eToro Review

eToro offers free stock trading in Europe and has low fees for non-EU clients. On the negative side, the non-trading fees and financing rates are high.

Pros

• Free stock and ETF trading in the EU
• Low fees for non-EU clients
• Transparent fee structure

Cons

• High financing rate
• $25 withdrawal fee
• $10 monthly inactivity fee

It is easy to deposit with a lot of options, including credit cards. However, there is a withdrawal fee, and only USD accounts are available.

Pros

• Credit/Debit card available
• No deposit fee
• User-friendly

Cons

• High withdrawal fee
• Only one account base currency

Account base currencies

eToro only allows USD accounts. This means your funding will be converted by eToro to USD. For example, if you deposit EUR a 0.025% fee will be applied at funding and it will also be applied when you want to withdraw EUR. Alternatively, you can deposit e.g. your credit card in USD, in that case your bank will convert it on its fees.

A convenient way to save on the currency conversion fees is to open a multi-currency bank account, or transfer to both bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. The account opening only takes a few minutes on your phone.

At eToro you can trade with CFDs and forex. There are also real stocks, ETFs, and many cryptos. It also offers innovative services, like social trading or CopyPortfolio.

eToro's product catalog is relatively small, with 47 currency pairs and 19 commodity/index CFDs. It also covers 1,500+ shares as well as an impressive 77 cryptocurrency CFDs.

All instruments can be traded on the long or short side but users should read the fine print because each venue and order type incurs different overnight and weekend holding costs.

CopyPortfolio extends the product catalog because the algorithms can access markets not directly available as CFDs. And, although the broker maintains an aggressive program to avoid conflicts of interest, they act as a counter party, setting bid and ask values that may not match consolidated market feeds.

eToro’s web trading platform is nice looking and easy-to-use. Getting your fee report is a bit of a pain.

eToro has done well merging self-directed trading and copy trading under a unified trading experience. It’s a winning combination.. Ease of use is at the heart of the eToro platform experience. It is easy to carry out basic operations and do things quickly, such as creating several watchlists and adding instruments by searching available markets, as well as placing a trade from each watchlist directly.

CopyPortfolios: One innovative tool is CopyPortfolios, where eToro groups traders into a single fund you can copy trade. CopyPortfolios help bridge the gap for investors who want to use eToro on a passive basis, as they can create a portfolio based entirely on one or more CopyPortfolios. On the other hand, self-directed traders can also use CopyPortfolios to diversify their trading, making it potentially useful for all eToro clients.

Cryptocurrency tools: In addition to self-directed trading across 93 cryptocurrency CFD pairs, users can find crypto trading ideas and copy other individual crypto traders, as well as copy groups of traders. For investors looking to trade the underlying crypto assets, eToroX offers the eToro Mobile wallet app that acts as a custodian using a multi-signature scheme and nearly matches the brand's forex mobile app.

Copy-trading quality: All traders on eToro trade manually. Fully automated trading systems are not permitted, which means when you copy another trader, you can be sure they are placing each trade manually. This is useful to know as many other social trading platforms that aggregate the performance of traders usually permit both discretionary (manual) trades as well as automated strategies, while eToro’s network consists solely of manual trading,MetaTrader:Unfortunately, MetaTrader is not available at eToro.

eToro is regulated by top-tier regulators, the FCA and the ASIC, and also by Cysec. However, it is not listed on any exchange, does not disclose financial information and does not have a bank parent.

The bottom line is that eToro is regulated, licensed, and is a safe broker to trade forex and CFDs with. eToro is considered low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 91 out of 99. eToro is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank.

eToro (UK) Ltd, a Financial Services Company, is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the license FRN 583263. eToro (or one of its subsidiaries) is also authorised by Australian Securities & Investment Commission (Licensce 491139) and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (license # 109/10). Learn more about Trust Score.

eToro's customer service is hard to reach, there is no live chat or phone support. The email support can be slow and does not give fully relevant answers.

The contact page refers to 24/5 support but there are no phone numbers listed—except for the Australian branch. A Help Center link leads to an FAQ and help database as well as a login gate for a low-tech ticketing system, a type of support abandoned by most businesses in the last decade. A phone number link on that page leads back to the contact page, inviting client frustration. There is live online chat for existing clients. The platform-based customer service link leads back to ticket and database menus. eToro maintains active Twitter and Facebook accounts, which are used primarily for marketing and analysis entries.