eToro Broker Review

Is eToro safe?

eToro offers a robust award-winning platform and trading product that is very different from other brokers.

Recently winning awards at Finovate for Best in Show 2015 and 2017 for leadership in the Financial Technology industry, eToro has received attention from the trading community for their innovation in technology.

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eToro is a well-regulated broker with regulation from all three major international regulators. eToro (Europe) Ltd has been regulated by CySEC (license 109/10) since 2010, eToro (UK) Ltd has been regulated by the FCA (license 583263) 2013, and eToro AUS Capital Pty Ltd has been regulated by ASIC (license 491139) 2017.

Clients should be aware that the quality of the trading advice coming from the eToro community varies and should be considered unreliable until it has been well vetted.

Because of eToro’s strong commitment to regulation and regulatory processes that are designed to protect client funds and legal operations on the platform, we consider eToro a safe broker with which to trade.

Trading Conditions

Account Types

eToro offers different types of accounts for its customers – a demo account, a basic account, and a premium account.  The basic and premium accounts are identical during the signup, with the benefits premium accounts showing once a deposit is made.

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Demo Account – Since this account is 100% free there are few features. After opening an account with eToro, you will receive this demo account with 100,000 USD to help you grow accustomed to the platform and practice trading.

Basic Account – This is the basic live account available with eToro. This account gives you access to a free demo account, plus eToro’s exclusive promotions, which are deals and savings sent to users via email. The minimum deposit is 200 USD.

Premium Account – The premium account is for those depositing a minimum of 20,000 USD and may only available after passing a test to determine suitability, depending on your location. You receive a demo account, the same features of a basic account, premium management of your portfolio by a trained professional.

Cryptocurrency Trading

As the winner of Best Cryptocurrency Broker 2018 (FX Empire), eToro has more cryptocurrency pairs to trade than most other brokers. The currencies available to you are Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum Classic, Ethereum, Litecoin & Ripple. The screenshot below is the cryptocurrency overview of the trading platform.

Spreads and Commissions

Spreads at eToro are higher than at many other brokers, but as their platform is proprietary and they are the market maker, there is no opportunity for slippage.

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Broker

Trading Conditions

Base Currencies

EURUSD (Standard)

Trading Cost (Standard)

EURUSD (Best)

GBPUSD (Best)

USDJPY (Best)

Commission

eToro

4/ 5

USD

1.00 pips

USD 10

1.00 pips

2.00 pips

1.00 pips

USD 0

CM Trading

4/ 5

EUR, USD

1.50 pips

USD 15

1.70 pips

2.60 pips

1.70 pips

USD 0

IQ Option

3/ 5

EUR, GBP, USD

0.80 pips

USD 8

0.80 pips

1.30 pips

0.90 pips

USD 0

Deposit & Withdrawal fees

There are both deposit and withdrawal fees at eToro. eToro only uses USD as a wallet currency, so depending on what currency you are depositing in, you will be charged a conversion fee, measured in pips from your home currency to USD. For EUR/USD it is a 250 pip conversion fee, and for GBP/USD it is 50 pips, which is approximately 2.5% on Euro deposits and 0.5% on Pound Sterling deposits.

The minimum withdrawal amount at eToro is 50 USD, and a fee of 25 USD is charged on all withdrawals regardless of the amount.

Inactivity Fee

A fee will be charged to all accounts that don’t have a login for 12 months. A fee of 10 USD will be charged monthly until the account owner logs in, making the account active again.

eToro for Beginners

eToro’s web platform is very easy to use and is a big draw for beginner traders.  With its unique integrated social component, advice and trading opportunities are always available from a community of traders.  The customer support ticket system is open 24/7, but there are no live chat or telephone options found at other brokers.  The focus at eToro is simplicity and fun, marking them out as a unique prospect among their peers.

Educational Material

The eToro trading academy has a small set of e-courses and videos that teach traders the basics of trading; more from an overview perspective rather than in-depth courses that are sometimes found at brokers. Webinars are held occasionally, which approach more granular topics that have a connection to current market conditions.

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Broker

Beginner Course

Advanced Course

Well Structured Education

Education Quality

Webinars

eToro

No

No

No

Low

Yes

CM Trading

No

No

No

Medium

Yes

IQ Option

No

No

No

Medium

No

Analysis Material

The analysis material comes from the community of traders on the eToro platform. The news feed is central to the web-based trading platform and is a never-ending unfiltered list of trading ideas and accompanying graphs.  This analysis material is generated by the community, and the accuracy of this information should be considered poor until proven otherwise.

Customer Support

Following the explosive growth in popularity of eToro from the end of 2017, customer service started using a ticketing system for maintaining client relationships and ensuring all clients get answers. While customer service is open 24/7 via live chat and the community of traders is available to help with trading and platform questions, there is no way to contact eToro by phone.

Trading Platform

Etoro has developed a proprietary trading platform available in the browser and on mobile.  The web-based platform is very customisable, so you can select what currencies, commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies you want to have in an easy-to-reach dashboard.

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Broker

Platform Choice

Copy Trading

Platforms

eToro

4/ 5

Yes

etoro

CM Trading

4/ 5

Yes

MT4

WebTrader

IQ Option

4/ 5

No

IQ option

To see more information about a currency pair, click on one in your watchlist to show detailed graphs for any time range you want.  While this is no replacement for technical analysis, it does provide a degree of insight with little effort.

Trading Tools

CopyTrader – eToro are pioneers in the area of copy trading and have invested time and energy to launch new and unique features.  CopyTrader allows you to copy or mimic the trades of any of the active traders in the brokerage.

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Broker

Economic Calendar

Autochartist

Trading Central

Trading View

Free VPS

eToro

No

No

No

No

No

CM Trading

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

IQ Option

Yes

No

No

No

No

Filters are used to find traders to copy based on their gains, location, preferred assets etc.  A more advanced search is also available.

eToro also groups traders by Trending, Most Copied and Low Risk so you can find the right trader to copy.

**Past performance is not an indication of future results.**

CopyPortfolios –  CopyPortfolios is the latest in innovation from eToro.  It allows traders to invest in a fund or group of top-performing traders on eToro.  It also allows investment in a market fund which bundles together all asset classes in a single market strategy.  This kind of risk mitigation and diversification system is unique to eToro and a powerful tool for new traders.

eToro in their own words

Evaluation Method

We value transparency and openness in the way we review the partners. To bring transparency to the forefront, we have published our review process that includes a detailed breakdown of the eToro offering. Central to that process is the evaluation of the reliability of the broker, the platform offering of the broker and the trading conditions offered to clients, which are summarised in this review. Each one of these is graded, and an overall score is calculated and assigned to the broker.

eToro risk statement

Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. eToro would like you to know that: eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFDs. Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 77% of traders lose money 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. Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Cryptoassets are volatile instruments which can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading cryptoassets is unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework.

Overall

eToro has been recognised across the industry for its innovative and social approach to trading. There are few similarities between the eToro platform and other platforms offered by traditional brokers, so any trader changing brokers will need to learn new software.

eToro focuses on accessibility for traders who want a simple, fun and collaborative platform. It falls a little short when it comes to educational material and analysis that would give traders a better view of how the traditional industry operates.

Please note that when you trade with eToro, your capital is at risk.

Editorial Team

 

Chris Cammack
Head of Content

Chris joined the company in 2019 after ten years experience in research, editorial and design for political and financial publications. His background has given him a deep knowledge of international financial markets and the geopolitics that affects them. Chris has a keen eye for editing and a voracious appetite for financial and political current affairs. He ensures that our content across all sites meets the standards of quality and transparency that our readers expect.

 

Alison Heyerdahl
Senior Financial Writer

Alison joined the team as a writer in 2021. She is the Senior Editor for FXScouts.  She has a medical degree with a focus on physiotherapy and a bachelor’s in psychology. However, her interest in forex trading and her love for writing led her to switch careers. She has a passion for Forex trading and over a decade of editorial experience researching Forex and the financial services industry, producing high-quality content. She hosts a weekly podcast, “Let’s Talk Forex,” alongside her colleague, Chris, and has produced over 100 Forex educational videos for the FXScouts YouTube channel. She also writes weekly technical analyses and has tested and reviewed over 100 Forex brokers.

 

Ida Hermansen
Financial Writer

Ida joined our team as a financial writer in 2023. She has a degree in Digital Marketing and a background in content writing and SEO. In addition to her marketing and writing skills, Ida also has an interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Her interest in crypto trading led to a wider fascination with Forex technical analysis and price movement. She continues to develop her skills and knowledge in Forex trading and keeps a close eye on which Forex brokers offer the best trading environments for new traders.