model comes with many benefits, including lightning-fast trade execution, tight spreads, and zero commissions.

As a market maker, eToro actively quotes two-sided markets in a particular security, providing bids and offers along with the market size. Thus, they provide liquidity and depth to markets and profit from the difference in the bid-ask spread.

eToro provides trading services for investors to keep financial markets liquid. They display buy and sell quotations for a guaranteed number of shares. Once the broker receives an order from a buyer, they immediately sell off their shares from their inventory. This allows them to complete the order hassle-free. In addition, the broker earns a profit through the spread between the securities bid and offer price.

eToro does not appear to offer STP (Straight Through Processing) or ECN (Electronic Communications Network) execution.

Deposits

The broker allows traders to fund their trading accounts using a range of seamless payment methods, including bank wire transfer, credit/debit cards, and e-Wallets such as Skrill, PayPal, and Neteller.

Making deposits is fast and easy; you are only required to click on “deposit funds,” set your amount, and choose whichever method you prefer.

It is important to note that the time taken to process transactions is dependent on the payment method in use as follows:

Withdrawal Methods

The payment methods available at eToro for account withdrawals include credit/debit cards, bank transfers, and bank wire transfers.

To withdraw your funds, you should log in to your secure client portal and click on the “withdraw funds” tab on the left-hand side of a trading platform. Then, you enter the amount you wish to withdraw, complete the form, and click submit.

It is important to note that funds can be withdrawn up to the value of the balance of your eToro account, minus the amount of margin used. Therefore, before you make a withdrawal request, you should ensure that you have the amount available in your balance.

eToro processes withdrawal requests within one (1) business day, provided they have all the required information. The time that it takes to receive your payment can depend on the payment method used. For example, E-Wallets take around one business day, whereas bank transfers and card payments can take between 3-8 business days to show in your account.

Customer Support Contacts

The broker provides traders with a knowledgeable client support team who are always available to all clients’ general, technical, and account-based inquiries. The support team can be reached through any of the following contact channels:

1. Live Chat is an interesting contact channel that allows traders to send their trading inquiries to the broker’s client support team. To access the Live Chat function, you will need to log into your live trading account to start the live sessions. Then, the broker’s support team responds fast within seconds via Live Chat.
2. Email contact – There is no specific email address on the website; however, you can send a query via the “Open a New Ticket” button on the customer service page.
3. FAQs – The “help center” of the broker’s website contains various FAQs that answer some of the common questions that traders may have.
4. Social media channels: The broker can be reached via social media channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube

Research and Educational Materials

eToro appreciates the role that research and educational resources play in improving clients’ trading skills and knowledge. As a result, they make available a good selection of learning resources, such as learning articles, trading guides, videos, market analysis, webinars, and news that keeps traders up-to-date with the latest happenings in the financial markets.

The broker’s research team carries out an in-depth analysis of the various financial assets and come up with educative content, including:

1. News reporting and commentary
2. Technical analysis on markets
3. Video analysis and commentary
4. The week ahead on key markets

Security and Money Guarantees

You should consider the security and the money guarantee provided by your online trading broker since the safety and security of your account are of paramount importance. This is why at BestBrokers.com, we insist that you should always trade with a well-regulated broker.

eToro’s numerous regulatory agencies — ASIC, FCA, CySEC, and more — are committed to ensuring the optimal protection of investors’ and clients’ funds. The maximum amount of funds that can be insured may vary depending on the regulatory authority. For instance, CySEC ensures that clients’ funds are insured by up to €20,000, while FCA enforces up to £85,000.

In addition, the broker keeps clients’ funds in a segregated bank account that is maintained differently from the broker’s funds to ensure the safety of clients’ funds even in the face of bankruptcy.

In furtherance, eToro safeguards all clients’ personal information using SSL encryption. For more enhanced security, the broker uses two-factor authentication, which adds an extra step to the login process. With the two-factor authentication, a verification code is sent to your mobile phone, and you are required to input the code to complete the login process.

Conclusion

We have carefully reviewed eToro, and we believe that the broker is a good option for beginner traders to consider, especially those who intend to copy the trades of experienced traders. The eToro brand is regulated by multiple financial authorities, including ASIC, FCA, CySEC, and more. Moreover, the broker offers multiple financial instruments across different asset classes. Some of the essential features of the broker include the following:

• Zero commissions
• Proprietary trading platform
• A large variety of traded instruments
• A good selection of educational resources
• Marked up spreads
• Fast trade execution

E. Ifeanyi