eToro Review

eToro approaches trading differently than its competitors by allowing you the opportunity to follow and emulate other crypto traders, or even develop a potentially lucrative following of your own. Though eToro also offers fractional stock shares and paper trading, it will appeal most to those who are interested in learning how to trade cryptocurrencies or joining a crypto-focused community.

eToro USA LCC does not offer CFDs; only real crypto assets available.

Pros & Cons

Note: If you are located in the United States, check whether eToro is licensed to trade stocks in your state. At the time of this writing, eToro isn’t licensed to trade in four states or any U.S. territories. On that note, eToro operates differently in other countries. If you are outside the U.S. or interested in forex trading, you might like to read our reviews of eToro on our sister sites, StockBrokers.com UK and ForexBrokers.com.

Overall summary

Investment options

eToro offers cryptocurrencies, stocks, and ETFs, including fractional shares. The offerings are limited to about 2,000 stocks and 200 ETFs. Mutual funds, futures, forex, and bonds are not supported. eToro does not offer any banking services, robo portfolios, or advisory services. Options trading is limited to the basics of buying puts and calls. Margin trading is also not available.

Cryptocurrency: eToro offers 26 cryptocurrencies in the U.S., allowing users to trade, among others, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Algorand (ALGO), Avalanche (AVAX), Uniswap (UNI), Chainlink (LINK), Zcash (ZEC), Stella Lumens (XLM), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dash (DASH).

Options: eToro has a separate options app that allows you to log in with your eToro account. The options experience is very friendly to beginners. It takes a unique approach to option chains, order entry, and provides basic risk measures. Complex orders aren’t supported and the detailed analytics available at tastytrade, TD Ameritrade and other top-tier brokerages are notably missing.

Commissions and fees

Like the competition, eToro offers $0 commissions on stock and ETF trades. It charges a 1% fee on both the entry and the exit in cryptocurrency trades. There is a minimum investment of $10 unless you want to try eToro with a virtual portfolio. Though $10 shouldn’t be an issue for potential clients, many competitors don’t require an initial investment. eToro does not charge a withdrawal fee, but there is a $30 minimum requirement.

Penny stocks: eToro does not currently offer penny stocks.

Options: There are no commissions, contract fees, exercise or assignment fees for options trading.

Mobile trading apps

The mobile trading app is essentially identical to the web experience, with less customization. Again, it feels more like a social media app than a trading app.

Ease of use: Navigation is simple and reasonably intuitive, partly because there is not much to see. Some of the icons are not particularly clear or labeled, but there is not much of a learning curve. The consistency between platforms also adds to the ease of use.

Watch lists: These are simple, clean and very sparse compared to those of long-established brokers. The name, symbol, small chart, price and change are shown and customization is limited. Clicking through takes you to the underlying information, where you can view posts, stats, a chart, research and news.

Charting: There are three different chart views. The first is on the overview page, which is mainly useful for scanning how the asset is doing. The charts on the stats page offer more time periods, and, lastly, the dedicated chart page lets you choose chart types and add indicators, of which you have five to choose from. That pales in comparison to the hundreds of studies and drawing tools available at competitors TD Ameritrade and tastytrade. Annoyingly, there is no landscape mode on the chart page.

Note: eToro’s separate options app rolled out late in our testing, but our initial impression is that it shares the user-friendliness and design elements of eToro’s stock and crypto trading, though the ease of use comes at the cost of absent trading tools, research and analytics.

Other trading platforms and tools

eToro is light on trading tools, but its social trading focus delivers a quality community experience. The CopyTrader and Smart Portfolios features allow new cryptocurrency traders to have exposure without actually having to pick, choose or monitor their own positions. The homepage features a Twitter-like “news feed” where traders can post, ask questions or just chat.

Unlike most social investing feeds, eToro investors often post quality content in hopes of building a revenue-generating following (see its Popular Investor program). It’s a welcome fresh perspective. One of the problems we think Wall Street faces is that too many analysts follow the same rules and come to the same conclusions.

Charting: eToro offers a nice beginner’s complement of charting tools on the web platform, including several chart types, over 60 studies and 12 drawing tools. Navigation here is a little deceptive, as you have to expand the chart to have access to these tools. From there, in the settings wheel you can launch “ProCharts,” which are the same charts in a different tab. We like ProCharts for its ease in managing a multichart layout, which allows you to monitor multiple assets simultaneously. You can also buy directly from the chart tab.

CopyTrader: The social trading aspect of eToro dominates, and the broker capitalizes on that with its CopyTrader tool. This allows you to copy other traders' portfolios. Using this feature is incredibly easy and has no fees or costs beyond the regular costs of the trades placed in that portion of the account. You choose the trader you want to copy (after viewing their track record), set an amount and hit the copy button. From there you can stop the copy at any point or even put in a stop loss order on the copy. There is a minimum of $200 to copy a trader.

Smart Portfolios: Smart Portfolios are eToro’s own cryptocurrency funds. They are offered at no fee, but do incur the costs of the trades within them. There are several variations, including one that is an index of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, another that is driven algorithmically by social media sentiment and another that just invests in the two largest, Bitcoin and Ethereum. There is a $500 minimum investment.

Research

There are “Research” and “News” tabs for most of the individual cryptocurrency, stock and ETF pages (these are only available to funded accounts). The research comes from TipRanks and includes analyst consensus, price target and ratings, as well as institutional investor activity (which is incorrectly named “hedge fund activity”), ESG ratings and insider transactions.

Education

eToro offers education in the form of its own eToro Academy as well as a News and Analysis page, a collection of news articles with a new article added every few days. The U.S. education is limited at this point.

Learning center: eToro Academy is a collection of guides and videos, most of which cover crypto trading and its intricacies. There are informative articles for those new to cryptocurrency on topics such as “What is bitcoin?” and “Ethereum 2.0.” The articles overall are well-done and instructive, especially if you are new to crypto. The short videos cover related areas well. A significant chunk of the content is focused on how to use the eToro platforms.

Banking services

Banking in the U.S. with eToro is limited to the broker’s eToro Money crypto wallet, which is available in some states. This allows users to transfer crypto from the eToro platform, send and receive crypto from or to other wallets and convert from one cryptocurrency to another. While basic cash management is also offered in a handful of countries, including the U.K., it’s not yet available in the U.S.

Final thoughts

eToro sells itself as a “social investment network” and as such does a very good job, especially in the crypto space. It often feels more like a social media platform, but its CopyTrader and Smart Portfolio features allow traders to have access to crypto without needing to do their own research or constantly watch the markets. eToro’s options app and trading functionality is very basic, though also quite friendly.

Limitations include few offerings beyond cryptocurrency and the inability to short sell anything. Those interested in copy trading face the additional challenge that beginners may grapple with in deciding which traders to copy. If you’re interested in copy trading, consider looking beyond absolute returns and pay attention to the risk score, the number of trades placed per week, and the average profit, loss and holding time for any traders you’re watching.

Here are our top takeaways for eToro this year:

1. eToro offers a unique and easy-to-navigate social trading platform that is strongest in cryptocurrencies, where 26 coins are on offer.
2. Its CopyTrader feature allows clients to replicate others’ trades, and eToro’s Popular Investor program provides cash payouts and other incentives to crypto traders able to develop a CopyTrader following.
3. We think eToro’s platform is best suited to beginning crypto enthusiasts who enjoy collaborating with others but have some interest in buying stocks, options and exchange-traded funds.

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Is eToro good for investing?

eToro is a good place for those who are looking to jump into buying cryptocurrency and are seeking a community and resources to get exposure. With stocks and ETFs available at $0 commissions, eToro can be a good choice for those who prioritize a simple platform.

Is eToro good for beginners?

Yes, eToro is a good choice for beginners. Its platform is simple and easy to learn. The web platform and mobile app are virtually identical. Its CopyTrader and Smart Portfolio features allow beginners to get diversified exposure to cryptocurrencies without having to constantly watch the markets. While being good for beginners doesn’t mean that it is easy to make money, it is an easier platform to use compared to some of the competition.

Can you buy actual bitcoin on eToro?

Yes, you can buy actual bitcoin on eToro. Once you open and fund an account, you have access to a wide variety of cryptocurrencies or currency portfolios. Further, eToro offers fractional shares, so you do not have to buy one full bitcoin to get exposure.

What is the downside to eToro?

There are a few catches with eToro. One potential issue for some is that you can’t sell shares short, you can only buy and sell. And while I was impressed with the speed of email from customer support, there are reports that direct contact can be difficult.

Can eToro make you rich?

Trading on eToro can be profitable, but as with any platform, and any form of trading, there is a significant risk of losing money in the markets. Never invest more than you are willing to lose.

About eToro

An early pioneer in social copy trading, eToro was founded in Israel in 2006 as a financial trading technology developer. Since launching its first product, it has grown to service over 26 million users with an innovative platform that continually evolves to be one of the largest social networks globally, with clients in over 100 countries. eToro expanded to the U.S. in 2018 and has since grown both its user base and its offerings. In August 2022, eToro signed an agreement to purchase Gatsby, an options trading platform.

Disclaimer: 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. Reink Media Group is compensated if you access certain of the products or services offered by eToro USA LLC and/or eToro USA Securities Inc. 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.

2023 Review methodology

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eToro 2023 results

For the StockBrokers.com 2023 Review, all U.S. equity brokers we reviewed were assessed on 196 different variables across eight areas: Commissions & Fees, Investment Options, Platforms & Tools, Research, Mobile Trading, Education, Ease of Use, and Overall.

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eToro fees and features data

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Trading fees

Account fees

Margin rates

Investment options

Order types

Beginners

Stock trading apps

Stock app features

Stock app charting

Trading platforms overview

Trading platform stock chart features

Day trading features

Investment research overview

Stock research features

ETF research features

Mutual fund research features

Options trading overview

Banking features

Customer service options

About the Editorial Team