Comprehensive Review dedicated to traders from SA
eToro Review South Africa
Does not accept South African Clients
Review Update: - Etoro has stopped accepting traders from South Africa. Please see other reputable forex brokers that work with SA traders.
Who is eToro?
eToro is one of the most popular social trading platforms in the world that allows you to duplicate successfull traders on the platform. The company has over 10 million traders worldwide and can be tested on a free demo, the eToro minimum deposit in South Africa is 200 USD.
Main advantages of the broker
Regulated by:
CySEC
Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, based in Cyprus, license no 109/10.
FCA
Financial Conduct Authority, based in the United Kingdom, license no 583263.
ASIC
Australian Securities and Investments Commission, based in Australia, license no 491139.
Risk warning: Remember that forex and CFDs available at eToro are leveraged products and can result in the loss of your entire capital.
Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved.
Available Deposit & Withdrawal Methods in SA
eToro supports the following deposits and withdrawal methods in South Africa
Supported Platforms by eToro
eToro supports the following trading platforms
01
eToro Social Trading Platform
eToro is the world’s leading social trading platform and network that allows you to follow and copy popular traders. You can select a trader you want to copy based on his location, markets he invests in or his percentage gain.
The eToro platform has currently over 12 000 traders from all over the world that you can copy (Which have met requested requirements and have been accepted by the eToro Popular Investor Team).
There are also some from South Africa, tho not that many yet. All traders that can be copied can be found on the copy people page after you log into your eToro account.
Once you click on the name of one of the traders you like, you can see his performance statistics (for each month). You can also discover here how many people copy this particular trader, what assets he trades the most often and what is his average risk score.
Every trader who can be copied also has his own feed where he can talk to his followers about the trades he executes or about his plans. If you have any question, you can also directly ask him via the feed page.
Screenshot of eToro copy people page
(Click the image for zoom)
Screenshot of performance statistics of one of the traders (Click the image for zooming)
02
Trading assets
In total, there are over 1800 trading instruments available at eToro to traders from SA (Some of which are CFDs). These include:
- Forex – eToro supports speculation on 52 currency pairs. Apart from major and minor pairs, there are also exotic pairs including two with the South African Rand - USD/ZAR and ZAR/JPY.
- Stocks – In this asset category you can find over 1 500 stocks from 17 different stock exchanges. Most of the stock exchanges are European, but there are also American and Asian as well. Available stocks on the platform can be sorted out by industry (Basic materials, financial, healthcare, technology, services...) and by an exchange.
- Indices – Here you can find 15 popular indices like UK100, SPX500, NSDXQ100, HKG50, China50 etc.
- Commodities – There are 46 commodities including Oil, gold, silver, copper and sugar.
- Cryptocurrencies – eToro offers trading 18 cryptocurrency pairs with USD, here you can find Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple or even Tron, IOTA and Tezos. With that being said, there are also additional 16 crypto crosses like ETH/BTC, ETH/EOS, BTC/XLM and 64 currency crosses like BTC/GBP, BTC/EUR, ETC/JPY, BCH/EUR + 1 commodity cross (Gold/BTC)
- ETFs – eToro allows speculation on 253 ETFs, here you can find the world's most popular ETFs like Ishares, Vanguard or Direxion.
Did you know?
eToro is the world’s largest community of traders and investors, numbering more than 10 million from more than 140 countries.
03
Trading fees
eToro charges spreads on most assets (the difference between ask and bid price). According to the eToro fees page where you can find the current fees for all assets, the company charges today on forex pairs spreads as low as 1 pip (for EUR/USD) and 8 pips for ZAR/JPY.
When it comes to commodities, the spreads start from 2 pips and for cryptocurrencies from 0,75% (BTC) and 1,9% for Ethereum.
If you stay in your position overnight, you will often pay a small overnight fee. You are informed about this fee when you are opening a new position. Some assets also have positive overnight funding, in such cases, this amount is added to your account balance.
The company does not charge any deposit fees or any fees for the use of CopyTrader™ technology (the system that allows you to copy popular traders).
eToro charges a low fixed fee for withdrawals of 5 USD to cover some of the expenses involved in international money transfers.
If you deposit in your eToro account using ZAR and not USD you will also have pay for the conversion fee (as etoro does not support base account currency in ZAR). The conversion fee starts from 50 PIPS.
04
Leverage
eToro traders from South African can trade available assets with up to 1:30 leverage. If we compare this to other forex and CFD brokers operating in SA, such maximum leverage is low. However, what is a great thing about eToro leverage is that you can change it on each trade you execute. That means when you click on leverage, you can change it, for instance, from 1:10 to 1:2 or 1:1.
Here is the breakdown of maximum leverage that can be used at eToro depending on what asset category you trade.
Major forex pairs 1:30
Minor forex pairs 1:20
Exotic forex pairs 1:10
Indices 1:20
Stocks 1:5
Commodities 1:20