Interested in a community of investors? Just like you?

eToro might be the one for you. In this post, we will be doing a full review of the platform and talk about whether it’s suitable for you.

eToro was established in 2008 and is a trading platform where you can buy stocks, commodities, and ETFs from most of the major markets.

In Singapore, eToro has a Capital Markets Services License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This means that it is legit and is regulated by the authorities.

In this review, we will look at some popular features of eToro which includes trading fees, social investing, fractional shares, etc.

The first thing on everyone’s mind when it comes to trading platforms – trading fees.

And you will be delighted to know that eToro has one of the lowest trading fees in the Singapore landscape. It is a FLAT US$1 per trade no matter the trading amount for most markets. In markets such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi, it’s US$2 per trade.

Yes, you heard that right. If you invest US$5,000, you still only pay $1 or $2 in trading fees. This works best for investors who want to make bigger trades.

In comparison, other brokers in the market typically have a minimum commission fee of US$10 to US$25 per trade.

That’s not all.

Exchange-traded fund trading fees are FREE.

However, if you read the title above, you might think – is this too good to be true?

Yes, this is indeed.

At this stage, you can only trade in a selected few currencies on the platform, such as the U.S. Dollar, Pound, and Euro. And the fees on the foreign exchange is pretty steep at 0.9%. For context, most brokers charge about 0.3% to 0.4%.

However, this fee decreases if you maintain a higher balance in your accounts. Here are the eToro club membership based on the balance in your accounts. Club members also gain access to personalized support from a dedicated account manager, and lifestyle benefits ranging from premium subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal to exclusive invitations for major sporting events and airport lounge access.

And here are the discounts for these tiered memberships.

This means that if you maintain these balances, you would incur these fees:

In exchange for low and flat trading fees (if your transaction amount is high), you will incur higher forex rates. However, you can reduce this by having a higher balance amount.

Secondly, you will incur US$5 per trade if you withdraw your funds. eToro will need to pay for international money transfers, hence the withdrawal fee.

No trading platforms are perfect. However, eToro doesn’t charge any account opening fees (unlike some traditional brokers) and has flat, cheap trading fees.

You can manage your forex and withdrawal costs on eToro by

In our opinion, eToro’s social investment feature is THE unique selling point.

With eToro, investments become social. You can check out what other investors/traders are investing in and, most importantly, their sentiments.

This is big for investors who have trouble taking that first step into investing.

Let us explain.

Investments have typically been a very lonely process.

You find out about a stock from the news, and read more about the company. Then, you do your research into its financial and business fundamentals, and determine whether the valuation justifies the share price you are paying.

What stops people from taking the next step in investing is fear. Fear of losing money due to nerves and inadequate research.

To us, eToro’s social investment feature offers two important uses for you.

Firstly, you can check out what other investors are buying or selling in the markets. Most importantly, you can track their portfolio performance and see how well they are doing.

Here’s an example when you click into one of the investor’s profile on eToro.

You can track his or her annual performances over the years. Better yet, you can find out what he or she has invested in, whether by asset class, countries and even sectors.

If you want to delve deeper, you can find out exactly what they have invested in and their profits and losses.

Secondly, you can interact with other investors on the platform. Think of Reddit or LinkedIn but for investors. They regularly post their own thoughts and analysis, which you can follow and comment on. Here is an example of one of the top investors.

Having a community that you can interact with makes all the difference. It can complement your existing research, fill in the gaps, and help you to invest or not.

Furthermore, eToro understands that profits are not the only barometer to measure the performance of an investor. The amount of risks being taken matters too. That is why eToro publishes the risk score of investors to help you decide whether you want to take on more or less risks.

Fractional shares have become the bread and butter of many emerging trading platforms. And eToro is no different.

Fractional shares trading allows you to invest in a stock with only a fraction of the cost. Typically, trading brokers require a minimum lot amount where you need to buy 100 shares of a company for every transaction.

However, if the share is priced at US$100, this means you need to put up US$10,000 just to invest in it.

Fractional shares allow you to invest US$10 for 0.1 shares of the company. eToro’s minimum investment is US$10 for most markets, so that means you don’t have to put up a ridiculous amount of capital.

It also enables you to diversify your holdings in an efficient manner. You won’t need capital of US$100,000 to achieve portfolio diversification. Instead, you will probably only need about US$5,000 through eToro’s fractional shares.

eToro provides other features such as a watchlist, economic/earnings calendar and financial information.

They have the required basic functionalities that you would expect from other financial platforms. For example, the watchlist enables you to set price alerts for stocks or asset classes that have reached a certain price.

You can also view the price changes, and the ‘spread’ through the watchlist tool - hallmarks of every watchlist out there.

The economic/earnings calendar also provides a birds-eye view on the important economic events and earnings release of companies. This allows you to stay abreast of important developments in the markets.

Finally, eToro also has the required financial information on the companies that you are looking at. For us, it’s important to get snapshots of the financial performance and whether earnings were above or below expectations. eToro provides these. Here is an example from Meta.

eToro’s other features are satisfactory and provide the required information that investors need in a trading platform.

eToro is easy to register for, and boasts one of the lowest trading fees in the Singaporean landscape.

Yes, foreign exchange and withdrawal fees are quite steep, but you can mitigate that by having a higher balance in your account and withdrawing only when you have made enough profits in your account.

Its social investment feature is the main selling point, where you can access other top investors’ portfolio performance and holdings, and interact with them on their strategies and analysis. Its other features of watchlist, economic/earnings calendar, and financial information, are also decent enough to have at your fingertips.

In the future, eToro is also planning to roll out an “interest on balance” perk. New Singaporean eToro investors can get returns of up to 3.55% p.a. on their uninvested cash balance, payable monthly!

All in all, eToro represents a reliable and cheap trading platform, especially if you are investing in big amounts.

Click on the link here or in the image below to get started Right Now!

eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. Past performance is not an indication of future results.

This communication is for general information and education purposes only and should not be taken as financial product advice, a personal recommendation, or an offer of, or solicitation to buy or sell, any financial product. It has been prepared without taking your objectives, financial situation or needs into account. Any references to past performance and future indications are not, and should not be taken as, a reliable indicator of future results. eToro makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication.

This advertisement has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.