EToro

For reference to the eToro tribe and ethnic group of Papua New Guinea click etoro tribe.

eToro is a financial trading company providing personal online financial services in forex, commodities and stock indices. Founded in 2007 it is one of the world’s largest online financial trading communities. eToro is active in over 160 countries worldwide. As eToro is primarily a platform and software provider it is not itself a financial broker rather it connects its customers with third party brokerage services provided by brokers RetailFX, IC Markets and FX Solutions.

History

eToro was founded in 2007 in Limassol Cyprus by brothers and co-founders Jonathan and Ronen Assia. eToro initially rose to prominence due to its unconventional and patented visual trading platform which presented online currency trading (forex) as a series of games. Initially eToro’s financial trading platform was a download only product incorporating colorful trading visualizations which conceptualized the trading process as a race between currencies and a visual tug of war amongst others. The trade visualizations helped popularize eToro and identified the company as offering simplified financial trading to an audience of primarily novice financial traders. The company subsequently expanded its product offering by launching a professional trader’s application “Expert Mode” and a web based trading platform “WebTrader”. In October 2010 eToro announced the launch of a mobile trading application for Android phones. In 2010 eToro was the recipient of the MoneyAM online finance award for best active trading platform and the World Finance award for most innovative trading platform.

In 2007 eToro received $1.7 million in initial funding from a consortium of investors to fund its ongoing operations and development plans. It followed this up in 2009 with a second round of funding which delivered $6.3 million and a third funding round in 2010 which delivered a further $2.4 million . Throughout this period the company has continued to expand and now records numerous overseas offices.

Services

eToro provides online financial trading in currencies – the 7 major currency pairs and crosses – commodities – gold, silver, oil – and indices online to retail customers around the world. eToro’s products are offered via its broker partners who are licensed and regulated to offer foreign exchange trading in their home markets. In addition to providing direct access to financial trading brokers eToro has widely publicized its online financial trading community which it claims to be the world’s largest. eToro offers online financial trading in 11 languages.

Unique Features

eToro offers financial trading on extremely small forex lot sizes, differentiating it from many other online financial trading providers. Whereas traditional forex trading lots are valued at $100,000 and mini lots at $10,000 eToro offers trading on micro lots of $1,000 in addition to both mini and standard lots. eToro’s generous leverage provision of up to 400 times places it among the numerous 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. eToro has recently taken steps to try to modify this through the introduction of a voluntary code of practice on “Responsible Trading” which encourages traders to voluntarily restrict their use of high leverage levels. eToro has long been a pioneer of the use of community features in the financial trading process. The eToro trading platform provides access to a traders messaging system which enables traders to communicate directly with one another, in addition to a “traders insight” tool which displays the direction of trade in which the majority of eToro’s 100 leading traders are trading. In addition eToro offers regular trading challenges where its traders can compete for cash prizes.

OpenBook Social Trading Network

In 2010 eToro launched the OpenBook social trading network which enables financial traders to trade and interact across a social trading network. By using the OpenBook product it is possible for financial traders registered with eToro to copy the trades of any other eToro trader they choose. OpenBook is part of the wider move into social trading networks which has also led to the creation of Currensee, FXBees, Zecco and a number of other social trading networks.

References

1.http://www.prweb.com/releases/etoro/Forex_Trading_Platforms/prweb552401.htm
2. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/69337/20101007/android-users-can-access-etoro-trade-platform.htm
3. http://www.moneyam.com/awards2010/ http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/etoro-snags-a-world-finance-award-for-most-innovative-trading-platform-2010-3022277.html
4. http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/31/financial-trading-platform-etoro-secures-63-million-in-series-b-funding/
5. http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/08/etoro-adds-2-4-million-to-the-coffers-zynga-for-real-men/
6. http://www.forexaffiliatez.com/forex-idustry-news/1-affiliate-programs/113-new-local-etoro-offices-around-the-globe-.html
7. http://www.forexpros.com/brokers/etoro
8. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100831-712935.html
9. http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/mediareleases/11638/etoro-launches-responsible-trading-programme-to/

external links

Official website