eToro
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| Type | Private Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial Services Currency Trading |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Limassol, Cyprus |
| Key people | Jonathan Assia CEO and co founder |
| Employees | 150 |
| Website | http://www.etoro.com |
eToro is a financial trading company based in Cyprus. It provides personal online financial services in forex, commodities and stock indices through its own electronic trading platform. 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.
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[edit] History
eToro was founded in 2007 in Limassol, Cyprus by brothers Jonathan and Ronen Assia together with David Ring.[1] 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 amongst others.[2] 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,[3] a third funding round in 2010 of a further $2.4 million[4] was followed in 2011 by a fourth funding round worth $8.3 million.[5] 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.[6]
[edit] Services
eToro provides online financial trading in forex and CFDs on commodities, gold, silver and indices. It's trading products are offered via its broker partners;
- RetailFX - based in Cyprus and regulated by CySEC
- IC Markets - based in Australia and regulated by ASIC
- FX Solutions, part of City Index Group - based in the United States and regulated by the National Futures Association
In addition to providing direct access to financial trading brokers eToro has also set up a financial trading social network.[7]
[edit] 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 (CFTC) restrictions which stipulate a maximum leverage of 50 times for major currency transactions conducted by accredited brokers.[8] 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.[9]
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, ZuluTrade, FXStat, Zecco.com and a number of other social trading networks.
[edit] References
- ^ Globes, April 4, 2009
- ^ PRWeb, November 28, 2010
- ^ TechCrunch, March 31, 2009
- ^ TechCrunch, June 8, 2010
- ^ TechCrunch, January 26, 2011
- ^ vatornews, January 26, 2011
- ^ [1]
- ^ The Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2010
- ^ PCWorld, 18 November 2010
[edit] External links
- www.etoro.com — company site
