YouTube has been pimping eToro at me like it’s going out of fashion. Does anyone use it?
I had a brief look at it this morning and seems okay. The pros being the integrated community aspect of it (ie. you can see and engage other members by the look of it) and access to exchanges 212 and FT do not (Hong Kong being the most notable).
Cons being the overall instrument range (the Twitter brigade won’t be interested), and the withdrawals delay.
Does anyone here use them? They worth a look? Only draw for me is the access to a few key HK stocks I’m interested in.
Nope, but don’t forget about Stake for US stocks. Has about 3800 US stocks, all fractional, all ‘free’ (pay to get USD into your account in first instance) but pretty much just works. Not flashy, not visually pretty, no real uk community, but in terms of investment range … yeah, works well for me…
I had an account. Can’t quite put my finger on what turned me off Etoro. Don’t know if they still charge a $25 withdrawl fee, but that was one reason. I have considered reopening it for the exact same purpose as you actually.
I’ve heard of Stake, plenty of fairly good reviews.
Etoro I’ve only heard people saying the same as @topher, that there’s something that they can’t put their finger on but just doesn’t feel right. Other than that not really heard any horror stories though, so should be alright.
I see that the Stake GBP<->USD charge is 0.5% in both directions in and out (compared to degiro 0.1%). This strikes me as a hefty overhead, thought perhaps not for money you will leave in USD for many years. They also have a 0.5% express funding fee and a $2 withdrawal fee.
I guess it depends on the stocks you want to buy. I find the Trading 212 universe covers what I want. The funding for Trading 212 is really quick with debit card.
Thinking about it, I had similar unquantifiable concerns about Trading 212, at least initially. It probably boils down to trust, using T212 quickly allayed my concerns in that regard though.
Well there’s a lot of bad press around cfd’s and they usually just get lumped as a CFD trading app, which is not the entirety of it. So I guess I can understand.
That said as long as whoever I use is FCA registered and regulated and FSCS covered I’m pretty happy to use. I haven’t tried etoro and don’t particularly plan to, just because I’m currently happy with what I use.
I use them and I find them okay apart from a few issues,
-you get charged $5 to withdraw your money
it takes a while for the money to reach your account
there is a minimum amount of $50 to buy any instrument.
They currently have a good range of instruments some of which are not yet available on T212, which is the only reason I tend to use them. Also they do not charge stamp duty on any UK stock. The only other benefit is that if you’re a successful trader you can allow other people to copy your trades and get paid for that so there is an extra opportunity to earn a living.
But in my view T212 is far superior and I can only see them getting better and better with the developments that are on the way.
Had Etoro, but i did not like the questionnaire when you wanted to withdraw your own money. If they did this when funding the account, nobody would use it. Another thing is that they change the rules sometimes with the excuse that it is better for the retail trader. The so called social platform is not a plus, you can use a forum with the same results. The only thing i liked was that you could copy a trader and it would mirror their portfolio.
I really don’t like the ‘copy trader’ feature of eToro. ok so some joe bloggs has made 800% the last year, so you should copy him, then next year he might fail. IMO best to do your own research and invest yourself rather than blindly follow someone.
For sure I agree on doing your own research before committing to anything, but I’m not against seeing what others are doing. I’m super nosey but I’m also not interested in following what others are doing, just seeing what they are doing.
So they pay the stamp duty for your purchase of UK stock from their own money? Sounds too good to be true. Can they pay the stamp duty when I buy a house please
You never know, if you don’t ask you don’t get I’m sure you can ask them directly For the record I don’t use them because they pay stamp duty, but they just have some shares that are not yet available on T 212. Whatever costs I incur they are insignificant compared to what I’m paying HL.
Can’t you just withdraw your money whenever you want to (as long as they haven’t invested it)? I assume you’ll keep an eye on it, and won’t put in more money than you’re willing to lose.
but I’m also not interested in following what others are doing, just seeing what they are doing.
For the record I don’t use them because they pay stamp duty, but they just have some shares that are not yet available on T 212. Whatever costs I incur they are insignificant compared to what I’m paying HL.