ETORO IN-DEPTH REVIEW
Products: Social Trading, CFD, Forex/currencies, stocks, commodities, indices (global markets available) |
Welcome Bonuses: 30% deposit bonus for new customers, use code ebonus (with applied requirements) 
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ENTERING THE FOREX MARKETS IN 2007
eToro's platform is the original and leading social trading software in the market. Since eToro started in 2007 130 Million trades have been placed on behalf of its customers making it the dominant social trading site that is well trusted, respected and utilised globally by professional traders and copiers. SOCIAL INVESTMENT NETWORK eToro refers to itself as a Social Investment Network, but essentially the company is providing two main aspects 1, the ability for individuals to place trades and take positions in forex, CFDs, commodities and indices (much the same as other CFD and Forex trading platforms), 2, providing a transparent crowd sourced product with millions of users sharing techniques, knowledge and trader copying functionalities. It is this second part that is the key differentiator between eToro and other trading platforms and it is the reason why we recommend that you try eToro over and above other trading sites. SOCIAL TRADING PLATFORMS Users of social trading platforms, myself included, initially ask the question of why would profitable traders openly share the details and secrets of their success in this crown based manner, what do they gain from doing this? The answer is simple, not only do the professional traders make money from their successful trades but the professional traders also get paid a small fee by eToro for every person that is copying them. It’s a win win situation and gives the professional traders a greater incentive to make a profit for their copiers. Whilst the “professional traders” have to use their own equity to place their trades one of the only criticisms that we have of the product is that eToro does not make available the information regarding the values of the traders equity they are using to make their own trades. FEUTURES AND FUNCTIONALITIES eToro OpenBook: The eToro OpenBook is the primary functionality of the eToro platform that provides you with the ability to connect with other eToro investors and traders. This crowd sourcing based capability means that you can view, share and benefit from the cumulative experience and intelligence of millions of eToro users. As the saying goes “two minds are better than one”, so times this by 4.5 Million eToro users from 170 countries and this creates a wealth of information to benefit from in eToros OpenBook. The most beneficial features to check out are the top trader rankings, live trading feed and market pages where you can research, share, discuss and learn from the crowd in the network; but most importantly you will find traders and approaches that will match your trading strategy. Because of the Open, transparent and crowd sourced nature of the eToro social trading platform it makes it possible to find successful traders that specialise in all areas, so for example if you want to concentrate on following traders that take positions trading specific currencies you can. THE COPY TRADER FUNCTION eToro CopyTrader: Top performing traders results are categorised and ranked using eToros algorithm, look for the Live Rankings and the Top Trader rankings. The trader rankings are based on a multitude of criteria including key things such as percentage of winning trades, time the trader has been active, total investment for the period, total winning gain percentage. You can filter and search for winning traders based on the above and many other criteria’s. Once you have found the profitable traders that you want to copy then simply click the green “Copy Trader” button and select how much of your equity you want to assign to the selected trader; you can of course copy as many traders as you choose and you can stop following a trader at any time by simply clicking to unfollow. |
EASE OF USE
eToros platform is one of the most easy to use and intuitive products available. If you are serious about making eToro work for you then you will need to spend time refining your searches to find appropriate traders to copy but asides from this it is very quick and easy to get started. One of the best features of the software is that the stats and metrics related to yours and other traders performance is updated in real time based on a daily or accumulative gain percentage, winning positions ratio and number of trades; giving you the comfort that the displayed information is as accurate as possible. ETORO FEES Copying other traders is free and eToro does not charge commissions. eToro makes its money in the same way as forex trading and CFD platforms by creating a spread and in if applicable they charge a small overnight fee for any positions that remain open. The spread typically varies between 3 and 6 pips and this fee is automatically deducted from any profits that you make from your trades. ETORO STRATEGY Whilst it is very much achievable to make consistent profits using eToro it is important to keep your expectations realistic. From our own experience we can tell you that you shouldn’t expect your balance and equity to change drastically overnight. The multitudes of professional traders have different approaches, some of which take high risk approaches to achieve large gains in short periods and some take more conservative long term approaches. Needless to say that the short term large gains approach carries higher levels of risk and a greater chance of losing some or all of your equity; and vice versa the longer term approach will mean smaller yet more consistent gains. You need to find and select the approach that is line with your risk appetite. For the majority of people smaller gains over long periods of time is the best and safest approach. ETORO EDUCATION CENTER The trading academy/education centre that eToro offers is one of the most comprehensive and helpful of any broker that we have ever used. Each feature has a different purpose as follows: Live Webinars: The purpose is to demonstrate how to use eToros product and how to make the most of the platforms features; in addition there are teachings on how to search and identify which traders to follow. eCourses: the ecourses are based around helping improve your general understanding and skills with regards to financial investments and trading. Topics range from effective strategies, to market analysis techniques, capital management and technical analysis. There is a wealth of information available. Trading videos: The videos in this part of the education centre focus in detail on how to use the OpenBook and CopyTrading features of eToro. We recommend spending some time utilising the education centre to master your use of the platform and better your investment techniques, you may as well take advantage of the free help and advice. Click here to check out and start using eToro 
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