eToro: The kings of copy-trading and ready-made portfolio returns

Those who want to piggy-back onto the success of others.

eToro is the world’s largest social investing community. It is the original – and the best – copy-trading platform, making it my top pick for those who want to mirror the moves of the most successful traders. Add to that the excellent educational materials, and this is a platform that is an welcoming place to start if you’re a novice.

Those looking for chart-topping returns on a ready-made portfolio.

eToro is also my top pick for those looking for a ready-made portfolio. Amongst a huge amount of competition, the eToro Smart Portfolios easily outperform their closest rivals. And they are management-fee-free! If you want to get into investing but don’t want to have the responsibility of choosing which assets to put into your portfolio, an eToro Smart Portfolio is indeed a smart choice, although the $500 minimum (£400) deposit on Smart Portfolios will mean it could be a barrier to entry for those in the very earliest stages of their investing journey. For investors with a large appetite for risk, the eToro Four Largest Tech Giants portfolio is the best-performing ready-made portfolio for the last 5 years, making this an easy recommendation. But, you must be confident that the high level of risk that a highly concentrated portfolio, reliant on just four stocks, sits comfortably with you. If not, this is not the portfolio for you. And always remember, past performance does not guarantee future gains, and copy-trading does not amount to investment advice.

There is no free financial coaching as there is with BestInvest, and no opportunity to pay for professional in-house advice either as you get with competitors such as Hargreaves Lansdown and Fidelity. So, even with the ready-made portfolios, this platform is only right for those comfortable implementing their own investment strategies.

eToro Money

eToro Money is a separate app – a cash account – that links to your eToro investment account. It’s worth downloading as it’s free and has some useful benefits. For example, you can:

• Use it as a crypto wallet
• Save money with free deposits
• Pay 0% FX fees on all deposits (saving up to £15 per £1000 deposited)
• Use your card abroad and take advantage of market-leading exchange rates
• Use eToro Money via Google Pay and – if you are an eToro Club member – request a debit card

You can also make instant withdrawals from eToro Money into your bank account – there’s no waiting 3-5 business days.

Once eToro has processed your withdrawal request (which took 1 working day in my case), it can be transferred to your eToro Money account and from there, instantly transferred into your bank account. As a free app, I haven’t found any downsides to using it.

Account types

With eToro, you can trade within a general trading account, or a Stocks and Shares ISA, although the ISA is provided via a partnership with Moneyfarm rather than directly through eToro.

Here’s how that offering measures up against other comparable trading platforms:

You won’t be able to invest into a pension with eToro, but we’ve picked the best brokers for this if you’re looking for a self-invested personal pension (SIPP).

General trading account

eToro customers have access to over 5,000 instruments from a selection of asset classes including:

• Stocks
• Indices
• Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
• Currencies
• Commodities
• Cryptocurrencies

It’s not the largest selection of assets among the leading trading platforms. It doesn’t, for example, include bonds and gilts (although it is possible to purchase bond ETFs). And 5,000 is a relatively small number of tradable assets considering Trading 212 offers around 12,000 and Saxo offers 71,000+.

eToro does, however, allow you to trade fractional shares which gives it an edge over the likes of AJ Bell, interactive investor, Fidelity, Bestinvest and the other investment and trading platforms which don’t offer that capability.

To test out the platform, I bought fractional shares in NVIDIA (at $680 per share, I wasn’t in the market for whole shares). This ability to buy fractional shares meant I could benefit from the 42% increase in the NVIDIA share price over the two months I was invested.

Tip: If you’re looking to hold any of the ‘Magnificent Seven’, and your budget doesn’t stretch to thousands of dollars, choose a platform that offers fractional shares, or buy into eToro’s Tech Giant Smart Portfolio. With the highest 5-year returns of any of eToro’s ready-made portfolios, it’s a great way to ensure you don’t miss out on any future returns.

Remember – all investing involves risk including the risk of losing all your initial investment. Past performance is not guarantee future performance.

To trade CFDs and crypto on eToro, you must demonstrate you have the relevant level of knowledge and experience to understand the risks associated with these products. That’s because these products are considered very high risk and are therefore not suitable for all traders.

You will most likely go through screening to determine your eligibility to trade CFDs during account onboarding. To trade crypto, you’ll need to complete a questionnaire on the app. These might feel like irritating barriers, but 76% of retail investors lose money when trading CFDs with eToro, and companies that do not put in place reasonable protections for consumers will fall foul of the FCA. So, a reputable provider should take measures to ensure you know what you’re doing when it comes to complex products like CFDs.

Smart Portfolios

Smart Portfolios (formerly known as CopyPortfolios) are eToro’s range of ready-made portfolios. If you are looking for a ready-made option, you simply cannot afford to ignore eToro thanks to some outstanding rates of return over the past few years.

This is the kind of performance I’m talking about:

eToro offers more than 65 Smart Portfolios, spanning a range of top market themes, trends, and industries. The idea is that they are collections, created by experts, that track a specific theme or strategy. You simply need to choose the one you feel best matches your risk appetite, investment goals and strategy.

Not every Smart Porfolio has potential yields of 230%, of course. Some, such as the Renewable Power portfolio have not returned positive results. And it’s important to note that the best-performing eToro portfolios are only for those comfortable with higher levels of risk.

However, eToro makes it fantastically easy to explore performance results, as well as each portfolio’s risk score and, interestingly, the number of investors in each portfolio. You can also search by performance level and profitable months among other criteria. I applaud eToro for such transparency. Plenty of other providers fail miserably at this.

In March 2024, eToro added another collection to its Smart Portfolio range. Known as Core portfolios, these resemble more traditional ready-made solutions, designed for people looking more long-term. There are five different portfolios: Core Income, focused on dividend payments; and then four rated according to their risk level from Core Stability (lower risk) to Core Equity (higher risk). The Core range is devised and managed by BlackRock for eToro. Each portfolio comprises 10-25 iShares ETFs and will be rebalanced up to six times a year according to eToro. Because they're so new, we don't yet have performance data for this range. Watch this space though – they'll certainly feature in our next ready-made portfolio performance tables.

eToro’s Smart Portfolios delightfully come management fee-free – another tick in the box for eToro.

You will, however, need a minimum deposit of $500, a more pricey starting point than the $50 you need to open a DIY position. That’s to ensure you have enough funding to open positions in all the relevant assets.

Tip – If you plan to invest and hold for more than 1 year, remember that eToro levies a $10 monthly inactivity fee after 12 months with no login activity. That’s a hefty penalty after a comparatively short period of inactivity. So just remember to log-in at least once during a 12 month period to prevent penalty fees being taken from you account.

Read our Senior Equity Analyst John Choong’s pick of the best eToro Smart Portfolios.

ISA

UK clients can now access a Stocks and Shares ISA through eToro. It is, however, not managed by eToro itself, but through Moneyfarm. Click here to read our full Moneyfarm review.

Unlike many other ISA offerings, the product is discretionarily managed. That means Moneyfarm will manage the investments on your behalf. You’ll be able to see your ISA balance displayed within your eToro portfolio, however, and any money held in the ISA will also count towards eToro’s Club programme. Because these are discretionarily managed funds, they’re not for you if you want to build and manage your ISA investments yourself. It also means that fund performance should factor into your decision-making. While past performance is not a guarantee of future performance, comparing Moneyfarm’s past record with other providers shows us that they have a mixed performance history:

Moneyfarm has only outperformed the industry average in the past year, which could signify a change of approach, or that their strategy is better matched to the market conditions we’ve recently experienced. However, there are certainly providers with better track records when it comes to longer-term ISA fund performance. The best performing ISA fund provider based on past performance (again, remember that doesn’t guarantee a similar performance going forward), is Moneybox .

This is how their funds have performed over the past few years:

It’s unfortunate for eToro customers that they can’t invest in eToro’s own Smart Portfolios with their ISA, given that they perform so well. But, it’s not an option for now.

eToro Club membership

There’s no need to apply for eToro Club membership; it happens automatically when you reach certain thresholds. All current eToro clients become Bronze tier, which, slightly confusingly, is not part of the Club and doesn’t entitle you to any perks. However, once you meet the following equity requirements, you are automatically granted access to the qualifying tier and are entitled to premium perks and exclusive features:

• $5,000 = Silver
• $10,000 = Gold
• $25,000 = Platinum
• $50,000 = Platinum+
• $250,000 = Diamond

All members from Silver-tier upwards become eligible for a range of services and features including:

• Access to a dedicated account manager
• WhatsApp direct messaging with customer services reps
• Invitations to live webinars
• Weekly market analysis emails
• eToro Club Trading Academy
• An eToro Money Visa debit card
• Reduced FX fees

For the highest tiers, perks include:

• Tickets to sports events and member events
• Airport priority pass
• Crypto cashback programme
• Premium access to leading financial publications

eToro are happy for your ISA value to contribute towards your Club tier status.

Joint account

You cannot open a joint account with eToro.

Corporate accounts

eToro offers corporate accounts. A corporate account is needed for businesses that wish to invest in the financial markets and take advantage of more favourable capital gains tax rates, or offset losses against personal income. You’ll need a minimum of $50,000 to open a corporate account with eToro.

eToro does not offer a SIPP product, Lifetime ISA, or Junior ISA.

With eToro, you actually gain rights in the underlying asset. It’s worth checking that out with other newer providers as it’s not always the case and it will affect whether you have shareholder rights.

All stock positions opened on eToro are held in segregated accounts on your behalf.

Voting rights

Currently, it’s only possible to exercise voting rights on US stocks.

Dividends

Should the company you have invested in issue dividends, your balance will be updated in line with your holdings. Payment of CFD dividends are reflected in your balance on the ex-dividend date. Payment of equities are made on the payment date.

Fractional shares

Fractional shares are held in custody under the same terms as whole shares, are eligible to a proportionate voting right (on supported shares) and to the receipt of proportionate dividends or other adjustments in case of corporate event.

One of eToro’s big draws is that it offers 0% commission on stocks and ETF trading. (The offer doesn’t include CFD trading; it only applies to buying the real stock.)

You’ll also benefit from:

• No management or platform fees
• No rollover (overnight) fees
• No deposit fees
• No additional broker fees

However, there are a few things to watch out for before you jump straight in on that promise of zero commission and zero management fees.

The following is what you may need to pay:

• Spreads

The market spread is the difference between the sell (bid) price and the buy (ask) price of a particular asset. Market spreads are not a separate charge made by eToro, and are determined by the market. Additional spreads, charged by the platform on top of the market spread, are a form of commission and are a common way in which trading platforms charge fees.

eToro doesn’t charge additional spreads on stocks and ETFs making them a very cheap option.

For all other instruments, you can find a list of the applicable spreads on eToro’s website. I’ve picked out a few current examples and compared them with the spreads or commissions competitors are charging. As you can see, eToro isn’t the cheapest when it comes to spreads: that’s usually Interactive Brokers with Trading 212 also able to claim highly competitive pricing:

Currency conversion (FX) fees

eToro’s default currency is USD. That means you’ll be charged a currency conversion fee to deposit and withdraw in GBP (and any other non-USD currency).

Currently, that charge is a steep 1.5% which you’ll pay twice – once when you deposit, and once when you withdraw, a non-USD currency. Here’s how that compares to other providers:

eToro isn’t the only platform using FX fees to make profits – and to be fair, it has to come from somewhere when you don’t charge commission – but it’s something to be aware of.
There are a couple of ways to reduce your FX fees with eToro, though:

1. Register for eToro Money

If you want to avoid FX fees on deposits (in effect, halving your costs) then register for a free eToro Money account. It’s free, open to all eToro users, quick and easy to register for, and has no downsides as far as I can tell, so it’s well worth doing to remove those FX fees on deposits, alongside other perks.

2. Invest over $5k and become an eToro Club member

eToro Club members get discounts on FX conversion fees for deposits and withdrawals. Those discounts vary according to the Club tier you’re in, but range from a 25% discount for Silver Club members to a 100% discount for Diamond members. However, you have to have at least $5k invested to become a Silver member and you'll need $250k to reach Diamond tier, so not something everyone can benefit from.

• Inactivity fees

eToro levies a $10 monthly inactivity fee after 12 months with no login activity. That’s a hefty penalty after a comparatively short period of inactivity – not great if you were planning to take a long-term ‘buy and hold’ approach to investing. That said, you just need to login – not even make a trade – once during the year to avoid the inactivity penalty, so it’s easily avoided.

• Overnight fees

Overnight, or rollover fees, occur when CFD positions stay open overnight, Monday to Friday at 17:00 EST with Fridays incurring a fee of x3. This is usually a small fee depending on the value of the position you hold to cover the cost of the leverage you use for that period.

Overnight fees for cryptocurrencies are charged daily.

• Withdrawal fees

eToro charges a fixed $5 fee for withdrawals. The minimum withdrawal amount is $30. On a modest-sized portfolio, $5 per withdrawal means you’re taking quite a hit on the value of your pot, so try not to make frequent withdrawals with this provider.

CopyTrader™

• No additional fees

eToro leads the way when it comes to combining the financial markets with social features. The fact that there are no additional fees for using their wildly popular copy-trading feature, means it’s a free way to gain knowledge and strategies from other traders. You will need to have a minimum of $200 to begin copying a trader, however.

If you join the Popular Investor Programme, and allow others to copy your trades, you could earn a commission of between $500 per month and (for the ultra-successful ‘Elite Pros’) 1.5% of assets being copied, up to $30M per annum.

Always remember, however, that copy-trading is not without the usual risk associated with investing and your investments can lose value as well as gain value.

Smart Portfolios

• No additional fees

Unlike many of its competitors, eToro doesn’t charge management fees or any kind of commission, other than those applied to the assets within a portfolio, for Smart Portfolios. Stock portfolios are also commission-free.

Minimum deposit

Individual account holders will need at least $50 (£40) to open an account with eToro, and at least $10 for subsequent deposits. Those figures are reasonable – not the highest, but definitely not the lowest. (Freetrade and IBKR don’t impose any minimums, and Trading 212’s minimum is £1, for comparison).

All deposits via Bank Transfer must be at least US $500, and you’ll need a minimum of $50,000 to open a corporate account.

To invest in a Smart Portfolio, you’ll need at least $500 to ensure you have enough to open a position in all the relevant securities.

Leverage

Leverage is a temporary loan given to the trader by the broker, enabling the trader to open a trade of a larger size with a smaller amount of invested capital. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority sets limits on the amount of leverage that can be offered to UK investors of between 30:1 and 2:1, depending on the volatility of the underlying asset.

eToro offers the following leverage:

• 30:1 for major currency pairs
• 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold, and major indices
• 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major equity indices.

Warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with eToro. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. If the market moves against you, you may sustain a total loss greater than the funds invested in a specific position. eToro makes it clear that you are responsible for all losses in your account up to the equity in your account.

Interest on cash

eToro pays Gold, Platinum, Platinum+ and Diamond tier eToro Club members interest on their available cash balances (the non-invested funds in your eToro investment account). At the top end, it’s the highest on the market (5.3%), but you’ll need $250k+ to be earning those rates. No such luck if you’re not a Club member – you won’t be entitled to anything – so make sure uninvested money is put to work quickly.

For comparison:

All figures were correct at the time of publishing. While we attempt to update figures as soon as we become aware of changes, the most accurate way to obtain the latest data is to check with the provider directly.

Tip: You must opt-in to receive interest through your Club Dashboard. If you don’t opt-in, you won’t be eligible to receive it. You must also make sure your account is fully verified and unrestricted.

Stocks and Shares ISA fees

As eToro’s ISA is provided by Moneyfarm, all fees are in line with Moneyfarm’s ISA fees, currently:

A little niggle and something to be aware of – there is an out-of-date offer publicised on the desktop platform advertising the first year of the ISA as fee-free. The offer isn’t available as it ended in April 2023.

Please note: all published fees are correct at time of publishing. However, we suggest checking eToro’s website for the most up-to-date figures.

If you use eToro, you’ll need to be happy with the proprietary eToro web and mobile apps as there are no other choices available. I find the mobile app to be more intuitive than the desktop app. That said, the charts aren’t as easy to read on mobile so if you plan to make use of all the available tools, then desktop should be your default option.

Desktop platform

The desktop platform offers:

• One-click trading
• Offline trading
• ProCharts professional-grade charting tools (if you are a member of eToro Club)
• Tipranks Research (expert insight from some of the world’s leading financial analysts)

eToro’s aim is to make advanced trading tools easy to use and they succeed in doing that: eToro does an excellent job of balancing ease-of-use with advanced capabilities.

Mobile platform
The eToro mobile app is available on both iOS and Android. In the Google Play Store, the app scores a slightly disappointing 3.8 stars based on more than 132k reviews at the time of writing. Some users report having technical problems but most reviewers report positive experiences.

I’m actually a big fan of the mobile app. I have investments on many different platforms and opening up the eToro app always gives me a great first impression: I can see the information I’m looking for immediately but there’s still plenty of white space which makes it a pleasant viewing experience. It’s intuitive, easy to find your way around and still manages to incorporate fairly comprehensive stock screening and research capabilities, so it’s well-balanced between the needs of those still honing their craft and more advanced traders.

The copy-trading feature is easy to find and use. Overall, it’s more like a social media experience than a trading app. It’ll just be a matter of personal taste whether that’s the experience you want when trading.

*Copy-trading should never be considered investment advice. Investment value may rise or fall. Your capital is at risk.

Demo account

eToro provides a free demo account so you can hone your financial skills with $100k of virtual cash. That’s a real advantage if you want the chance to test your strategies before risking real money.

Looking for other providers that offer demo accounts? Try Trading 212 or Interactive Brokers.

eToro provides access to some useful tools that allow for a decent level of research.

Use the stock screener and you can gain access to key information to help with technical analysis including charts, relevant news about the company, data on what insider shareholders and hedge funds are doing with their shares, and analyst consensus on whether to buy, hold, and sell.

Stock stats include Beta, market cap, P/E ratio, EPS, dividend, range and volume data.

All users can access an economic calendar and set up a watchlist:

With ProCharts, the choice of tools increases to include:

• Moving Average Stock Indicators (MA)
• Parabolic Stop and Reverse (SAR) indicator
• Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator
• Stochastic oscillator indicator
• Commodity Channel Index (CCI)
• Relative Strength Index (RSI)
• Bollinger bands
• Average True Range (ATR) indicator
• Standard deviation calculator
• Chaikin oscillator indicator
• On-Balance-Volume (OBV) indicator
• Volume rate of change formula

In March 2023, eToro upgraded their platform to include new, innovative investment charts in partnership with TradingView, market leaders in charting and analysis tools. The upgrade included:

• Double the analysis tools
• Extended Fibonacci, Gann, and Elliot analysis tools
• 100+ indicators for the most popular trading strategies
• 50+ drawing tools to plan your trades
• Option to see asset prices within the last four hours, one hour, 30 minutes, 5 minutes, and even 1 minute.

While the choice available is plenty for most traders, there will be some advanced traders who will be seeking more. For those traders, a provider such as Interactive Brokers may be a better match. That said, eToro offers the wisdom of the crowd with its social and copy-trading capabilities, which offers an alternative way to research.

There are more than 30 million traders and investors from more than 100 countries making up the eToro community which is unrivalled on any other platform.

You’ll find experienced investors, including those with track records that outperform market benchmarks, which you can copy trade for free. I appreciate the fact I can filter by market outperformers, asset type, risk level and most copied. It’s extremely clear and easy to find traders to copy and there is plenty of data provided that allows you to explore their portfolio and decide whether they’re a good match for your goals, investing strategy and risk level.

I’ve recorded a video for this section showing selection options for copy-trading. Insert here.

The eToro News Feed operates just like that of any social network, enabling traders and investors to interact, share ideas, insights and trading strategies, and even make new friends.

Note, however, that the discussion boards are not moderated so reserve caution when acting on the advice of those you interact with. You should consult an independent, qualified financial adviser if you are unsure what investment strategy could be right for your specific circumstances, goals and tolerance to risk.

And don’t forget, past performance does not guarantee future performance.

When selecting a provider for your investments, it is very important to first ensure they meet certain minimum safety standards. We judge interactive eToro to meet the threshold for a ‘safe’ provider because:

• eToro is regulated by several of the world’s major authorities, including FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), CySec (Cyprus), GFSC (Gibraltar), FinCen and FINRA (United States).
• If in the unlikely event eToro UK ceases trading/enters insolvency and in the event that there is a shortfall in client money and/or customer assets, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme may be able to pay compensation of up to £85,000 to eToro UK's customers.
• eToro provides eligible customers with free insurance from Lloyd’s of London, one of the world’s leading providers of specialist insurance. The free insurance is only available for Platinum, Platinum + and Diamond Club customers, however. The insurance covers up to 1 million euros or AUD. The insurance covers cash, all CFD positions, and securities. Cryptocurrency positions are not covered.

Account security
eToro facilitates Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to protect customer accounts from hacking threats.

eToro Money
All funds deposited into an eToro Money account by UK residents are safeguarded in a designated account with a fully regulated UK bank. These funds cannot be used by eToro Money for anything other than facilitating your payment transactions, which means eToro cannot invest it in the markets, lend it to other clients or use it in any other way.

Making a trade is made easy with eToro and can be achieved in one click if you regularly use the same settings.

eToro allows you to create a Watchlist and facilitates automated trading including the setting of price alerts. Through your watchlist, you can select the specific instrument you would like to set the alert on and choose a rate or percentage change for the instrument to trigger a notification.

The screen for placing trades is clear and presents all the options available to you which, for going long or short, include setting a Stop Loss, adding leverage, or creating a Take Profit order.

Order types

Placing long trades, eToro users can choose between:

• Market order (the price it is currently), and:
• Limit order (buying or selling a stock when it reaches your desired price)

And take advantage of the following risk management tools to protect investments and secure profits:

• Stop Loss
• Trailing Stop Loss
• Take Profit

You can also trade CFDs Toro. With CFDs, you can open ‘sell’ (short) positions and use leverage. There’s a tonne of educational materials to help you better understand these complex instruments and decide how to act whether you’re long-term bullish or short-term bearish.

Remember, though: CFDs involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Funding your account

Its prudent to remember that all eToro trading accounts are in USD. This means that when you deposit with a different currency, including GBP, the deposited amount will be converted at the current market rate. This is subject to a conversion fee of 1.5% for Bronze tier members unless you deposit via eToro Money in which case there is no conversion fee.

Leverage

UK traders are limited to a maximum of 30:1 leverage on Contracts for Difference (CFDs) – the maximum permitted by the UK FCA.

Please note: Margin borrowing is only for experienced investors with high risk tolerance. You may lose more than your initial investment. Before trading on margin, it’s important to understand the following risks:

• Trading losses may be greater than the value of the initial investment
• Leveraged investments create a greater potential risk of loss
• Additional costs from margin interest charges
• Potential margin calls or liquidation of securities

The eToro Academy has plenty to offer those looking to empower themselves with greater knowledge.

Videos, guides, articles and courses are available, covering:

• Getting started with investing
• Trading
• Building your portfolio
• Forex
• Macroeconomics
• Advanced investment and trading strategies
• Crypto & Blockchain
• Technical analysis
• Getting started on eToro

Materials are geared towards beginners and don’t assume any prior knowledge, so perfect for those who want to start from scratch.

A Beta chatbot – Ask eToro – is eToro’s ChatGPT. It’s a nice user-friendly option for those wanting to ask questions about the different elements of the financial markets. You should not use this as investment advice.

There are no live webinars, however, unless you are an eToro Club member in the Silver tier or higher. That said, the eToro community is a great place to post your questions, share knowledge, and gain insight from other users’ posts and replies.

Unless you are an eToro Club member (minimum investment of £5,000) with access to a Personal Account Manager and WhatsApp direct messaging, you may find customer service somewhat lacking at eToro.

If you are not an existing customer, you will be directed to use the Help Centre (pre-written questions and answers and a search facility). The website claims you can open a ticket before opening an account, as just a visitor, but the first time I tried it, I was told I needed to log in, and the second time, it just refused to send. It's not the first bug I've encountered (see Account opening).

If you log in as a customer (but not an eToro Club member), you’ll be able to access live chat as well as the Help Centre.

Non-customers and customers alike can raise a ticket, although, in my experience, you can’t rely on getting a quick answer to these. The ticket confirmation message states you’ll get a reply within 48 hours (not great anyway) but in reality, it took almost a week to get a reply to my general enquiry which is diabolical.

I had further problems when following instructions to verify my account. I was sent an email with instructions to upload my proof of identity (POI) and proof of address (POA) documents. Using their own links, I was missent to the wrong screen and then told the whole process was complete when I’d not even taken a single picture of a document. Getting someone to address the problem was even more of a headache.

That said, eToro has an ‘Excellent’ score on Trustpilot – 4.3 at the time of writing – based on nearly 22,000 reviews, so eToro has happy customers somewhere

Account opening

The first stage of account opening is straightforward and quick to do. You’ll need your National Insurance number to meet identity verification requirements.

You’ll also be asked to go through a screening questionnaire to assess your ability to trade CFDs. Given how risky CFDs are, this is to ensure your safety and is a regulatory requirement to ensure you’re not dabbling in instruments that you’re not equipped to handle.

Some of the secondary elements, like depositing money for the first time and verifying my identity were much more of a faff. These should be straightforward processes – they are on most other platforms – but errors in the process (namely, faulty links) and then trouble getting customer service to rectify the problem, were time-consuming and frankly, really irritating.

eToro telling me they’d successfully received my ID verification documents when I’d not yet uploaded any. One of a few onboarding niggles that took time to sort out.

There are no fees for opening an account with eToro.

If you want to transfer in or out of eToro, you'll find a problem. Currently, eToro does not offer the option to move open positions to other brokers. They say: “The eToro investment platform is not an exchange or a market. This means that you can only buy and sell instruments within the eToro investment platform.” That means, to move in or out of eToro you'll need to liquidate your holdings before moving – not ideal.

Watch this video to view eToro’s account opening process:

Closing your account

There are no fees for closing an eToro account although you will need to pay for withdrawing your funds ($5 per withdrawal).

It is not possible to move open positions out of your eToro account to another broker or to another person so before closing your account, ensure that you have closed all open positions and withdrawn all funds in your cash available balance. If you have an eToro Money account, you’ll need to contact customer service to assist you.

Transferring an account

You’ll be able to transfer your ISA to the Moneyfarm ISA that eToro provides but you won’t be able to transfer into your general trading portfolio. That’s unusual as many of eToro’s competitors do allow that. Saxo, for example, allows you to transfer a portfolio in. Trading 212 is in the process of implementing transfer abilities and expects to roll out the feature to all customers very soon.

Currently, eToro does not offer the option to transfer your portfolio out to another broker, either. However, eToro has 0% commissions on stocks, so you can just close the positions and reopen with the other broker. You will have to pay whatever commission the other broker charges though and the $5 withdrawal fee. For ETFs, leveraged positions, and other CFDs, it will mean losing the spread and starting again if you want to transfer a position to another provider.

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