eToro Review: What’s Great (+ Less So) About Copy Trading With This Broker? [2022 Edition]

Last Updated: May 18, 2022

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Author

Natalie Mootz

Risk Warning: Your Capital is at Risk.

eToro established the first social trading platform, disrupting the online brokerage industry.

eToro allows traders to follow other traders, discuss trade ideas, and mimic the successful trading strategies of other traders in the community with its CopyTrading feature.

This eToro review provides an overview of the company, discusses the platform’s major features, and helps you determine if their services are available in .

Quick Summary of eToro

Who Is eToro Best For?

The new generation of traders who want to trade cryptocurrencies or incorporate a social community into their online trading, may find eToro suitable.

eToro was designed for traders who wish to learn from the practices of more experienced traders by taking advantage of its social platform.

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Fast Facts About eToro

Where Does eToro Operate?

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What Are eToro’s Trading Products?

eToro Account Types

Traders can choose from three different eToro account types – a standard trading account, an Islamic account, and a demo account.

Standard Trading Account

Traders can open a standard eToro trading account with $50 – $10,000. It offers traders various leverage limitations based on the product being traded. Here are some examples:

Trade Type	Leverage
Major currency pairs	30:1
Non-major currency pairs	20:1
Commodities (except for gold and non-major equity indices)	10:1
CFD stocks	5:1
Cryptocurrency CFDs	2:1

Islamic Accounts

Islamic traders can open Islamic accounts. These halal accounts don’t utilize swaps (Riba) in accordance with Islamic law.

Demo Accounts

Traders who sign up for an eToro demo account receive $100,000 in virtual currency to trade.

With their demo account, traders can test their strategies by executing practice trades in real-time. The eToro demo account also allows traders to test the functions of the platform before committing real money.

eToro demo accounts never expire. Traders can use the demo as long as they need to.

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eToro Account Requirements

eToro serves more than 60 countries worldwide. The process of opening an account is largely the same in each jurisdiction.

Account Verification With eToro

First, traders fill out a form with some basic information and create a username.

Before you can trade with eToro for the first time, you need to verify your account with the following information:

1. Government-issued ID
2. Phone number
3. Proof of address.

The government-issued ID (eg, passport) must be a high-resolution copy that shows both sides of the document and contains the following:

1. Full Name
2. Date of Birth
3. Photograph
4. Valid Expiry Date.

Proof of Address

Proof-of-address can include items issued by a financial institution, utility company, government agency, or judicial authority:

Funding an eToro Account

eToro offers several different first-time minimum deposit options for customers, depending on where they live:

Country	Minimum Initial Deposit
Australia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, United States	$50
Israel	$10,000
Everywhere else	$200

After your initial deposit, the minimum deposit is $50 for all countries’ residents.

Deposit Methods

You can fund your eToro account with a variety of deposit methods:

• Diners Club
• iDEAL
• Maestro
• MasterCard
• Neteller
• PayPal
• Rapid Transfer
• Skrill
• Trustly
• Visa
• Wire Transfer.*

* If you use a wire transfer to fund your account the minimum deposit amount is $500.

Funding Times and Maximum Deposit

The time it takes for your deposit to hit your eToro account depends on your deposit method:

• Wire transfers take 4-7 business days.
• Cryptoassets transfers take one business day processing since they must be manually reviewed. However, after eToro reviews the transaction, the transfer is subject to the amount of time it takes each blockchain involved to complete it.
• All other methods can take up to 3 business days to process.

The maximum deposit amount is $10,000 per day, regardless of country.

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eToro Spreads and Fees

eToro’s compensation comes via the market bid/ask spreads, which vary by product. eToro traders are charged these spreads only when a position is closed.

Spreads vary day-to-day and even minute-to-minute. The spread ranges below are indicative only.

• Commodity Spreads – From 2 Pips (copper) – 20,000 Pips (palladium)
• Cryptocurrencies – From 0.75% (Bitcoin) – 5.0% (XTZ)
• Currencies – From 1 Pip (AUD/USD) – 50 Pips (USD/TRY)
• ETFs – BUY Position Fee: 6.4%; SELL Position Fee: 2.9%
• Indices – From 4 Pips (US Dollar Index) – 1200 Pips (China A50 Index)
• Stocks – Buy Position Fee: 6.4%; Sell Position Fee: 2.9%

Reduced Forex Spreads & Pipettes

eToro recently reduced its forex spreads and made many of them variable, as opposed to fixed.

They’ve also made their spreads more granular with the introduction of “pipette” pricing. Pipettes are smaller than pips by a factor of 10.

Pip	Pipette
0.0001	0.00001

Overnight Fee

This overnight eToro fee is applied to a trader’s account when a position remains open past a certain period of time.

The eToro overnight fees are multiplied by three if a trader holds a position over Wednesday or Friday night. Overnight fees are charged to customer accounts and credits are applied at 17:00 New York time.

eToro doesn’t charge overnight fees for non-leveraged buy positions.

Withdrawal Fee

eToro charges a flat $5 fee for all withdrawals, except for cryptocurrencies. The minimum withdrawal amount is $30. (See below for cryptocurrency withdrawal fees.)

Conversion Fee

eToro charges a conversion fee if customers want to convert the funds they withdraw from US dollars into other currencies or if they make a deposit with a currency other than USD.

The amount of the conversion fee also depends on whether your transaction is via wire transfer or another method.

Currency Pair	Wire Transfer	Credit Cards, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill	Charged Upon
AUD/USD	50 pips	100 pips	Withdrawal or Deposit
EUR/USD	50 pips	250 pips	Withdrawal or Deposit
GBP/USD	50pips	50 pips	Withdrawal or Deposit
RUB/USD	50 pips	50 pips	Withdrawal or Deposit
MYR/USD	n/a	100 pips	Withdrawal or Deposit
RMB/USD	n/a	50 pips	Withdrawal or Deposit
THB/USD	n/a	100 pips	Withdrawal or Deposit
IDR/USD	1% of deposit amount	1% of deposit amount	Deposits Only
VND/USD	1% of deposit amount	1% of deposit amount	Deposits Only

Inactivity Fee

eToro charges traders a monthly $10 inactivity fee if they don’t use the platform for a period of 12 months. This fee cannot take your account below zero, however.

Traders simply need to log in to their accounts periodically to avoid these fees.

Cryptocurrency Fees

When depositing, withdrawing, or converting cryptocurrencies — whether to or from fiat currencies or other crypto coins — several types of fees and limits apply.

Crypto Withdrawal Fee

Cryptoasset withdrawals incur their own fees, charged in the same crypto coin, as follows:

Cryptocurrency	Minimum Withdrawal Amount	Fee
BCH	0.18 BCH	0.001 units
BTC	0.008 BTC	0.0005 units
ETH	0.26 ETH	0.006 units
LTC	0.68 LTC	0.001 units
XLM	534 XLM	0.01 units

Fiat-to-Crypto Conversion Fees and Limits

When convert fiat currencies (eg, Pounds Sterling) to cryptocurrencies in your eToro wallet, you incur a fee of 5%, charged in the fiat currency.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s in the 5% fee:

• eToro charges a 1% fee
• Fiat conversions are facilitated by Simplex, which charges a 4% fee.

Additionally, blockchain fees apply which are deducted from the crypto amount purchased. Your bank or credit card may also charge you fees.

Fiat-to-crypto currency conversion and transaction limits are stated in US dollars:

	Minimum	Maximum
Per Conversion	$20	$10,000
Per Transaction	none	$50,000
Per Day (Transactions)	none	$200,000

Crypto-to-Crypto Conversion Fees and Limits

If you wish to convert a cryptocurrency into another type of crypto coin, eToro charges a 0.1% fee.

The minimum allowed crypto-to-crypto conversion transaction is $20 and the maximum is $10,000.

Crypto Wallet Fees

There are two crypto coins that charge initial wallet creation fees:

• XRP – 45 XRP*
• XLM – A minimum non-spendable deposit of 2.5 XLM

*At the time of updating this article, eToro does not charge a fee for an XRP wallet creation.

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Withdrawing Funds From eToro

You can withdraw funds at any time up to the value of the balance and minus the amount of margin.

The processing fee for a withdrawal is $5, plus a conversion fee from USD to other currencies, if applicable.

You can only withdraw funds using the same method that you used to deposit them and to the same account as previously used to deposit.

Withdrawal Requirements

• The minimum withdrawal is $30
• You must have a verified account

To verify your account, you must answer some personal and financial questions and submit documentation that meets eToro’s requirements for anti-money laundering.

The answers to these questions include:

1. Your personal details
2. Your experience and objectives for trading
3. Upload of a utility bill
4. Upload of a photo ID
5. Phone verification.

Start Trading Now at eToro.com

eToro Trading Platform Review

The eToro platform sets it apart from its competition. An entirely web-based trading tool, the platform’s detailed graphics, and clean dashboard make it a popular tool for traders.

The platform also incorporates many advanced features.

Signing Up for eToro

After you set up an eToro profile, choose the “Trade for Real” option. Next, you’ll be asked to fund the account.

Once inside the eToro trading application, traders will see a screen with some of the instruments available for trading, like so:

eToro’s Charting Features

eToro offers functionalities like live interactive charts, a one-click buy/sell button, and account balances, among other features.

The sentiment function shows off one of the unique aspects of eToro’s social platform. Here, traders can see the percentage of all traders in the eToro community who are buying or selling any particular instrument.

When inside the eToro platform, clicking on an interactive chart button brings up a chart for the security, like so:

Charts can be customized using over 60 popular charting tools including Bollinger bands, moving averages, and oscillators, among others.

Buying and Selling on eToro

When a trader clicks the buy or sell button, they can set the size of the trade, leverage, a stop-loss, and a take profit value.

Most of the features available on the trading ticket screen are industry-standard.

How eToro Uses Market Sentiment

The market sentiment gauge shows allows traders to tap into what others on eToro are saying about the market, as well as what they’re doing.

Find Elite Traders on eToro with People Discovery

The People Discovery section of eToro is where the platform really stands out from its competitors.

The eToro trading platform has a Discover People feature that works like a search engine for traders.

This section allows the trader to screen for different traders on the platform using country of origin, markets traded, percentage gains, and time frame.

The first thing you’ll notice about the discovery feature is the series of filters at the top of the page:

These filters allow you to narrow down the traders you want to follow according to specific criteria:

• People From: Traders can choose a country from a dropdown list or they can pick “Everywhere.” The platform then returns a list of traders from the country or countries.
• Who Invest In: You can filter by “Any Market” or choose a specific asset class (ie, currencies, commodities, indices, stocks, ETFs or Cryptocurrencies).
• Gained At Least and During The: You can filter by trader returns (ie, 5%, 10%, 25%, etc) over a specified time period (ie, 6 months, 12 months, current quarter, last two years, etc)
• Risk profiles: Traders can also screen by the risk profile of the trader and whether the results have been verified.

Additional Discovery Features

• Copy People — Traders on eToro can click on a trader they want to copy, set a copy amount for trading and begin copying the trades made by that individual — including the opening of new trades, managing stop-loss orders, and closing positions.
• Top Trader Insights — Here eToro collects data from the top 100 traders on the platform. It also features an economic calendar and market news.

How Does CopyTrader Work?

One of the main advantages of signing up with eToro is that traders can integrate social features into their trading. These features include:

• CopyTrader — With CopyTrader, traders can interact with each other, copying strategies and interacting with more experienced traders since all trader activity is visible.
• Popular Investor Program — With enough experience, anyone can become a trading influencer and earn monetary rewards from it. See more about the Popular Investor Program below.
• Social News Feeds — Read posts from other traders and post information and status updates yourself.
• Sharing Externally — eToro allows traders to share news, analysis, charts (and more) to other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Telegram.

CopyTrader Guidelines

eToro has certain guidelines that apply when using the CopyTrader feature:

• Copy Minimum: $200 is the minimum trade amount that you can copy.
• Copy Maximum: $500,000 is the maximum trade amount that you can copy from a sole trader.
• Limit: You can only copy 100 traders simultaneously.
• Minimum trade amount: For a copied trade, $1 is the minimum amount.
• Closing: When you manually close a copied trade, your copy balance will be copied with any funds from this position. (This is not the amount traded in open positions but the amount you’ve allocated to copy this trader.)

Additional guidelines must be adhered to if traders want to copy an entire list of trades from one trader:

1. Market rates: Your account will be opened with the existing open positions at the market rates at the time of copying — not the rates the Copied Trader opened the original trades.
2. Stop-loss: Your trades will have the original trade’s stop-loss and take profit.
3. Future actions: Your trades will mirror the future actions of the Copied Trader. This includes stop-loss and profit, as well as the closing of the trade as soon as you copy them.
4. Closing trades: Closing a specific copied trade won’t close your entire copy account.
5. Market orders: Should a position be opened in a market that’s closed at the time of copying (eg, a market break), a Market Order will be opened by the system for the Copier. As soon as the market opens, an order is executed into a position with the first market rate.
6. See all copied trades: If you wish to see all of the trades you’ve copied from one trader, simply go to your portfolio and click on the name of the Copied Trader.

Key Differentiator

One of eToro’s key differentiators is its CopyPortfolios feature. Once you’ve found a Popular Investor whose strategies you like, you can copy that person’s entire portfolio over to your own account.

Alternatively, traders can opt to take advantage of eToro’s Market Portfolios, which are managed by eToro itself. The CopyPortfolios committees in charge of each Market Portfolio automatically rebalance them when necessary.

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eToro Mobile

eToro’s Mobile app features the same interface and platform that its browser-based platform uses for both Android and iOS devices.

Advanced Features for High Level Traders

eToro also has more advanced trading filters for traders who want more control over whom they follow.

Choosing “Advanced Search” brings up these additional filters:

• Time Period: The timeframe for the trader’s activity.
• Status: Traders can choose to follow only traders who have verified their accounts with eToro as well as only traders who are part of the Popular Investor Program (see below).
• Country: Location of trader.
• Name and Picture: You can choose to follow only traders with profile pictures.
• Copiers: You can choose to follow traders based on how many other people follow them:
• Copiers Change: The percentage change in the number of people following the copied trader.
• Copy AUM: The total assets under management of the copied trader. With this feature, you can choose, for example, to follow only traders with assets in their account over a certain amount.
• Performance: With these filters, you can choose to follow traders based on the returns of their account, their percentage of profitable trading months, or their percentage of profitable trades.
• Risk Score: eToro assigns a risk score to each portfolio, which is an indicator of how exposed the portfolio is to market volatility. You can filter by risk score to gauge how much volatility to expect from following a particular trader.
• Portfolio: A filter for following based on a trader’s allocation or average trade size.
• Activity: A filter for following based on how active a trader is in the market.

How to Participate In eToro’s Popular Investor Program

eToro’s Popular Investor Program allows traders to be found in People Discovery and to let others copy their trades. The program has four levels, each with its own requirements and benefits:

1. Cadet
2. Rising Star
3. Champion
4. Elite.

In order to apply for the Popular Investor Program, traders must verify their account with eToro.

To be accepted at the minimum level (Cadet), traders must meet the following requirements:

• Leverage: You must not have open positions exceeding the leverages outlined in the eToro Responsible Trading requirements.
• Risk score: You must not have had a risk score higher than 6 in the 2 calendar months prior to joining the program.
• History: You have at least 2 months of trading history.
• Strategy: You have your own unique trading strategy and you are not copying an individual trader or CopyFund with more than 25% of your equity.
• Funding: Your deposits total at least $1,000, minimum average equity of $500, and at least one verified copier with a minimum AUM of $200.

When trades are copied by other people, an eToro Popular Investor can earn up to 2% of their annual assets under management (AUM) and fixed payments. These payments are added to any other profits you make. 

eToro pays you if you have traders follow you and copy your trades.

How To Use The eToro Demo Account

The eToro demo account looks identical to the eToro standard account. The only difference is that traders start with a $100,000 balance in virtual funds.

To access the demo account, the trader logs into the account. Next, the trader clicks virtual portfolio and confirms the selection.

Once in demo mode, traders have access to the trading screen, the trade ticket, charts, and all of the social features of the platform.

eToro Trading Academy

In addition to the demo mode, traders can access other resources to help them learn how to trade, like the Trading Academy,

Trading Academy offers webinars on how to maximize success on the eToro platform and an education center with e-courses and training videos.

Trading Academy also offers a section with tips for traders.

eToro Platform Limitations

Here are some of eToro’s limitations as a trading platform.

Brokers Set Amounts

With most brokers, the trader sets the number of units, lots, or shares for purchase and the broker calculates the leverage needed given the trader’s account balance.

However, with eToro’s platform, the trader sets the amount of capital and leverage and the broker calculates the number of units, lots, or shares the trader can purchase.

Although this is not necessarily a disadvantage of eToro, it may be confusing for some traders.

Finding Available Instruments Can Be Tricky

Another shortcoming of the platform is that the first screen in the real trading application only shows some of the instruments available for trading.

The drop-down menu shows currency pairs, indices, and commodities, but fails to list the CFDs for listed companies.

To find these instruments, a trader must either use the menu under the Markets section or find them using the search function in the menu bar. Thus, a trader unfamiliar with equity markets may not know what stocks are available for trading.

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Can I Trust eToro?

Any discussion of online brokerage safety primarily centers on three topics: regulation, security technology, and quality of customer service.

Which Agencies Regulate eToro?

eToro receives regulatory oversight from the following regulatory bodies, depending on the countries where they operate:

• eToro USA is registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business.
• eToro Europe is a registered Cypriot Investment Firm (CIF), registration number HE20058. It’s regulated by the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (CySEC) under license number 109/10. 
• In the UK, eToro UK, company registration no. 7973792, is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), firm reference number 583263. 
• eToro Europe and eToro UK both operate under and comply with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). 
• eToro Australia, ABN 66 612 791 803, holds Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) 491139, issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and regulated under the Corporations Act (Commonwealth). 

These agencies require the firms they regulate to meet stringent guidelines.

The table below helps you to understand which countries fall under the jurisdiction of which regulator so you can better understand the protections offered.

How Secure Is eToro’s Technology?

eToro takes the following steps to secure its technology:

• SSL encryption
• Firewalls
• Two-factor authentication (“2FA”) via SMS (optional, requires opt-in)
• Mandatory proof of identity and address for all accounts (see Account Verification above)
• Compliance with the US Patriot Act to prevent funding of terrorism and money laundering.

How to Contact eToro’s Customer Support

eToro offers customers 24-hour support 5 days a week. Customers who need assistance can reach the company by email, fax or live chat. The eToro website supports over 20 languages, including:

• Arabic
• Chinese
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Malay
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Vietnamese.

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eToro’s History

eToro was the brainchild of brothers Ronen and Yoni Assia, who founded the firm in 2007 along with their partner David Ring.

The trio’s vision was to create a trading platform that appealed to a wide audience and was user-friendly.

Who Runs eToro?

The eToro board currently consists of 4 directors. We have listed the main management team and board members:

Name	Title	Notes
Yoni Assia	Founder	CEO
Ronen Assia	Co-Founder	Chief Product Officer
Santo Politi	Board Member	Co-founder and General Partner at Spark Capital.
Anver Stepak	Board Member	ex-CEO of Meitav Dash
Eddy Shalev	Board Member	Founder & Managing Partner, Genesis Partners

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FAQs

Is eToro trustworthy?

In Europe and the UK, eToro is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Cyprus Securities Exchange (CySEC). It also complies with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). In Australia, the company is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The regulatory body in the US is FinCEN.

You can find out more about regulatory agencies on our Regulators reference page.

Is eToro good for learning?

eToro has educational material that is made for learners, like its Trading Academy. eToro also has social trading aspects that can help learning traders understand the strategies of other traders, like CopyTrader and CopyPortfolio. Still, eToro as a multi-asset platform involves risks for all instruments like stocks, crypto assets, and CFDs.

Risk Warning

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. 68% 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. Trading history presented is less than 5 complete years and may not suffice as basis for investment decision.

Copy trading is a portfolio management service, provided by eToro (Europe) Ltd., which is authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cryptoasset investing is unregulated in some EU countries and the UK. No consumer protection. Your capital is at risk.

Cryptoassets are volatile instruments which can fluctuate widely in a very short time frame 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. Your capital is at risk.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Commodity.com is compensated if you access products or services offered by eToro USA LLC and/or eToro USA Securities Inc., as applicable. This compensation incentivizes Commodity.com to describe those products and services in favorable terms. Any testimonials contained in this communication may not be representative of the experience of other eToro customers and such testimonials are not guarantees of future performance or success.

Credits: Original eToro review written by Lawrence Pines. Major updates and additions in Jan 2021 by Natalie Mootz with contributions from the Commodity.com editorial team.