Is Etoro a suitable, reliable, and profitable platform for beginning traders?
Or is it just another hype with Alec Baldwin on the screen?
If you are looking for passive income opportunities you might’ve come across trading platforms.
In my Etoro trading review, I am going to have a look if this is really the right option for you when you are just beginning.
It is always nice if you have someone who is going to give you honest, unbiased, and reliable advice if the program is fulfilling its promises or not, right?
Name: E-toro
URL: https://www.etoro.com/
Founders: Ronen Assia, Yoni Assia, David Ring in 2007
Training and Support: 4
WebHosting: 4.5
Earning Potential: 4.5
Price: FREE TO JOIN, 0% Commission
Overall Rating: 4.2 out of 5
What is E-toro trading?
Its main research and development office is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. In addition to legal entities registered in the US, UK, China, Australia, and Cyprus.
E-toro is a social trading and multi-asset brokerage company that focuses on providing financial and copy trading services.
In addition, eToro is considered safe because its UK and Australian arms are regulated by top-tier financial authorities and it is a well-known fintech startup.
If this sounds a bit too much expert, I am going to break it down in a more convenient way.
Program breakdown
If you join E-toro trading you’ll get the option to trade in a huge variety of assets.
There are hundreds of different financial assets to trade on eToro, across several categories: commodities, crypto assets, currencies, indices, and ETFs.
PROS
1.Account Opening
- Quick
- For Free
- Low Minimum Deposit ($200)
- Fully Digital
2.User friendly
The web platform is very convenient to browse around. You have a feeling that everything is easy to find, well organized.
As Etoro trading is describing itself as social trading (it can remind you also your favorite social network), it is made for people. Therefore it is easy to navigate.
3. Copying the Successful Traders
You can set-up your trades as ”copies” of the successful traders.
That’s an awesome strategy if you are a beginner. You can scroll throughout the traders and choose the one who has shown the best results.
This can turn a bit tricky though if you will just blindly follow the traders with big numbers of followers, but without relevant statistics. ( more about it later)
Some criteria you want to be interested in when choosing the right trader are the time they achieve their results, variety of portfolio, knowledge in their assets.
4. 0%Commissions
You have guaranteed no commissions access to various features within the Etoro trading.
0% commission applies for:
- Opening account
- Management fees
- Buying Stocks
Those services are usually paid at most of the brokers’ websites.
5.Popular Investor- Trading ”Affiliate” Program
To achieve popular investor status, you would need to perform some successful trades. People must therefore know about it, the best way is to spread the word in the blog within the Etoro.
Once you achieve that, you will experience lower spread fees(about them later).
That is how Etoro rewards their successful traders.
By this mean, you are becoming a kind of Affiliate, as you want to get people to ‘join’ your network, by copying your trades, and by that, you will be saving money.
CONS
1.Hidden Fees
Well, to be honest, they are not completely hidden, just hard to find( or believe), with the all fuss about zero commissions.
Because if you are like me, when you see an advertisement stating zero commissions you expect there will be no commissions at all, right?
When you would need to pay here at Etoro?
Spread fees are fees connected to your selling.
Example: Let’s do an example of stocks. You had invested in Google stocks and after some period of time the stock was doing well and you collected enough money, you decide to cash out your profit. The difference between buying position and selling position is the spread fee and that will land into Etoro.
The standard fee, in this case, is 0.09%; that’s not bad I almost hear you saying.
But…You have to calculate the other fees, in this particular case, overnight fees. They vary between 2,9 – 6,9%.
Another fee is the withdrawn fee, which is a flat 5$.
2.Blindly Copying Others
If it would be enough to just copy random traders, everyone using the platform would be rich, right?
That’s not how it works, like by everything in life, what would the majority do, isn’t always the best…
Surprisingly enough, there are plenty (especially beginners) who follow the wrong traders, just because they do have let’s say, 2000 followers.
Copying other traders can be profitable if you choose the right ones. I referred to the attributes earlier in this review.
3.Poor Education
I know the investing niche is super bright and to cover everything it will take a completely new website.
At the same time, I would expect a more deepen education coming from Etoro. Especially considering their expensive ads with Alec Baldwin -:)…
There are in total 7 similar videos called Etoro Trading Academy.
I would call that rather Tutorial than Academy though.
Speaking about Training, did you hear about Wealthy Affiliate?
They have unbeatable online training teaching you everything you need to know about how to be earning money online, and now they have a FREE starter membership.
4.Just One Currency
Even though you can transfer money to Etoro with whichever currency you prefer.
When you decide to trade or withdraw, your money will be always transferred to USD. As you know already, with every conversion some money is staying in the institution making this conversion and taking this money away from…
…Yes from YOU!
Who is Etoro for?
Etoro trading platform is suitable for both experienced investors, as well as total newbies.
If you are a beginner, you just want to be sure you start slowly and very cautiously.
Here are some tips if you decide to start with Etoro and you have no or very few experiences:
- Don’t overtrade– That means basically don’t check your trades every hour, rather give the market some time to evolve by itself
- Don’t blindly follow- Rule valid in a variety of situations. Don’t follow the herd, because often the herd is wrong. Before you decide to follow the trades of someone, make sure that this person has relevant results over a longer period of time. At least 12 months, ideally 5 years.
- Copy trade before you commit your first trade
Use this amazing option Etoro trading is offering. Just when you see how this is working with help of someone else, then you will be confident enough to do it by yourself. Otherwise, you are risking money loss. Being that at the beginning, you might backup from investing in the future. What can be a huge mistake, as investing (done with reasonable risk) can be profitable. - Train with virtual money before you invest
The additional great tool recommended to every starter. Do the first ouch! moments with fake money…
When is it a good time to use it?
In case you are searching for options to invest online and you have a couple of thousands to ”play with”.
If you are searching for passive income, you can just follow successful traders and you are pretty much settled to see how your money is growing, or losing.
Because with any kind of investment you have to consider, losses as well.
I wrote thousands and not hundreds because despite the minimum investment being $200, I don’t think this amount is going to leverage enough money over any period of time.
Why You Should Use the Etoro trading?
Because Etoro trading platform is definitely not a SCAM.
It is one of the cheapest investing platforms to join. They offer a ”relatively safe” option to follow experienced and successful traders. That making it very interesting even for beginners.
They have as well the social site of the business, by that, you can get advice or share some tips with people being in the game for already some time.
That’s breaking the barrier of financial advice being too expensive many times.
I hope I showed you enough insight information in my Etoro trading review and it will be easier for you to decide if this platform is the right place for you to start trading or investing.
In my opinion, investing is a great way to be earning passive income.
However, I would recommend doing it with a certain amount of money (1000+USD) and with a reasonable portion of the risk.
You want to let some time to it before you will see any profit.
Choose the right platform, follow the pattern, be patient and you might earn some great passive income.
P.S.
If you search for passive online income, but you have no thousands of dollars to invest, there is a great opportunity how you can start earning money online on a low budget.
If you like this post, please do share it, and if you have any questions, please leave them below, I would be happy to help you out.
Your friend,
Julius
Disclaimer: eToro is a multi-asset platform that offers both investing in stocks and crypto assets, as well as trading CFD assets.
Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Cryptoassets are volatile instruments that can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading crypto assets is unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework.
This guide is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advice. The author and publisher are not liable for any losses or damages you may incur as a result of you following the advice given on this page. The etoro.com layout and content may change since this content was published.
E-toro Trading
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Pros
- Account Opening
- CopyTrading
- User Friendly
- Popular Traders
- O% Commisions
Cons
- Hidden Fees
- Education
- Limited Currency Operations
- Risk of Blindly Copying
Hi, great post. It sounds like a great program but I’m not at the point that I have several thousand of dollars on hand which is pretty discouraging as I was looking for a way to make money. My goal is to build that kind of money to have ‘to play with’. Your other option sounds pretty good. The name alone, Wealthy Affiliate, sounds promising. I can’t wait to learn more about Wealth Affiliate. I assume it’s like click bank? How does it compare to that?
Thanks so much for this review. Lots of good info.
Hi Jamie. Thank you for stopping by. You can obviously start with smaller money and hope to grow it later along the way. (It’s still more profitable like keeping the ridiculous bank profit) You just want to reach financial security or freedom soon.
You are right, Wealthy Affiliate is really better option for creation your financial freedom.
To be honest click bank is far from Wealthy Affiliate.
While they are both affiliate networks, the TRAINING is something that makes a huge difference between them.
Clickbank is behind in TRAINING. WA has University, where you can learn everything you need in order to start your own business. You can check it here; I hope I could answer your concerns, if not please let me know.
Hi there Julius,
I have used E-Toro in the past when I was dabbling in the CFD markets compared to other platforms out there I didn’t find E- Toro to be a very responsive platform and their charting platform was crude.
And yes, for people who don’t understand spreads that is the hidden cost that bites the most there a lot more platforms that have tighter bid-ask spreads. While they aren’t a scam I just didn’t find any reason that would keep me there. Thanks for the review.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for sharing your experience. Indeed, if you don’t check the spread or any other fees, you can lose pretty much in the end. I know the case where from a profit 400k on the paper, after the fee deduction, just some 250 k was left. It’s really crazy. That’s the thing how the majority of institutions like brokers or traders are working. You want to be careful and do a lot of research before making the final decision, where to invest your hard-earned money. I found investing still a great way to help gain financial security or even freedom, but with the knowledge of the right products.
Hi and thanks for sharing this,
I must admit it feels like I must have been living under a rock for the last years. This whole explosion of online trading platforms has completely passed me by. I can see how the eToro approach works and makes trading a very low barrier to entry proposition for beginners. I have been with E*Trade for nearly 20 years now and I am quite satisfied with their service and the stability and reliability of the platform. So while I am avidly interested in investing and trading, I haven’t looked around at other trading platforms much.
I have a question or two though. You mention that eToro charges overnight fees. Does that mean that it is exclusively designed for day-trading and not for holding positions longer than a day? That would be a major obstacle for me as I hold most of my positions for weeks or months.
I have to say I find it fascinating. Thanks for sharing this.
Best regards
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I checked quickly the E-trade site and it looks that they have a bit fewer options to choose from when investing. But in general, it looks to be working a similar way to E toro. Etoro made it more user-friendly and it is social trading, so you really feel more like Facebook than a trading platform. That’s why the hype at the moment, I think. You are not the first one being surprised about the overnight fees. Yep, it works basically like that: if you hold an open position from 17.00 New York time you pay those fees. Bit crazy, isn’t it?
Hi,
Well E- Toro offers muti-asset platform which makes it unique and also offers a user-friendly web platform that is good for casual investors and beginners.
It is commission free stock trading its fast and seamless, its innovative features like social trading which lets user copy the strategies of other traders but the only drawback is this platform charges high non trading fees plus its withdrawals and inactivity fees.
Overall I feel it is well- tailored for all users as it offers investing in stocks, crypto assets, indices, ETF’s and trading CFD assets, its subtle but very useful.
Great Work!
Cheers!
Hey there,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comment. True, their features are making it easier for people with few or no experiences at all. Copying of the successful traders is one of them. On the other hand, everything looking just perfect is having some hidden flaws, and here are the costs. So if you decide to start with them, I would suggest, you read the ”small letters” below every investment option. If you live in the U.S., I think you might find better options if you just sign up, with one of the providers like vanguard for instance. The costs there are much better for the consumer. In the Europe are the options a bit more limited, but still you might find places with lower fees as E-toro.