CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 72%-80.5% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
eToro UK review
Online trading giant eToro lets you buy stocks and trade cryptocurrencies and CFDs with no commission. Find out how it fares overall.
We say
★★★★★
Finder expert rating
★★★★★
Finder expert rating
You say
★★★★★
Customer satisfaction
★★★★★
Customer satisfaction
Wide range of products to suit all
LayoutWhat's in this review?
Zero commission and zero stamp duty with eToro
Other fees may apply. Your capital is at risk.
- Unlimited trades, with no dealing charges or management fees
- Automatically copy the leading traders on the platform
- If your trades get copied you can earn extra money
- Create an account today in a few minutes
What is eToro?
eToro is a trading platform that lets you trade stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), cryptocurrencies, contracts for difference (CFDs), commodities and currencies. Along with low-cost investing, eToro also offers the OpenBook trading platform, which lets users automatically copy and execute another investor’s trades.
Is eToro good?
We’d say so, yeah. eToro has built a reputation as one of the most innovative and popular online investing platforms since its launch in 2007. It currently has over 10 million users worldwide and provides a range of low-cost investing services.
Along with digital trading platforms such as Freetrade and Robinhood, eToro now offers a free investing account. This means users can buy and sell a range of global stocks with no commission.
eToro trading platform
eToro’s free stock account lets you buy and sell a huge range of different types of financial product, including stocks, shares and cryptocurrencies. It has shares from the world’s biggest exchanges and charges nothing in commission. It’s free to create an account, and there’s no limit on how much you can trade.
Main features of eToro’s trading platform include:
- Virtual portfolio. This is its demo account which lets you trade up to the value of $100,000 to practise without using real money.
- Research. This gives you insight into the markets and information from expert investors and leading analysts.
- One click trading. This feature lets you open a position with one-click – great if you tend to repeat your trading habits.
- Stop loss and take profit. This feature allows you to set price points for opening and closing positions to help you protect your investments.
- Professional charting. These let you compare charts or timeframes within charts.
- Offline trading. This lets you place some orders even when the platform is down.
Through eToro, you can even buy fractional shares, and invest in companies like Apple, Amazon, Nike, Twitter and Google.
But, of course there’s no such thing as a free lunch, there are certain provisions.
Commission-free investing is currently only available in countries under FCA and cySEC regulation, which includes the UK and all major European countries.
There’s also a minimum deposit amount of $200 US. Zero commission doesn’t doesn’t apply to any leveraged trades, shorts or stock CFDs.
While you won’t pay commission on basic share buy and sell orders, you’ll still need to pay a $5 US withdrawal fee, and the minimum withdrawal amount is $50.
eToro CFD trading
If you’re more of an advanced trader, eToro allows you to trade contracts for difference (CFDs). These allow you to trade on market volatility without ever having to own the underlying asset. Great if you don’t want a truck full of soybeans rocking up on your doorstep.
Features of eToro’s CFD trading platform include:
- Customised risk management. “Trailing Stop Loss” and “Take Profit” can help you protect your investments.
- Analysis tools. Includes charts, analyst consensus and insider transactions.
- Innovative features. These include One-Click Trading, real-time alerts and interactive newsfeeds.
- Apply for up to 1:30 leverage.
What is leverage?
You’ll see leverage being referred to on the site as a ratio, such as 1:30 that you see above. Leverage allows you to open positions that are larger than your capital. For the example above, for every £1 you trade, you have the effect of £30 capital. Because of this, it is possible to lose more than your initial investment, which makes it riskier. You may have to have the funds available in your account to cover losses.
Is eToro safe?
Yes. eToro is regulated and authorised by the FCA in the UK and also covered by the FSCS, so you’ll be protected for up to £85,000 in the event the company goes bust.
As with any type of investment, it’s your money that’s at risk when you use eToro, and there’s no guarantee of profits.
eToro customer reviews
On consumer review platform Trustpilot, eToro has 2.5 out of 5 stars and a rating of Poor, based on more than 1,500 reviews.
Things are much brighter in the App Store, where the eToro app has 3.9 out of 5 stars based on more than 150 reviews. On Google Play, the eToro app has 4 out of 5 stars based on more than 32K reviews.
Positive feedback included the ease of use and flexibility to switch between stocks and crypto. Negative feedback centred around technical glitches and the user interface experience (updated 21 April 2020).
eToro review: Reddit users’ view
Mostly, Reddit users thought that eToro is easy to use and has a good platform. Most of the negative comments surrounded the hidden fees, the withdrawal charges and the inactivity fees.
How does eToro make money?
eToro makes money by charging a range of fees on certain types of trades. While it’s free to start using eToro, you’ll need to pay for most of its trademark trading features and options.
eToro fees and charges
| Fee type | Cost |
|---|---|
| Basic trades | Free |
| Basic account | Free |
| Withdrawal fee | $5 USD |
| CFD trades | 0.09% spread |
| Conversion fee (GBP to USD) | Pips50 |
| Inactivity fee | $10 USD |
Downsides of eToro
The eToro trading screen can be quite confusing at first, especially when it comes to managing your investment watchlist.
Despite the much-publicised “commission-free” trading option, eToro also comes with a couple of unavoidable fees, mainly around deposits and withdrawals to your account.
To get the most out of its extensive trading platform, you’ll also end up paying a number of standard (and hidden) fees, and these can be confusing for beginner traders.
Signing up for eToro
It takes 30 seconds to create your investing account via the eToro website, but you’ll then need to complete your profile and verify your account. This can take 10-15 minutes.
You’ll need to provide:
- Your name
- Your phone number and email
- Your date of birth
- Your address
- Your National Insurance Number
You’ll also need to answer a series of questions about your recent trading activity and investment knowledge so that eToro can determine your experience level. You’ll then need to outline your trading strategy, including your risk appetite and financial goals.
Finally, you’ll have to verify your phone number and provide a copy of your passport or ID card, and a utility bill or bank statement, in order to verify your identity.
It can take up to 3 business days for your account to be verified.
Using your account
Once you’ve been verified, you can deposit funds and start trading. With the free account, you can access many of the regular eToro features like CopyTrading, virtual trading and TipRanks expert stock analysis.
You can add and remove stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, indices, commodities and currencies to your watchlist, and also track your portfolio.
However, when using the platform, keep in mind that only basic stock buy orders are commission-free. It can be quite easy to get carried away and start dabbling in other types of assets, but these will attract trading fees.
What stocks can I trade on eToro?
You can invest in over 1,000 different global stocks from the world’s leading exchanges, including Apple, Netflix, Google, easyJet, Barclays, Airbus, Adidas. eToro has sorted the stocks available on its site by categories and exchanges to help you find what you’re looking for. It has some handy charts to show you how they are moving in real time at a glance.
What is social trading?
eToro is the leading social trading platform. This means that you can connect with others to share your investment strategies and discuss trading with the user base. You can also copy other traders’ actions in real-time. This is a nice way of getting the hang of how it works and utilising others’ knowledge and experience.
The platform allows you to filter the different traders that you can copy by loads of different things, such as the risk score, how many people already copy them, how many profitable weeks they’ve had and where they’re located. It also has “trending” traders, “top investors”, and investors based on the risk score.
The platform lets you see the users’ average risk score and gains in the last year. Of course, as always, past performance is not an indication of future results.
What are the eToro Club tiers
The eToro club is a tiered membership program that you can add to your eToro account, based on the amount of realised equity you have on the platform. It offers a range of perks including fee discounts, analytical tools and access to events.
You can get additional benefits and features with each upgrade in the eToro club. The tiers are:
- Silver – $5,000+
- Gold – $10,000+
- Platinum – $25,000+
- Platinum+ – $50,000+
- Diamond – $250,000+
Does eToro offer a stocks and shares ISA?
No, eToro does not offer a stocks and shares ISA (individual savings account). It isn’t known whether this is going to be offered in the future. There are plenty of different platforms that you can get an ISA with, so it’s worth taking a look at our stocks and shares ISA comparison if this is what you’re looking for.
Invest in shares with 0% commission on eToro
Other fees may apply. Your capital is at risk.
- Unlimited trades, with no dealing charges or management fees
- Automatically copy the leading traders on the platform
- If your trades get copied you can earn extra money
- Create an account today in a few minutes
Trading platforms similar to eToro
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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. 75% 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.
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.
Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 75% 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.
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.
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