EToro
Encyclopedia
eToro is a financial trading company based in Cyprus. It provides personal online financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...

 in forex, commodities and stock indices through its own electronic trading platform
Electronic trading platform
In finance, an Electronic trading platform is a computer system that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. This includes products such as shares, bonds, currencies, commodities and derivatives with a financial intermediary, such as a...

.
eToro is primarily a platform and a software provider; it is not itself a financial broker. Rather, it connects its customers with third party brokerage services provided by various brokers.

History

eToro was founded in 2007 in Limassol, Cyprus by brothers Jonathan and Ronen Assia together with David Ring. eToro launched its platform version in a visual trading mode which presented online currency trading (forex) as a series of games. Initially eToro’s financial trading platform was a download only product, incorporating graphic trading visualizations which conceptualized the trading process as a race between currencies and a visual tug of war
Tug of war
Tug of war, also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war or rope pulling, is a sport that directly pits two teams against each other in a test of strength. The term may also be used as a metaphor to describe a demonstration of brute strength by two opposing groups, such as a rivalry between two...

 amongst others. Later the company expanded its product offering by launching a professional trader’s application “Expert Mode” and a web based trading platform “WebTrader”.

In 2007 eToro raised $1.7 million in first round funding, followed by $6.3 million in the second round in 2009, a third funding round in 2010 of a further $2.4 million was followed in 2011 by a fourth funding round worth $8.3 million. Throughout this period the company has continued to expand and now maintains numerous overseas offices. The company claims to manage investments worth tens of billions annually and reports an annual customer growth rate of 20%. In its public statements the company has reported that is has 1.5 million registered users and claims that it receives 2,000 new account openings every day.

Services

eToro provides online financial trading in forex and CFDs
Contract for difference
In finance, a contract for difference is a contract between two parties, typically described as "buyer" and "seller", stipulating that the buyer will pay to the seller the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at contract time...

 on commodities, gold
Gold as an investment
Of all the precious metals, gold is the most popular as an investment. Investors generally buy gold as a hedge or harbor against economic, political, or social fiat currency crises...

, silver
Silver as an investment
Silver, like other precious metals, may be used as an investment. For more than four thousand years, silver has been regarded as a form of money and store of value. However, since the end of the silver standard, silver has lost its role as legal tender in many developed countries such as the...

 and indices. eToro’s products are offered via its broker partners RetailFX (based in Cyprus and regulated by CySEC), IC Markets (based in Australia and regulated by ASIC
ASIC
ASIC may refer to:* Application-specific integrated circuit, an integrated circuit developed for a particular use, as opposed to a customised general-purpose device.* ASIC programming language, a dialect of BASIC...

) and FX Solutions
City Index Group
City Index Group is a broker providing online financial spread betting, FX, and CFD trading. As well as Britain, it operates in United States, Australia, China, Singapore, Poland and Germany. Today, the group consists of the City Index Limited, Finspreads, FX Solutions and IFX Markets...

(based in the United States and regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates futures and option markets....

 and the National Futures Association
National Futures Association
The National Futures Association is an independent self-regulatory organization and watchdog of the commodities and futures industry in the United States. The NFA oversees and protects investors from fraudulent commodities and futures activities. The NFA also provides mediation and arbitration...

).

In addition to providing direct access to financial trading brokers eToro has also set up a financial trading social network.

Features

eToro allows trading across a variety of lot sizes, and with up to 400 times leverage. Traditionally, forex trading occurs in standard lots valued at 100,000 units of the base currency. However,eToro offers trading on micro lots of 1,000 units in addition to both mini and standard lots.

eToro’s leverage provision of up to 400 times places it among a number of financial trading companies which have received criticism for their use of highly leveraged trading. These leverage levels are far beyond the maximum permitted under the new US Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates futures and option markets....

 (CFTC) restrictions which stipulate a maximum leverage of 50 times for major currency transactions conducted by accredited brokers.
eToro has recently taken steps to try and modify this through the introduction of a voluntary code of practice called “Responsible Trading” which encourages traders to voluntarily restrict their use of high leverage levels.

eToro also offers a “traders insight” tool which displays the direction of trade in which the majority of eToro’s 100 leading traders are trading in its own traders social network. This was expanded in 2010 when eToro launched the OpenBook social trading network. OpenBook was eToro's response to an industry move into retail trading social trading networks such as Currensee
Currensee
Currensee is a financial services company based in Boston to serve as a social network for foreign exchange traders...

, FXBees, FXStat
FxStat Group
FxStat or FxStat Group is a financial services company created in April 2010 and focusing on the foreign exchange market. FxStat's forex platform initially provided social networking and financial analysis features...

, Zecco.com
Zecco.com
Zecco.com is an online investing company with operations in San Francisco, California and Pasadena, California. Investors on Zecco.com have access to Zecco Trading, its stock, option, mutual fund and bond trading platform. Investors also have access to Zecco Forex, which provides spot foreign...

and a number of other social trading networks.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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