Some other issues well worth mentioning about eToro:1. Their spreads are astronomical, like 4%-4.5%+ on Ripple, $300+ on Bitcoin, for example, and they are misleading and deceptive in that even though they state in their T&C's their spreads, they actually change them at will without updating their T&C's - I'm not kidding, on one trade, the spread on Ripple might be 6 cents, then half hour later you open another trade and the spread is 15 cents... WTF? This is one reason eToro is licensed and domiciled in Cyprus, which like Belize, is a haven for scam trading companies. If eToro was licensed in, say Australia, NZ, USA, or the UK, they would come to the attention of the regulators as this is deceptive and misleading behaviour. If your T&C's state the spread is 1% then you are required by law to charge that spread, and if you want to change it, you need to update your T&C's, but changing the spread at will, often dozens of times during a 24 hour period, is misleading and a big red flag as far as I'm concerned.
2. As soon as there's a little bit of volatility, or a bit of prolonged upwards movement, they "Close" market, in effect disabling trading by not allowing you to open a trade, and have your trade closed showing as "pending", so you might be thinking "woo hoo! I'm up 5% on this trade, but then suddenly "Market Closed" comes up, your closed trade becomes "pending", and I might end up with just 1% or 2%. I've been with eToro since 2014, attempting to swing-trade forex, and this problem has been consistent in the past, I would be up 12% on the $USD/$JPY pair, then close the trade, and it suddenly goes "pending" and when they finally to close the trade, I'd be up just a few percent, not the 12%. I find this practise unethical and deceptive. If you're on eToro, look at my profile (activerog), or sign up to etoro without making a deposit and just take a look - in February this year (2017), I suffered a major draw-down, which prompted me to withdraw most of my equity and cease trading on this dodgey, crooked platform, as a result of TP's and SL's not being activated when they should be, Orders set not opening, and closing trades coming up as 'pending' until I was deep in the red. Back on eToro, after a 7 month break, trading cryptos, and many of the problems that have caused me losses and getting peeved off, still persist.
3. Customer Support / Service levels: Usually in life, you get what you pay for. The $6 polo from K-Mart tends to fade and fall to bits much faster than the $85 Ralph Lauren Polo, so one could be forgiven for believing that along with eToro's very high spreads and whopping $25 withdrawal fee comes exceptional and responsive customer service. Sorry to disappoint you, but quite the opposite is the case, eToro's customer service is atrocious, and virtually non-existent.
4. Withdrawal Fee & Withdrawal speed: A $25 fee to withdraw funds, regardless of whether the amount is large or small, might be somewhat forgiveable if it's quick and reliable. Last time I made a withdrawal (Feb 2017), the fee was $5 and it took a couple of days for the funds to be received on my end. Now the fee is $25, there's no end of people on eToro's forum/chat board complaining they're waiting a week or more. If eToro was as particular and diligent with providing good, responsive customer service and support as they are quickly blocking disgruntled users from posting their experiences, or asking questions like "I made a withdrawal request x weeks ago and still no money", or "I sent a support ticket x weeks ago and still waiting for an answer", or "whoa! what's with the spreads, they're criminal" - you're blocked from posting very, very quickly.
Whilst I find eToro very disappointing in the above respects, if you're new to trading, especially trading cryptos, eToro is a fantastic and convenient place to get started, here are some positives about eToro that sets this platform apart from all the others :
1. Very easy to use website and app platform, even newbies will find the whole thing really easy-to-use, intuitive and easy to get your head around. Exceptionally well designed.
2. Whilst eToro support is virtually non-existent, the social media aspect where people post mostly irrelevant stuff like "$XRP to the Moon", "Go $BTC go go go", or "look at my Chart" there's still quite a few people left on there who have something intelligent and constructive to say, and if you ask a question, you're likely to get a response from an experienced trader. I enjoyed helping newbies get started, but as soon as I made it public knowledge that I trade on other platforms, and who they are, and the pros and cons of each, including eToro, that's it, I'm blocked from making posts, which I find rather silly, because eToro is shooting themselves in the foot, because there's no way I could recommend eToro to anybody but a raw beginner. It's not a platform for the experienced, seasoned trader, but it's a great platform to dip your toes, and see how you go.
3. Paypal deposits - quick and instant. They might be slow paying out, but you can get started very quickly, once you're ID verified. That is now taking longer than usual due to the huge influx of new users signing up, so be patient, they're too busy monitoring blocking people from posting on their social media chat.
4. Trader Analytics / Copy Trade Feature - eToro is unique in that you can copy other traders, so when they open a trade, that trade is also copied on your account. There are some good, consistent traders on eToro, and there's some lousy ones. Good thing is there's charts, analytics, you can analyse other traders, examine their trading history, current trades, risk score and past performance. Absolutely brilliant. For a newbie, trade yourself with demo account dollars to start with, and put in some real money and copy a trader, or a number of traders....
SUMMARY:
If you're an experienced trader who knows what they're doing, and you got $5000, $10'000 or more to trade with, eToro is not for you, you're better off trading on a platform where you actually own the coins. With eToro, you're trading a CFD (Contract For Difference) on a crypto, a bit like futures trading, you're speculating on an upwards or downwards movement of the price of the asset, but without actually owning the asset at all. This has some benefit in that a closed trade results in a credit of fiat currency in your balance, but this convenience comes at a price, as the spreads are quite high.
If you're a newbie, eToro rocks ; I'm not going to post my referral link however, as I do not feel comfortable referring people to a platform that has virtually no customer support, charges like a wounded bull (I knew there's a reason why the eToro logo has horns, like a bull) and treats its users with contempt, as soon as they make any comment even slightly critical of eToro, as in my case, answering other people on their "open book" chat forum that there is likely to be a number of reasons why their spreads and withdrawal fees are so high, suggesting that eToro has a business model which "fattens their profits" for the sake of stability and longevity of their platform, but also offering up to 30% in referral (deposit) bonuses, you really need to weigh things up, there's pros and cons to every trading platform, but heavens forbid dare to speak even slightly negative about eToro, and they block you from their "open book" - makes one wonder, they're ever so fast and diligent in blocking users at will, why can't they dedicate their efforts to just try to give a decent level of customer service?
If you got 10 people sitting behind their computer screens, employed to monitor their "Openbook" forum to catch out and block people like me, who answer another etoro users' question, why are the spreads so high here, or what alternative platforms do you use, and why? eToro is like the North Korea government when it comes to censorship, their openbook forum is full of eToro shills, dare to even question their fees, spreads and tactics, and you're gone, blocked.... I suggest visit truetoro.org and get an idea of the bigger picture behind the "evils" of the middle-eastern scum behind that company and their deceptive business practises. Pathetic and shameful, to say the least. No wonder the west tends to hate the middle east. Here in Australia, any investment company or trading platform, is required to notify users of a change of fees and spread, on eToro, even though their T&C's state there's a certain spread, what they actually charge is at their own discretion. This is SERIOUSLY DISGUSTING BUSINESS PRACTISE, and CySEC should issue eToro a cease notice, shut the company down, and send the people behind it to jail and throw away the key.....
Having made a very nice profit in 3 months on Bitcoin purchased through etoro,ending up owning the imaginary equivalent of nearly 3 bitcoins , i wondered if i am better off buying actual bitcoins to own rather than using etoro, where you don't actually own any coins. With the hard fork coming up ,as i understand it , unless you actually own the bitcoin then there will be no free coins allocated. So by staying on etoro i would get nothing .
I thought about withdrawing all my money and began the process of buying again through Kraken , but they are not accepting deposits from the UK . So can anyone offer some advice please?
You actually don't own any bitcoin like real coins, its just like you're just investing your money in them, so they kinda like own the bitcoin and not you so you only get to make a profit when the price goes up cos it would reflect in your trading account, if you want to buy bitcoins you can do that on localbitcoins.com and they have diverse modes of payment so it shouldn't be a big deal at all if you trade carefully, though the platform uses escrow you should still be extra careful on each transaction as nothing can be 100% perfect, not even the escrow service and your deals with a seller.
