Plus500 at Glance
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Plus500 has very competitive spreads, so it keeps costs low and considered one of the best choices for the cost-conscious traders. The founding team’s background is in technology, and the broker’s proprietary platform is their pride and joy. An additional reason Plus500 is proud about is its impressive ratings at Google Play and in Apple’s App Store, which they trumpet as a measure of their popularity. However, extra features and tools like auto-trading, MT4 platform, and Expert Advisors are not available.
Review
Plus 500 comes highly recommended for experienced traders looking for an easy-to-use platform and a great user experience. Plus500 is considered safe because it is listed on a stock exchange, discloses its financials and is regulated by several top-tier financial authorities. Plus500 has a simple, easy-to-use trading platform, with an especially well-designed mobile platform. The account opening process is fully digital and seamless and has only one account type. You can easily open your trading account within a day, also provides a safer, two-step login. Google and Facebook authentication is also available, which is quite convenient. If you want a fast and digital account opening process, Plus500 is your broker. The search function is great, you will have no trouble finding anything. You can find the products categorized on the left or you can search by typing in the product name. Trading fees are low. On the negative side, the broker has limited research, trading tools and recommendations, fundamental data, forex news, are not available. The educational section still needs a lot of improvement. However, it is starting to roll out educational video content under its Trader's Guide series. Also, Plus500 does not provide social copy trading tools.
After the online registration, you have to verify your identity and provide proof of residency. You can upload a copy of your ID or passport for verifying your identity, and a utility bill or bank statement for verifying your residency.
Plus500 allows you to use the Demo account for as long as you need to get familiar with the platform and plan your trading strategy.
In addition, it was pleasing to see that Plus500 incorporates an economic calendar powered by Dow Jones on its WebTrader platform, and which is also available on the broker's website. Plus500 also shows trader sentiment data, which can be useful to gauge consensus.
We also liked the platform's alert and notification functions. You can set up email, SMS and push notifications.
The alert lets you know if the price of an asset reaches a level or changes by a set percentage. Additionally, you can also sign up to be alerted if the Plus500 Traders' Sentiment (the percentage of Buyers or Sellers among Plus500 customers) reaches a certain level.
The web trading platform is available in a lot of languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish.
History
Plus500 is a London Stock Exchange-listed global CFD and FX broker. (Note that Plus500 is only authorized to provide CFDs and not Binary Options). It was founded in 2008 by six alumni of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology: Gal Haber, Alon Gonen, Elad Ben-Izhak, Shlomi Weizmann, Omer Elazari and Shimon Sofer, with an initial investment of $400,000 contributed by Gonen. In 2010, Plus500 launched a web-based version of its online trading platform, allowing Mac and Linux users to trade online. In 2011, they launched their first app for iPad and iPhone users. In 2012, Plus500 introduced its Android-based trading platform for Android smartphones and tablets. In October 2012, Plus500UK Ltd was fined £205,128 by the FCA failing to report transactions accurately for a year and a half. The company was not able to submit complete and accurate transaction reports because of the absence of appropriate systems and controls, documented procedures or appropriate training for staff. (Chapter 17 of the FSA’s Supervision manual and Principle 3 of the FCA’s Principles for Businesses). In 2014, the company launched its Windows app.
In May 2015, Plus500 was hit with massive value loss when its stock plunged almost 60 percent due to the company's move to freeze UK based trader accounts. The UK Financial Conduct Authority had ordered Plus500UK (the UK subsidiary of Plus500) to freeze the accounts as part of a review into anti-money-laundering controls. Most customers were able to access their funds within 2 months. The Australian and the Cyprus subsidiaries were not affected.
2015 was the year Plus500 was almost bought by Playtech for US$703 million. However, the online gambling company that was expanding into trading walked away from the deal in November after it failed to get regulatory approval for the takeover.
In 2016, the Israeli operating subsidiary of the company, Plus500IL Ltd was one of a small number of companies to be granted a Trading Arena Licence by the Israeli Security Authority (ISA). In that same year, Plus500 released an app for Apple Watch to trade and view account details directly from Apple’s wearable.
In early December 2017, Plus500SG Pte Ltd, the Singapore subsidiary of Plus500, was granted a Capital Markets Services license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for dealing in securities and leveraged foreign exchange trading. The following year, Plus500 launched its Economic Calendar, covering major financial events and indicators from all over the world, which are provided by Dow Jones & Company, a subsidiary of News Corp. The following month shares of Plus500 were listed in the main market of the London Stock Exchange. During the season, 2017-2018 Plus 500 was the sponsor of Atletico Madrid.
Asset Coverage
Over 2,000 CFDs are provided across the Forex market, cryptocurrencies, commodities, equities and indices, ETFs, and options markets.
More specifically Plus500 offers 2033 CFDs, including on 50 currency pairs, which is slightly higher than most forex brokers. All of Plus500’s products are CFDs. Plus500 allows cryptocurrency to be traded as a CFD, but not as the actual asset with wallet storage.
Plus500 offers a selection of CFDs, which is wider than eToro's and in line with XTB's product lineup. There are some cryptos as well, but less than at eToro and XTB. You can also trade with options on a few stock CFDs and stock index CFDs. You cannot change leverage levels, which is a drawback. Changing the leverage is a very useful feature when you want to lower the risk of your trade. For example, instead of trading with 5:1 leverage, only trade with 2:1 leverage in case of stock CFDs. Be careful with forex and CFD trading, as the preset leverage levels are high.
At Plus500, scalping is defined as "A trading strategy where a significant portion of the customer's positions are opened and closed by him/her within 2 minutes." If Plus500 believes you were following this strategy, your account might be blocked and closed. Therefore, if you plan to execute trades within 2 minutes, Plus500 is not your broker.
The maximum leverage offered by Plus500 is 1:30 as per regulatory guidelines. Leverage varies by asset (crypto trades are limited to 1:2). Traders in Non-EU regulated markets can utilise higher levels of margin. 1:30 is a limit imposed by ESMA in the European Economic Area only.
Professional portfolios enjoy an upgrade to 1:300.
The professional account is available if two or three requirements are fulfilled such as
Sufficient trading activity in the last 12 months, an average of at least 10 transactions per quarter, of significant size.
Financial instrument portfolio of over €500,000 (including cash savings and financial instruments, you will not be required to deposit this amount).
Relevant experience in the financial services sector (you work/have worked in the financial sector, for at least one year in a professional position which requires knowledge of the related transactions or services).
Customer Support
Plus 500 comes with a very quick ad reliable support service. It is available 24/7 through both email ticketing system and live chat. The response time in both cases is a few minutes; however there is no telephone support. An extra feature of Plus 500’s support service is its availability on all 32 languages of the broker.
Regulation
Plus500 trading platform is available in more than 50 countries via a number of authorised and regulated entities around the world and considered low-risk. Assuming you are trading with an account set up by the U.K. version of Plus500, the additional security of regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority is also a plus. It is publicly traded but does not operate a bank. Plus500 (or one of its subsidiaries) is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 509909), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (License No. 250/14), ASIC (AFSL #417727), FMA in New Zealand (FSP No. 486026), FSCA in South Africa (Provider #47546), and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (License No. CMS100648-1).
Payment Methods
Plus500 charges no deposit fees. As with other CFD brokers, there are a lot of depositing options: Bank transfer, Credit/Debit card, Skrill, PayPal, iDeal, giropay. A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card and electronic wallets is instant. You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.
At Plus500, there are several currencies available, even minor ones, but it is not transparent how many and which ones. You need to contact support if you wish to change your base currency. However, make sure you do this before depositing money to your account. A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. Revolut or Skrill both offer accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.
Plus500 also offers negative balance protection, ensuring that clients cannot lose more than they have put into their account. Guaranteed stop losses can be used on some instruments depending on market conditions but they are subject to a wider spread.
Web & Desktop Trading Platforms
Available for desktop, web, and mobile, the Plus500 platform can be an excellent choice for casual investors due to its ease of use; however, MetaTrader is not offered, and the Plus500 platform provides only the essential, necessary tools required for trading. The few advanced features available within Plus500's flagship platform include trailing-stops and guaranteed stop-loss orders (GSLO), which can be helpful risk management tools for traders.
If you have never traded before, the Plus500 WebTrader (browser-based) platform could be a place to start before graduating to a more advanced platform. Both the desktop and web-based versions of the platform are cleanly designed and focus on simplicity.
Plus500's WebTrader platform provides robust charting with offers over 100 optional technical indicators alongside the ability to save chart templates. Also, there are 21 drawing tools in the charts to aid in technical analysis.
Plus500 continues to make small improvements to its WebTrader and desktop platform, such as the addition of default watch lists including a Risers & Fallers and Popular assets category, to help traders identify trending markets.
Unfortunately, MetaTrader is not offered at Plus500.
Mobile Trading Platform
The Plus500 mobile app is similar to the web and desktop versions, with a consistent look and feel and simple design and platform layout. That said, the app lacks the advanced tools and all-around functionality to challenge industry leaders.
The Plus500 app allows users to set basic alerts and trade forex and CFDs. However, no drawing tools are available. Unfortunately, the mobile app has plenty of room for improvement in terms of the number of features as news, research, and trading tools are all lacking, we suggest to use the demo account to help you make up your mind if the app is enough for your trading or not.
Fees
Plus500 has a minimum deposit of €100 and does not give discounts to active traders or VIP clients. Plus500 appears to offer competitive spreads on most of its major forex pairs, while minor pairs are a mixed bag. Plus500 has low trading fees and average non-trading fees. They have an up to $10 per month inactivity fee, it is applied if you not log in to your trading account for a period of at least three months. This fee will be charged once a month from that moment onwards, as long as no login is made to the account.
Plus500 withdrawal is free of charge for the first five withdrawals each month. After that, there is a $10 fee per withdrawal. This is a competitive offer since many other brokers charge withdrawal fees.
There is also a minimum $50 withdrawal amount and $100 for bank transfer and credit/debit cards. If you want to withdraw less than this, a $10 charge will be applied.
For withdrawals, you can use the same methods as for deposits. Plus500 provides transparent portfolio and fee reports. It is clearly indicated how much you paid in overnight
The overnight funding amount is either added to or subtracted from your account whenever a position is left open after a certain cut-off time (the “Overnight Funding Time”).
The formula used to calculate the daily overnight funding amount of a position is:
Trade Size * Opening Rate * Daily Overnight Funding %
The overnight funding time and the daily overnight funding percentage can be found in the “Details” link next to the instrument’s name in the main screen of the trading platform.
