What is eToro? Beginner’s Guide To The Social Trading Platform

eToro has been amongst the leading online trading platforms since 2008. It’s branded as a social trading platform, and it aims to enable users to trade almost anything from commodities, currencies, stocks, and indexes to cryptocurrencies through one web-based and mobile platform.

Click here to open a new window of eToro’s registration page.

The very first iteration of eToro was to function as an online trading platform for the forex market. However, in 2009, the company launched its intuitive trading platform through the WebTrader, the idea of which was to cater to both beginners and professional traders, providing both with the tools they need.

Since 2017, eToro has significantly expanded cryptocurrency trading on its platform.

It’s important to note that eToro offers CFD (Contract for Difference) trading of cryptocurrencies. This is distinctly different from buying and holding a cryptocurrency. With CFDs you don’t necessarily own the underlying asset – you are merely speculating on whether its price will rise or fall. This means that eToro users are not exposed to crypto exchange hacks. However, the users do not own their cryptocurrencies private keys. This could be a disadvantage in the case of hard forks when new coins are rewarded to the token holders.

Another thing to consider is that eToro leverages the concept of social trading, which is said to be very beneficial for novice traders. This allows beginners to go ahead and monitor the trading process of experienced traders, and also essentially to copy their trades and their portfolios.

Below is a comprehensive overview and guide for trading on what’s arguably the world’s leading social trading platform.

Using eToro

Now, the very first thing you’d need to begin trading on eToro is to sign up for an account. It’s completely free, and it takes no more than a few minutes. You can find the sign-up form right on the platform’s homepage.

As with all popular platforms, you will receive a confirmation email, and as soon as you follow the link on it, your account will be verified.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll find eToro’s, particularly comprehensive dashboard. It’s incredibly simplified. On your left, you’ll see your profile menu which will help you navigate through the entire platform.

Naturally, if you wish to start trading right away, click on the “Deposit Funds” button where you input the amount desired and then select a payment method. There are plenty of options here: Credit or Debit card, PayPal, wire transfer, Skrill, NETELLER, and UnionPay.

As soon as you’ve made a deposit, you can begin your trading adventures. On the next screenshot, you’ll see the “Trade Markets” button highlighted. Clicking it will allow you to choose the different trading markets available on the platform.

Since this guide is geared towards trading cryptocurrencies, on the top navigation bar, you want to select “Crypto.”:

From this dashboard, you can select the cryptocurrency that you wish to engage with. For the sake of the tutorial, let’s use Bitcoin (BTC).

Clicking on BTC’s icon will take you to its dedicated page. As a social trading platform, eToro provides all the necessary information on Bitcoin, as well as a dedicated chat room where users can have discussions.

If you want to trade BTC, click on the blue “Trade” button at the top right corner. You’ll see the following screen pop up:

On the top, you’ll see the option to Buy or Sell BTC. You can also decide whether to trade in USD or BTC Units directly – whichever is more convenient for you.

On the top right corner, you will see the “Trade” drop-down menu. Clicking it will enable you to choose to place an “Order” which will enable you to determine your entry and exit points more conveniently.

Trading Cryptocurrency Pairs

The following explains how to trade a cryptocurrency on the USD based markets. However, eToro also allows you to trade cryptocurrencies against other cryptos in selected markets.

On the cryptocurrency market dashboard, you will see two drop-down menus on the top navigation bar.

If you want to engage in a crypto-crypto trade, you’d have to select the “Crypto Crosses” option. This will take you to the available cryptocurrency trading pairs. At the time of writing this, they are:

Again, clicking on each trading pair’s icon will lead you to its dedicated page where you can follow the instructions for trading BTC to execute the trade.

However, there are a few differences. We’ve selected the ETH/BTC trading pair and opened a trading window. It looks as follows:

There are further options, such as Stop-loss, which if set, will automatically close the trade if at any moment your position is losing the amount you have specified in this tab.

The exact opposite of Stop-loss is the Take Profit option. If your position reaches the set value on this tab, the trade will automatically close in profit.

You can also trade with leverage on margin positions. However, it’s particularly important to be very careful, as leveraged trading carries higher risks.

eToro Social Trading

Social trading is suitable for users who don’t have enough experience in trading. Beginners can copy trades of more experienced traders in a rather quick and easy way using the platform.

On the right-side menu, you have to click on the “Copy People”. As soon as you do this, a list of traders will pop up, along with their 12-month returns. eToro will display the most successful traders first.

You’ll also be able to see their current portfolio, as well as specific recommendations if you want to copy them. Click on the big blue “Copy” button, and you’re all set to go.

eToro Supported Cryptocurrencies

eToro is currently supporting a range of different cryptocurrencies. At the time of writing this, these are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Dash (DASH), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Cardano (ADA), IOTA (MIOTA), Stellar (XLM), EOS (EOS), NEO (NEO), Zcash (ZEC), and Binance Coin (BNB).

Additionally, the cryptocurrency trading pairs that you can engage in include:

Using eToro’s CryptoPortfolio

To cater to users who’d like to receive increased exposure to digital assets, eToro has created a special investment vehicle called CryptoPortfolio.

In short, CryptoPortfolio offers a bundled and diversified portfolio that places an emphasis on cryptocurrencies which have a market cap of more than $1 billion and average trading volume of more than $20 million throughout the entire month.

As the portfolio includes multiple cryptocurrencies, it’s important to know how they are distributed within the bundle. The weight of every single digital asset in the portfolio is decided proportionally based on the size of its market capitalization. The minimum is 5%.

It’s also important to understand that the investment committee of eToro will re-balance the CryptoPortfolio investment product appropriately on the first trading day of every single calendar month. This is geared towards guaranteeing the accuracy and relevancy of the product. If any of the included cryptocurrencies violate one of the previously mentioned terms, it will be delisted from the product.

Currently, the CryptoPortfolio contains the following cryptocurrencies:

Keep in mind that because of the rebalancing events, it’s possible to close a specific position and to reinvest funds in new ones. This won’t require any action on behalf of the user and the new asset allocation will be performed automatically.

eToro’s Fees

eToro provides an extensive range of trading options and, as such, the fee structure varies from one asset to another.

Exiting a position on Bitcoin will carry a fee imposition of 0.70%, which tends to be higher than most of the other crypto-based exchanges.

Other altcoins tend to trade at a fee ranging between 1% – 3%. Trading BTC against EOS, for instance, will carry a fee of 2.90%.

Withdrawals

Withdrawing money from eToro uses the same method and is sent to the same account that was previously used for depositing. Payments will be made in the following order of priority: Credit Card, PayPal, and Bank Transfer. The fixed withdrawal fee is $25 per withdrawal.

As well as the withdrawal fee, there might be added conversion fees for any withdrawals which are not sent in USD.

Customer Support

eToro has a dedicated customer service department where users and non-users can submit tickets with their queries. They also provide a help center, containing an FAQ list.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that eToro is a rapidly growing company which expanded tremendously throughout the past year with the growth in popularity of cryptocurrency trading. As such, it’s only natural to experience slight delays in communication with customer support.

Conclusion

In conclusion, eToro does hold up as one of the leading cryptocurrency trading platforms on the market. Backed by a growing team of professionals, the platform does attest to the reputation and credibility it aims to build so heavily.

The trading experience is fluid and particularly user-friendly. It’s easy and, at the same time, it provides all the functionality an experienced and professional trader would require.

Going further, it boasts a wide range of different investment vehicles, allowing both novice and expert traders to diversify their investment portfolio and capture the most value from the exciting cryptocurrency market.