What is eToro?
The Israeli company eToro focuses on providing financial and copy trading services through its social trading and multi-asset brokerage platform. In addition to Cyprus, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, it also has registered offices in these countries. The company was worth $800 million in 2018, and it should be worth $2.5 billion in 2020
Online brokers/investment platforms come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Despite its easy-to-use interface and powerful “social trading” features, Etoro is known for its “award-winning customer service” as well as its low, inexpensive stock trades.
Etoro: An Overview:
When it launched in 2007, it had as a key mission making investing and trading easier for everyone. An attractive, intuitive, and easy-to-navigate Forex trading platform was developed as the first platform. Investors were able to use the website to diversify their portfolios in 2013 after it added stock trading.
CopyTraders and CopyPortfolios, formerly eToro’s trademarked products, were released in 2010 as part of the OpenBook platform. Beginners can now copy other successful investors without having to do much research because of this technology.
EToro introduced Bitcoin as a contract for difference (CFD) in 2014 to familiarize its users with the asset and classified them like stocks. As a result of this, users did not purchase bitcoin, but rather gambled on its price. This type of contract requires the seller to pay the buyer the difference in value between an asset’s current value and its original value at the time of the contract.
A crypto trading platform and wallet were launched by eToro in more than 32 U.S. states in 2019. As well as the purchase of Firmo in 2016, eToro also launched eToroX, a tokenized asset exchange.
It has accumulated $162 million worth of funding since its inception and has accumulated users from 140 countries.
eToro features:
Social trading:
You can automatically copy other traders’ moves using ETORO’s CopyTrader. If you select an investor to copy, just click a button, and you’ll be automatically mirroring their positions (with the option to set a stop-loss to limit your losses).
Users can be copied for a minimum of $200 and a maximum of $500,000. Up to 100 users can copy every trade at the same time. Even if users do not have CopyTrader.com, they can see millions of portfolios, risk scores, and statistics of other traders. (Ironically, they have full access to all public profiles worldwide, but U.S. clients can clone only American users.)
Cryptocurrencies offered:
Customers in the United States can currently trade 18 cryptocurrencies on eToro. TradeStation and Robinhood, two brokerages that provide crypto access, offer less. Some crypto exchanges offer more than 50 cryptocurrencies, however.
The following cryptocurrencies are currently available to traders on eToro: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic, XRP, Litecoin, Dash, Stellar Lumens, NEO, EOS, Cardano, IOTA, Zcash, TRON, Tezos, Dogecoin, Uniswap, and Chainlink.
Crypto trading costs:
The trading fees charged by it depend on market conditions. When buying or selling crypto assets, eToro charges a single spread, unlike some other providers. For Bitcoin trades, the spread was 0.75%, and for Tezos trading, it was 5%. Typically, cryptocurrency spreads are 1.9% to 2.9%. (Check eToro’s website to find the current price.)
To compare, SoFi charges 2-5% markup on crypto transactions, while TradeStation charges 1% on trades up to $100,000 (limited to 0.5% as an introductory offer) and Robinhood charges no fees on trades.
Digital wallet:
For storing cryptocurrency, EToro provides the eToro wallet, a free app available for iOS and Android. Cryptocurrency conversions into fiat currency (the dollar) and vice versa cost 5%, which some users may find a significant hit to profits. You can make up to $10,000 transactions with a minimum of $125.
A user can also use eToro’s platform to transfer cryptocurrency from it to their digital wallet, but eToro notes that this process is one-way and that coins cannot be returned.
Trade cryptocurrency in 43 states:
eToro is currently unavailable to residents of Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, and Tennessee for real-time cryptocurrency trading, despite allowing all U.S. citizens to open a free account.
Copytrader is a program offered by Etoro. What is it?
Copytrader is eToro’s central element of its social trading platform. The trades of a fellow trader can be copied exactly – as if you were selecting the trades of an active fund manager after reviewing their performance. You get free advice in this case! A variety of options can be used to filter candidates:
By copying them, you don’t gain any financial benefit. Copying comes with its own risk! In addition to copying other traders, Etoro offers a feature called Copyfunds, a managed portfolio made up of different assets or a selection of top traders.
Etoro’s pros and cons:
Pros:
- The United States XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ethereum Cash are all readily available to customers.
- It is easy to navigate both the website and app, which are both nearly identical.
- On the platform, you can see what other traders are doing, and you can copy the trades of certain members.
Cons:
- The spreads used for trading vary by coin, but there are no explicit commissions charged. There are some fairly wide spreads here.
- Smaller accounts may have trouble spreading their balances over multiple coins as the minimum purchase is $25 for cryptocurrencies.
- Despite being able to follow some leading traders’ transactions, you will need a large enough balance to copy their trades. Each copy of trade usually costs at least $200.
Costs
Fees charged by eToro depend on where you are located and what types of assets you trade:
- The United States Customers who trade cryptocurrencies receive 0.75%-5.0% commissions depending on the type of currency they are trading. There is no transparency surrounding this cost, as it is built into the execution price.
- The non-U.S. Customers who trade stocks do not pay commissions to open or close long positions. There is a commission of 0.18% on short sales.
- The non-U.S. The purchase of assets in a foreign currency by customers based in the United Kingdom. In the case of U.S. stocks, a conversion fee will be charged to the customer.
- Accounts with no activity for 12 months will incur a $10 inactivity fee.
- United States customers are not charged withdrawal fees, but they must withdraw at least $30.
- A withdrawal fee of $5 is charged outside of the United States.
- In addition to a fee for transferring a cryptocurrency from eToro into your wallet, there is a minimum amount per coin. You can find details in the fees and pricing table.
