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PepperstoneeToro Forex Review
Written by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by John Bringans
Fact-checked by Blain Reinkensmeyer
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 51% 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.
eToro is a winner for its easy-to-use copy-trading platform where traders can copy the trades of experienced investors – or receive exclusive perks for sharing their own trading strategies. I find eToro to be an excellent choice for those focused on copy trading or crypto, though active or high-volume traders might wish to seek out platforms with lower spreads.
With over 5,000 tradeable symbols, including CFDs, forex, crypto, and exchange-traded securities, eToro offers a comprehensive — albeit slightly pricey — trading experience.
-
Minimum Deposit:
$50-$10,000 -
Trust Score:
93 -
Tradeable Symbols (Total):
5461
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eToro pros & cons
Pros
- eToro was founded in 2007 and is well-regulated, earning a Trust Score rating of Highly Trusted.
- eToro is excellent for social copy trading and cryptocurrency trading.
- Fantastic for ease of use thanks to its user-friendly web platform and the eToro mobile app that is great for casual and beginner investors.
- eToro continues to expand its available range of markets as a multi-asset broker with over 5,000 symbols available.
- Offers indemnity insurance of up to EUR 1 million per client in the EU, U.K., and Australia.
- eToro offers spot Bitcoin ETFs, in addition to a handful of popular crypto assets in the U.S.
- VIP-style perks are available for club members and popular investors that reach higher tier status.
- eToro's expanded research content includes its Digest & Invest series, Market Bites podcast, and weekly videos and articles.
- eToro has significantly expanded its educational content with new courses and an extensive selection of materials as part of its eToro Academy offering.
Cons
- Trading forex and CFDs at eToro is slightly pricier than most of its competitors.
- Algo trading strategies are not supported at eToro.
- Mandatory stop-loss and take-profit may hinder certain trading strategies.
- Trading Central research and tools are only available to certain eToro Club members who have reached higher Club tiers.
Overall Summary
| Feature |
eToro
|
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
|
| Trust Score | 93 |
| Offering of Investments |
|
| Commissions & Fees |
|
| Platform & Tools |
|
| Research |
|
| Mobile Trading |
|
| Education |
|
ForexBrokers.com has been reviewing online forex brokers for over eight years, and our reviews are the most cited in the industry. Each year, we collect thousands of data points and publish tens of thousands of words of research. Here's how we test.
Is eToro safe?
eToro is considered Highly Trusted, with an overall Trust Score of 93 out of 99. eToro is not publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by three Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), one Tier-2 regulators (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and one Tier-4 regulator (High Risk). eToro is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and regulated in the European Union via the MiFID passporting system. Learn more about Trust Score or see where the different eToro entities are regulated.
| Feature |
eToro
|
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2007 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No |
| Bank | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 3 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 1 |
Offering of investments
eToro offers a total of 5461 tradeable symbols. The following table summarizes the different investment products available to eToro clients.
Usability: As a multi-asset broker, eToro goes above and beyond to make the experience smooth for traders. For example, eToro provides the ability to select between trading CFDs and the underlying assets directly from the trade-ticket window. A subtle feature, but very useful. eToro also recently added options trading to its range of instruments that you can trade across asset classes as part of its multi-asset brokerage offering.
Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency trading is available at eToro through CFDs and through trading the underlying asset (e.g. buying Bitcoin). eToro also offers the newly-approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. With its large number of crypto assets – both CFDs and the underlying assets – eToro was our No. 1 broker for Crypto Trading for our 2024 Annual Awards.
Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to residents of the U.K. or the Netherlands. In addition, cryptocurrency trading at eToro is not available in Russia.
| Feature |
eToro
|
|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 5461 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 55 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
Commissions and fees
eToro is a market-maker broker and lists a typical variable spread of 1 pip on the EUR/USD, which is slightly higher than the industry average. Considering its trading fees, retail traders don't choose eToro for its spreads, but rather for its social copy trading platform capabilities.
VIP accounts: eToro offers a VIP club (called eToro Club) with five tiers of membership that range from Silver to Diamond. These tiers are for traders who maintain balances between $5,000-$250,000 and feature varying benefits depending on the level of membership. VIP perks range from access to Trading Central, to discounted withdrawal and deposit fees, to a dedicated account manager – among other VIP-style benefits.
Popular Investor program: eToro's Popular Investor program (for traders who allow other investors to copy their strategy) has four levels – ranging from Cadet to Elite – where traders can become eligible for various perks. To qualify for the Cadet tier you must have more than $1,000 in account equity, attract $500 in customer assets that copy your strategy, and maintain a risk score below 7 for at least two months. Benefits available to Popular Investors include spread rebates, monthly payments, and even a management fee for those who reach elite status.
Cryptocurrency trading: Overall, eToro’s pricing is close to the industry average for trading physical cryptocurrency. For each buy and sell position, users pay a single fixed fee of 1% (on top of the spread) on each side of the trade (both when opening a closing a position).
While trading bitcoin has become a little more expensive (when compared to its prior pricing at 0.75%), eToro has leveled the playing field on nearly 200 crypto assets with its 1% flat rate commission, which can be helpful when trading emerging cryptocurrencies that would have otherwise been more expensive (on its previous fee schedule).
Meanwhile, converting from crypto to crypto at eToro only costs 0.1% (in addition to prevailing spreads).
Exchange-Traded Securities: In addition to trading CFD shares, eToro also offers zero-dollar commission for U.S. stock trading (not available to U.S. investors) and supports fractional shares. To learn more, see our UK.StockBrokers.com review of eToro.
| Feature |
eToro
|
|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $50-$10,000 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | N/A |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | Yes |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes |
Mobile trading apps
eToro offers an excellent mobile experience. The ease-of-use factor is high, and eToro delivers nearly all the same features across both its web platform and its mobile app, which multi-device clients will appreciate.
Apps overview: eToro provides two mobile apps: the eToro app and eToro Money for crypto and money transfers. Both apps are available on Google Play for Android, and Apple App Store for iOS devices. eToro also offers Delta, an app for digital assets which includes Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
Check out our video walkthrough of eToro's mobile app:
Ease of use: Testing on Android, I found that the eToro mobile app maintains the look and feel of the web version, including useful functions such as dark and light mode themes, and synced watchlists that help to unify the platform experience across devices.
Charting: Like the rest of the mobile app, the charts are responsive and closely match the web platform experience, though just five indicators are present compared to 67 on the web. Drawing tools are missing from the app entirely and would be a welcome enhancement to an otherwise cleanly-designed and well-integrated mobile app.
Cryptocurrency wallet: The eToro wallet, known as eToro Money, is a separate mobile app where users can deposit and withdraw money and actual cryptocurrencies. The eToro Money Wallet closely resembles the look and feel of the eToro mobile app, and includes support for social trading.
Note: While crypto trading services are available for investors on the eToro platform, it should be noted that eToroX – the brands crypto exchange – is no longer available to retail clients.
| Feature |
eToro
|
|---|---|
| Android App | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 6 |
| Watchlist Syncing | Yes |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 104 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 161 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | No |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes |
| Mobile Economic Calendar | No |
Other trading platforms
eToro's main innovation is merging self-directed trading and copy trading under a unified trading experience. It is a winning combination. See our Best FX Brokers for Copy Trading.
Platforms overview: Ease of use and simplicity of design are at the heart of the eToro web platform experience, and carrying out basic operations is straightforward and painless. Traders gain access to functions such as the ability to create watchlists, as well as the option to add instruments simply by searching available markets. These design qualities helped eToro rank Best in Class in the Ease of Use and Beginners categories for our 2024 Annual Awards.
Check out our video walkthrough of eToro's well-designed web platform:
Charting: The full functionality of eToro’s charting truly comes alive when you launch its ProCharts setting. ProCharts comes with 66 indicators, 13 drawing tools and the ability to save and choose from predefined layouts.
Trading tools: Another innovative tool from eToro is its CopyPortfolios feature, which groups traders into single funds for copy trading. CopyPortfolios help to bridge the gap for investors who want to use eToro on a passive basis, as they can create a portfolio based entirely on one or more CopyPortfolios. On the other hand, self-directed traders can also use CopyPortfolios to diversify their trading, making it a potentially useful tool for all eToro clients.
Cryptocurrency tools: eToro users can find crypto-trading ideas and copy other individuals or groups of traders across 108 supported cryptocurrency pairs. Investors looking to withdraw underlying crypto assets from their eToro account can use the eToro Mobile wallet app. This app acts as a custodian with a multi-signature scheme and closely mirrors the brand's forex mobile app.
Copy trading structure: Fully automated trading systems (i.e. algo trading) such as those supported on MetaTrader are not permitted at eToro. Therefore, when you copy another trader on eToro, you can be sure they are placing each trade manually. This is quite useful to know, as many other social trading platforms that aggregate the performance of traders usually permit discretionary (manual) trading as well as automated strategies.
| Feature |
eToro
|
|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | No |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | No |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| DupliTrade | No |
| ZuluTrade | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 104 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 161 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | No |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 6 |
Market research
eToro's research offering is competitive and continues to improve year-over-year. The addition of weekly video updates that include market analysis alongside research articles from in-house analysts has elevated eToro's research offering, bringing it into closer competition with the best brokers for market research.
Research overview: eToro offers a standard economic calendar, an earnings reports calendar, news headlines, daily market analysis series, and podcasts. That said, several of these features are not directly integrated into the eToro platform. Trading Central is also available, but is not offered to all clients – it’s reserved for eToro club members that have reached a specific tier status. There are also research reports for stocks available to funded account holders. eToro has the distinction of being one of the first brokers to integrate TipRanks, a superb resource for research on the other asset classes the broker offers besides forex.
Market news and analysis: eToro does an excellent job incorporating fundamental analysis into its platform for shares trading, and in the daily articles posted to eToro’s blog. However, the lack of technical analysis leaves eToro falling behind category leaders such as IG and Saxo, and is a feature that would improve eToro’s Analyst Weekly series of articles. It's worth noting that eToro has made considerable progress in this category, with the addition of eToro Plus, Digest & Invest, Trader Talks, and its Weekly Crypto Roundup series.
Sentiment data: Only the trades of top traders at eToro are used to calculate sentiment data, rather than showing sentiment based on data from all users. This takes it a step above the usual sentiment tools brokers provide, and is similar to how CMC Markets displays this data.
Wall newsfeed: eToro uses a Twitter-style wall feed of collective commentary for each given instrument. This public feed appears as a stream of updates from other eToro users, designed to give you an idea of what other traders are posting about in the eToro network. As the content is sourced by eToro users, it can vary in quality. It is certainly unique; that said, I find content that is generated by in-house staff or from third-party professionals to generally be of higher quality.
| Feature |
eToro
|
|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | No |
| Autochartist | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | Yes |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes |
Education
eToro's Learning Academy offers a great balance of educational content including videos, articles, webinars. It also recently revamped its Academy offering by adding new courses. Overall, eToro has made significant progress in this category, and the addition of new courses and content on the eToro Academy helped eToro earn Best in Class honors for Education in our 2024 Annual Awards.
Learning center: eToro offers an online trading academy containing dozens of videos and articles that are organized by category and experience level. While eToro has made significant progress with the introduction of dedicated courses, it was hard to distinguish a course from a guide even with the added quizzes at the end, and I believe there is still room for improvement on the major progress it has already made.
Integrated educational tidbits: eToro provides extra details for beginners next to each symbol available within its platform, such as information about trading instruments (like the EUR/USD currency pair), and general facts to consider before investing.
Room for improvement: eToro has a decent number of videos on its YouTube channel, including archived webinars and market analysis, but I found it hard to distinguish between research, promotional, and educational videos. Organizing educational content by playlist and separating platform tutorials from financial market education would help to balance eToro’s video content in this category.
| Feature |
eToro
|
|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes |
Final thoughts
eToro is great for retail traders who want to crowdsource investment ideas using the power of copy trading, or for highly-experienced active traders who want to be rewarded for sharing their ideas with other traders.
Less experienced traders that require some degree of handholding may find the user-friendly platform an added benefit. That said, I do not recommend eToro for active or high-volume traders, as higher spreads and small maximum trade sizes will be a limiting factor (unless you want other investors to copy your strategy). Algo trading is not supported at eToro.
eToro is an excellent choice for social copy trading and crypto trading (and earned first place ranking for both categories in our 2024 Annual Awards). eToro again won our 2024 Industry Award for #1 Trader Community.
Is eToro trustworthy?
eToro is trusted by over 30 million traders globally and is licensed to hold client funds and provide brokerage services in numerous countries. Founded in 2007, eToro is regulated in three tier-1 jurisdictions and one tier-2 jurisdiction, making it a Highly Trusted broker (low-risk) for trading forex and CFDs.
Factors that determine trust in financial services include proper regulatory licensing, operational history, adequate financial capital to ensure solvency, and a track record of excellent customer service. In all of these areas, eToro has proven itself more than capable of earning clients’ trust.
Is eToro really free?
The cost of eToro’s copy-trading service is incorporated into its spreads. So while it may be “free” to use eToro in terms of commissions, you will still incur trading costs – such as the bid/ask spreads.
All online brokers make money by charging commissions, spreads, or a combination of both (and may receive rebates and the like). You don’t pay anything extra beyond spreads, and carry costs if you choose to hold positions overnight.
Can you make money with eToro?
Yes, you can make money with eToro, though doing so — as with any broker — is never guaranteed. eToro’s value proposition lies in its social copy trading capabilities, which allow you to select from its vast database of traders and copy trades in real time. But bear in mind you can also lose money when dealing with investments such as forex, stocks, and CFDs, including with eToro.
The key to making money at eToro as a trader is making the right trading choices and risk-management decisions, so as to keep your average losses low relative to your average profits over time (whether you are trading manually or copy trading).
When copy trading at eToro, you still must do enough analysis to sort through the database of investors and decide which, if any, to copy. You also have to determine how much to allocate to each strategy provider, whether to set any maximum draw-down limits (that is, a value where you automatically stop copying if a certain loss threshold is breached), and if you’ll copy traders that are already open or only new trades.
Is eToro good for beginners?
Yes, eToro is a great choice for beginner forex traders. Its trading platform is easy to learn and not overly complex. eToro does an excellent job of balancing useful tools and features in a web platform and mobile trading app that is user-friendly. While being good for beginners doesn’t mean it is easy to make money, it’s easier to use eToro than some of the more sophisticated trading platforms out there.
One challenge beginners may face with eToro is conducting sufficient analysis when deciding which investors to copy, and learning to look at more than just the absolute returns that a given trader has achieved.
For example, you might consider the risk score, the average number of trades placed per week, and the average profit, loss, and holding time for a given investor that you are considering copying.
What type of broker is eToro?
eToro can act as a market maker or agency broker, depending on factors such as which eToro entity holds your account. Market maker brokers act as the counterparty to your trade, while agency brokers send your order to other market makers in return for rebates, profit-sharing, widened spreads and commissions. Check out my guide to the best market makers for forex trading.
For example, eToro U.K. and eToro Europe both act as market-makers but can also hedge their client’s trades and act as a matched-principal (agency broker) if needed as part of the firm’s internal risk management process. What matters is that brokers adhere to best execution regulations, and eToro is obligated to do so where it is mandated by law.
About eToro
An early pioneer in social copy trading, eToro was founded in Israel in 2007 as a financial trading technology developer. After launching its first product, it has since grown to service over 32 million registered users with an innovative platform that continually evolves to be one of the largest social networks globally, with clients in over 140 countries, and $7.5 billion in assets under administration. eToro has added ESG scores for over 2,700 tradeable stocks. The broker has also announced a partnership with Twitter for the use of $Cashtags.
Read more on Wikipedia about eToro.
ForexBrokers.com 2024 Annual Awards
For the ForexBrokers.com 2024 Annual Awards, brokers were evaluated against ForexBrokers.com’s 8 Primary Categories: Commissions & Fees, Offering of Investments, Platforms & Tools, Mobile Trading Apps, Research, Education, Trust Score, and Overall.
Best in Class honors were awarded to the Top 7 forex brokers in each of the following areas: Beginners, Social Copy Trading, Ease of Use, MetaTrader, Algo Trading, Crypto Trading, and Professional Trading.
ForexBrokers.com also recognized brokers that demonstrated excellence and innovation with our exclusive Industry Awards.
Category awards
| Rank #1 | Streak #1 | Best in Class | Best in Class Streak | |
| Education | 1 | |||
| Beginners | 5 | |||
| Crypto Trading | 6 | 7 | ||
| Ease of Use | 2 | 6 | ||
| Copy Trading | 7 | 7 |
Industry awards
| Rank #1 | Streak | |
| Trader Community (INACTIVE) | 4 |
Disclosures
eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFDs.
This communication is intended for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or investment recommendation. Past performance is not an indication of future results.
Copy Trading does not amount to investment advice. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Learn more on eToro.
eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs and makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared by our partner utilizing publicly available non-entity specific information about eToro.
2024 Review Methodology
At ForexBrokers.com, our reviews of online forex brokers and their products and services are based on our collected data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research on the top forex brokers and monitor dozens of international regulator agencies (read more about how we calculate Trust Score here).
Our research team conducts thorough testing on a wide range of features, products, services, and tools (collecting and validating thousands of data points in the process). We test all available trading platforms for each broker – whether they are proprietary or come from third-party providers – and evaluate them based on a host of data-driven variables.
We also take an in-depth look at each broker’s commissions and fees, such as bid/ask spreads – including the average spread data for some of the most popular forex currency pairs. We research other trading costs, such as inactivity or custody fees, minimum deposit requirements, VIP rebates and/or discounts, and a range of other important fee-based data points.
Some of the other important research categories that are factored into our testing include mobile trading accessibility and capability, availability of market research and educational content, and each broker’s overall Trust Score.
All content on ForexBrokers.com is handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by an editor. Our ratings, rankings, and opinions are entirely our own, and the result of our extensive research and decades of collective experience covering the forex industry.
Read our full explanation and accounting of our research and testing process to learn more about how we test.
Forex Risk Disclaimer
There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Read more on forex trading risks.
Article Resources
eToro Regulation, eToro Learning Academy, eToro YouTube channel
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About the Editorial Team
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. A forex industry expert and an active fintech and crypto researcher, Steven advises blockchain companies at the board level and holds a Series III license in the U.S. as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
John Bringans is the Managing Editor at ForexBrokers.com. An experienced media professional, John has a decade of editorial experience with a background that includes key leadership roles at global newsroom outlets. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University, and conducts research on forex and the financial services industry while assisting in the production of content.
Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.