Broker Review

Plus500 Review: Is Their Free Lifelong Demo Account the Best Thing About Them?

Published: November 4, 2018July 22, 2020

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Author

Linda de Beer

Last Updated on July 22, 2020

Risk Warning: Your Capital is at Risk.

Overview

Plus500 is a leading provider of Contracts for Difference (CFDs) whose free lifelong demo account is a good starting point for novice traders to gain confidence before their first real trade.

Since it was founded in 2008, Plus500 has earned a reputation as one of the most reliable and professional online CFD brokers.

Traders have the peace of mind that all its subsidiaries are authorized and regulated by the top financial regulators.

CFDs appeal to traders because they allow them to trade share price movements without selling or buying the underlying asset.

Plus500's innovative trading technology gives account holders access to CFD trading with more than 2,000 instruments. The Plus500 WebTrader is known for its simple design and ease of use, making it the biggest CFD broker in the UK.*

Traders are offered the flexibility to trade on-the-go through highly-rated iOS, Android, and Windows Apps.

This Plus500 review covers everything you want to know about the trading platform and what it takes to open an account. We also discuss the broker’s major advantages and disadvantages.

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

Why Choose Plus500?

What's Good About Plus500?	What Could Plus500 Do Better?
Trustworthy broker (we scored Plus500 90/100 in our broker trust rating)	No phone support (only live chat and email)
Genuinely easy to use (mobile-friendly) trading platform	Monthly inactivity fee if you don't use your account for 3 months
2,000+ instruments to trade (wider choice of commodities than most other brokers)
Free demo account (which you can keep for life)
Available in 35+ languages
Our Overall Rating

What Can I Trade With Plus500?

Plus500 offers customers access to CFD trading in seven categories of financial instruments.

Their most popular instruments include oil, gold, GBP/USD, Bitcoin and a variety of other commodities, crypto, indices, forex, options, and ETFs. Complete lists below:

1) Indices

Index CFDs are available to cover popular indices around the world, including the USA 500, ASX 200, NASDAQ 100, UK 100, and France 40, with leverage.

2) Commodities

More than 20 commodities CFDs are available for trading at Plus500, include oil, brent oil, heating oil, low sulfur gasoil, palladium and coffee.

3) Forex

Plus500's Forex CFDs cover all the major currency pairs including EUR/USD, GBP/USD and EUR/GBP.

4) Cryptocurrencies

Traders can buy or sell the most popular cryptocurrency CFDs on the Plus500 platform.

5) Shares

Plus500 lets you trade CFDs of popular shares from the UK, USA, Germany and more.

6) Options

Plus500 offers flexible option trading CFDs on the following stocks and indices.

7) ETFs

Plus500 offers CFDs on over 90 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

Which Countries do Plus500 Operate In?

Plus500 is available in 50+ countries and in more than 30 languages.

IMPORTANT: CFDs are not available in the USA due to local regulation, and regulated brokers do not accept US citizens or US residents as clients.

It's worth remembering that although the trading platform is available in over 30 languages, customer support is only offered in Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish and Spanish.

Plus500 Fees and Charges

Plus500 receives its compensation primarily through the market bid/ask spread.

Traders should consult the Plus500 website for current spreads.

In addition to the spread, customers will incur the following Plus500 fees:

Overnight Funding: When a position remains open after a certain time, an overnight fee is either added to or subtracted from a trader’s account.

The fee, which differs from instrument to instrument, is displayed in the “view full details” link next to the instrument's name on the Plus500 instruments categories page.

Inactivity Fee: Plus500 charges traders a monthly $10 inactivity fee if they don’t use the platform for a period of three months.

This Plus500 fee only applies to real money accounts and only if the trader has sufficient funds in the account. Traders simply need to log in to their accounts periodically to avoid this fee.

Guaranteed Stop Order: Traders who want to guarantee that their position closes at a specified price may pay wider Plus500 spreads to execute these trades.

Currency Conversion Fee: Trades on instruments denominated in a currency that is different to the currency of the trader's account, are subject to a currency conversion fee.

The fee can be up to 0.3% of the trade's realized net profit and loss. It's reflected in real time in an open position's unrealized net profit and loss.

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

Plus500 Account Options and Requirements

Plus500 offers three types of accounts:

1. Demo Account
2. Retail Account
3. Professional Account (only available to elective professional clients)

Plus500 offers different amounts of leverage depending on the CFD product and the type of account being used (retail or professional).

Each CFD also has specific Plus500 margin requirements that traders must maintain. Traders who fall below the Plus500 margin requirements will have their positions closed with no option to keep their positions open.

Plus500 Demo Account

Plus500 offers a free demo account with no time limit. Traders can open a demo account in minutes without the verification process required for the retail account.

The demo account not only allows traders to test ideas but also to familiarize themselves with the WebTrader platform in a risk-free environment.

Traders with a retail account can continue to use the demo account to test ideas with virtual funds.

They can easily and seamlessly switch back and forth between the demo and real money account by clicking the blue button at the bottom of the screen.

When traders first sign up for an account, they see the following screen:

Those who select the Demo Account will see the same layout that retail clients see. It also has all the securities available to real money traders. Plus500 replenishes funds in the demo account when traders fall below certain levels.

Start Trading at Plus500.com

Plus500 Retail Account

Opening a Plus500 retail account is simple. After selecting this option on the signup page, traders are taken to the registration page where they fill in some basic information and click the “Create Account” button.

While the demo account is available instantly, it's worth remembering that you'll need to complete the Plus500 verification process before you can place your first trade with real money.

Verification Process

Before you can start trading with Plus500, you need to pass an identity and residential address verification as well as verifying the source of your funds.

To pass the Plus500 identity verification, you will need a government-issued form of identification, e.g. a passport, which contains the following:

1. Photo
2. Identity number
3. Full name
4. Date of birth
5. Date of expiry

To pass the Plus500 residential address verification, you will need to provide one of the following:

1. Bank statement
2. Credit card statement
3. Electricity bill
4. Water or gas bill
5. Council tax bill
6. Tax letter
7. Phone bill
8. Television services bill
9. Internet bill

To verify the source of your funds, i.e. to prove you are the legitimate owner of those funds, you may need to provide a scan of one of the following:

• The front of your debit/credit card
• A bank/credit card statement

Plus500 Professional Account

Plus500 offers a Professional Client Account to traders who meet certain criteria. This special premium account offers the following features:

• Higher leverage amounts on some instruments
• The same client money protection advantages offered with a Retail Account
• The same negative balance protection offered with a Retail Account
• Traders can revert back to a Retail Account at any time

Traders who opt for a Professional Account lose access to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS is an independent organization that was established to resolve disputes between financial institutions and their customers.

Traders must request consideration from Plus500 for a Pro Account.

Plus500 will assess your knowledge of financial markets, and trading experience to determine if the account is right for you.

In addition, Plus500 must establish that you are capable of making your own trading decisions and understand the risks involved in those decisions.

To be granted a Professional Account, traders must meet at least two of the following criteria:

1. Sufficient Trading Activity: This criteria requires an average of 10 transactions per quarter (of significant size) over the previous four quarters with Plus500 or another CFD broker.
2. Portfolio Size: A financial instrument portfolio of at least €500,000 is required to fulfill this criteria. Both cash deposits and financial instruments are taken into account. Property portfolios, direct commodity ownership or notional values of leveraged instruments are not included.
3. Relevant Work Experience: Work experience in the financial sector for at least one year in a position that requires knowledge of the related products and services (e.g., OTC derivatives such as leveraged CFDs, forex, or spread betting).

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

Deposits and Withdrawals Essential Information

Depositing money in an account is fast and simple. Traders click on the Funds Management tab on the main screen and select “Deposit.”

Traders then select the deposit method of their choice, fill in the required information and click “Submit.”

Deposits

Plus500 clients can choose between three methods of depositing money. The minimum deposit varies according to the payment method, but start at $100 (electronic wallet) and can go up to $500 (bank transfer).

The up-to-date amounts are displayed on the trading platform's deposit screen.

The following payment methods are accepted, but may not be available in all countries:

1. Visa or MasterCard Debit/Credit cards
2. Electronic wallets (PayPal, Skrill, iDeal, BPAY, Klarna, Giropay, Trustly)
3. Bank transfer

Depositing money in an account is fast and simple. Traders click on the Funds Management tab on the main screen and select “Deposit.”

Traders then select the deposit method of their choice, fill in the required information and click “Submit.”

Deposits by wire transfer may take up to five days for funds availability, while deposits through Visa and MasterCard are the fastest.

Withdrawals

All account withdrawal requests are subject to a minimum withdrawal amount. Requests are generally processed by Plus500 within 1-3 business days.

• The minimum withdrawal amount for PayPal and Skrill is $50USD (or equivalent in your currency).

• The minimum withdrawal amount for bank transfers and credit cards is $100USD (or equivalent in your currency). 

Plus500's stated policy, wherever possible, is to only return funds to the same payment method from which they originated.

Withdrawal Methods and Times

Listed below are the withdrawal methods Plus500 offers. Please note that some of the methods may not be available in your country:

Electronic wallets – Funds should be received in your e-wallet account in 3-7 business days after withdrawal has been authorized.

Bank transfer – direct bank to bank funds transfer. The standard processing time is 5-7 business days from the date of authorization of the withdrawal.

Debit/Credit cards – funds should be received according to each issuer or bank's refund processing time, which generally is no longer than 2 to 3 days. Traders can consult their bank or financial institution for estimated times.

Is Plus500 Safe to Use?

The nature of its business means that Plus500 handles client money and sensitive user data like credit card details and passwords.

Significant security and risk management features are in place to help protect customers.

• SSL – The Plus500 platform is protected by a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) which automatically transfers sensitive information to a secure environment.
• 2-Factor Authentication – In addition to submitting a user name and password during login, Plus500 provides the option of 2-factor authentication to confirm user identity. The confirmation code, which is sent via email, app, or phone, expires after a few minutes.
• Client Money Protection – Plus500 holds client deposits in segregated trust accounts which are administered according to regulatory requirements. This also offers protection in the event of Plus500 going into liquidation.
• Risk Management Features – Plus500 provides several tools to help clients manage their risk. These include the Stop Limit/Stop Loss, Guaranteed Stop, and Trailing Stop tools.

In addition, they provide alerts on price movements and market events.

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

Plus500 Online Trading Platform Review

The Plus500 WebTrader is a well-designed platform with features that are liked by a variety of traders. It seems particularly suited to traders who want to navigate quickly between many different trading instruments.

Main Screen Layout

The WebTrader's main screen is organized in a logical and intuitive structure that gives traders access to hundreds of different instruments without the need to pull up additional windows.

It also gives traders access to trade execution, pricing information, charting, positions, and fund and balance information.

Trade

On the very left side of the screen is the trade tab. Traders can click on each category and get a drop-down menu of items to trade.

These drop-down folders contain all of the products on the platform and eliminate the need for traders to use a search engine or navigate to another page to find trading instruments.

Traders can also set up a “favorites” or “most popular” section so they can quickly locate instruments to trade.

Clicking on an instrument creates the trade ticket shown above. The ticket offers a number of options that more advanced traders will find very appealing.

Traders can choose the size of the trade and can add provisions to lock in profits or stop losses. They can also add trailing stops to orders and calculate the leverage used and the margin required for trades.

Instruments Section

The top part of the screen allows the trader to populate a window with instruments they want to track or frequently trade. This section integrates the trader’s existing positions into the list.

For example, a trader can see his open positions and P&Ls. They can click “Close Position” to send a closing order.

Unlike many trading systems that separate open positions from watch lists, this feature is a nice time saver and an easy way to track open positions alongside other securities.

Open and Closed Positions

Traders can navigate to these tabs to keep track of their trading activity. The Plus500 platform allows the trader to search for activity by dates.

In the closed position tab, traders can see reasons positions were closed, time of opening and closing, and P&L.

Charts

The charting functions offered by Plus500 are the most limiting and disappointing features of the platform.

The charts appear in the main window of the trading platform and graphically represent price movements for trading instruments.

The platform allows traders to apply various technical indicators to the charts. However, the number of indicators and time frames that Plus500 offers pales in comparison to other more sophisticated trading platforms such as MetaTrader4. Traders have access to only about a dozen time frames and indicators.

No integration with MetaTrader 4

The Plus500 platform does not support integration with MetaTrader 4 or with any type of algorithm for automated trading.

Analysis tools are limited and traders have no access to features such as an API feed and advanced charting.

Users can only pull up one chart at a time, which is a seriously limiting factor for active traders who want to compare multiple instruments or the same instrument using different charting tools.

The chart function may be useful for traders who want a general idea of price movements in a financial instrument, but would likely disappoint sophisticated traders who need robust charting capabilities.

Funds

The bottom section of the Plus500 main trading screen shows available funds, equity, and profits (or losses) for the account. From here, traders can easily navigate to the deposit page to add funds to the account.

Users can also toggle between their real money and their demo account easily to test practice ideas and, if successful, quickly implement them with live trades.

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

Plus500 Apps for CFD Trading On-The-Go

In addition to accessing WebTrader on a PC, Plus500 clients can trade on the go no matter where they are by downloading the Plus500 apps for iOS, Android or Windows.

The mobile applications have the exact same functionality as the desktop platform. This includes price alerts and the ability to get real-time quotes on currency pairs and stocks.

Traders can also track their finances and link to their bank accounts from the mobile apps.

iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch Apps

• The app is available from the App Store and requires iOS 8.0 or later
• Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
• Languages supported are English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish

Android App

• The app is available from Google Play
• Multi-language 24/7 professional support

Windows Phone App

• The app is available from the Microsoft store
• Multi-language support
• Minimum operating system requirements: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

Is Plus500 Authorized and Regulated?

As a reliable, publicly-traded company that is regulated in multiple jurisdictions, Plus500 provides a secure way to trade CFDs.

Plus500 operates and/or are individually regulated by the following subsidiaries:

• Plus500UKLtd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (FRN 509909)
• Plus500CYLtd is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC Licence No. 250/14)
• Plus500SG Pte Ltd is licensed by the MAS (#CMS100648-1) and IE Singapore (#PLUS/CBL/2018).
• Plus500AU Pty Ltd (ACN 153301681) is licensed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in Australia, AFSL #417727, FMA in New Zealand, FSP #486026; Authorised Financial Services Provider in South Africa, FSP #47546.
• Plus500SEY Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (Licence No. SD039).
• Plus500IL Ltd is registered in Israel and licensed to operate a trading platform.

The table below shows which countries are covered under the FCA, CySEC, and ASIC, and what protection is offered.

Who Runs Plus500?

Plus500 was founded in Israel in 2008 by six alumni of The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. One of the founders seeded the company with $400,000 of his own money.

In 2013, the company raised $75 million through an IPO on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. By 2014, it had a market cap of over $1 billion.

This was followed by the listing of Plus500's ordinary shares for trading on the main market for listed companies in 2018. In the same year, the company joined the UK FTSE 250 index of leading mid-cap listed companies.

The Plus500 board is currently made up of 7 directors.

Plus500 Executive Team

Position	Name	Background
Interim Chief Executive Officer	David Zruia	Mr. Zruia, who holds a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, joined Plus500 as head of its affiliate programme in 2010. He was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2013 and Interim CEO in 2020.
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman	Penelope Judd	Ms. Judd is a chartered accountant with over 30 years of experience in Compliance, Regulation, Corporate Finance and Audit.
Managing Director	Gal Haber	Mr. Haber holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel. Before founding Plus500, Mr. Haber served as chief operating officer of InterLogic Ltd, a ‘skilled games’ programme provider for the internet, and mobile devices, which he co-founded in 2004.
Group Chief Financial Officer	Elad Even-Chen	Mr. Even-Chen holds a B.A. in Accounting and Economics from Tel-Aviv University, an LL.B Degree from the College of Management and an MBA (specialising in Financial Management) from Tel-Aviv University.

Top Plus500 Takeaways

While understanding that CFDs are complex financial products, traders will see why the easy-to-use Plus500 WebTrader platform is the number one CFD broker in the UK.*

Clients have the possibility to trade CFDs with over 2,000 instruments worldwide.

Beginner traders who are not ready to risk real money can learn a lot by using the free demo account for as long as they want.

Plus500 provides 24/7 email and live chat support in 15 languages, although you'll have to look elsewhere for customer support by phone.

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

Here's a quick overview of some of the important Plus500 facts to remember.

FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions from prospective and existing traders.

What is the minimum deposit for Plus500?

The minimum deposit to start trading CFDs with Plus500 is $100 if you're depositing via credit/debit card or electronic wallet. When making a deposit through bank transfer, the minimum amount is $500.

Is Plus500 good for beginners?

CFD trading is not recommended for inexperienced traders. Plus500 offers a risk-free demo account where beginner traders can use virtual money to gain trading experience.

How do I withdraw money from Plus500?

Withdrawal requests are easy to make by following the instructions on the WebTrader platform. They are generally processed within 1-3 days although it may take longer to receive the funds based on the withdrawal method you choose. Withdrawals are also subject to a minimum amount.

Is Plus500 a good trading platform?

The Plus500 WebTrader platform is known for its ease of use, both for experienced traders with real money accounts as well as for beginners using a demo account.

Is Plus500 a good broker?

Plus500 is one of the top CFD brokers based on its reputation as a reliable and regulated CFD provider. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and regulated in multiple jurisdictions by different agencies.

Start Trading Now at Plus500.com

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*By total number of relationships with UK CFD traders. Investment Trends 2020 UK Leverage Trading Report.

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Credits: Original review written by Lawrence Pines. Major updates in May 2020 by Linda de Beer with contributions from the Commodity.com editorial team.