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eToro is a brand new trading platform that just might be the most novice-friendly FOREX learning tool on the market today. eToro makes learning and mastering your FOREX trading skills an incredibly fun experience with a graphical user interface like no other FOREX platform. Beginners first venturing into the world of FOREX now have an entertaining solution to the difficulty that comes in trying to initially understand FOREX and making sense of the most highly regarded, widely used but complex FOREX platforms out there.
The people behind eToro didn’t look to create another drab platform with absolutely no user interaction or a sense of community amongst users. They’ve instead produced a very lively alternative. eToro mixes the traditional FOREX platform with elements of a video game. The graphics are enough to make even a small child curious about “playing” FOREX. You keep score with other traders in the community – sometimes with a cash prize on the line to be rewarded to the champion.
The eToro lobby has four trading areas. The first one is the FOREX Marathon. Graphic characters, ranging from a farmer (US), sumo wrestler (Japanese Yen) and a European businessman (Euros) represent each currency in the FOREX Marathon. Simply choose the currency that you’d like to buy, pick the currencies to compete against, select the amount and click the “Open Trade” button at the lower bottom right of the screen. Within these four simple clicks you have a visualization of the marathon, showing you exactly how your money is moving as you watch your character race for the finish line.
If you’d like to run more than one trade, simply click back to the lobby to open additional trades simultaneously. You can click back and forth between whatever simultaneous trades are active with the My Open Trades section in the lobby or the Trading Log screen. My Open Trades does a really nice job of allowing you to view all running trades, regardless of the trading arena, detailing the currencies you are buying/selling, the amount, profit and gain.
The Dollar Trend is the next trading area in the lobby. You choose whether the US dollar will rise or fall and the currencies to pit the dollar against. Similar to the FOREX Marathon, you watch the currencies race against one another, this time the graphics are in the shape of a coin or button, representing each currency.
The Globe Trader is the third trading area in the lobby. Make your selection and you will see a wire signal, representing your trade, between the competing countries on the trade arena’s map. A tiny info box above the wire will give you access to exactly how your trade is performing profit-wise with a more detailed breakdown at the lower left of the map.
Forex Match simulates a tug of war between currencies, representing your trading. I tend to spend a lot of time in this arena.
All trades from each trading arena will remain open until you manually close them. The trades continue running even if you close out of the program entirely. The trades will automatically close out when the market closes at the end of the week. eToro runs on historical data on the weekends so you can still practice and test your trading skills although the market is closed.
The Trading Log presents you with a breakdown of the performance of your Active Trades and your trade History.
Please note the Championship & Chat section of eToro. eToro tracks score of every individual user FOREX performance, just like video arcade games list user high scores. eToro periodically holds championship challenges with the top traders winning prizes, namely cash. Traders are also able to communicate with each other in real time in the chat room. Message board forums are coming soon.
Much of this review has focused on using eToro as an introduction to the world of FOREX. eToro has recently entered the world of real live trading. Users select whether they want to “Trade For Real” or “Trade For Fun” when logging into the system. Some personal information is required to create a Real Account. You are then set up with a username and password to enter real trading. A deposit can be made to fund your account using either a Credit Card or Wire Transfer.
For a Credit Card deposit – the minimum single deposit limit is $50, the maximum single deposit is $1,000 with a monthly deposit cap of $5,000. The Wire Transfer deposits are with a minimum single deposit of $500, a maximum single deposit limit of $5,000 with a monthly cap also at $5,000.
Funds can be withdrawn from your account by submitting a withdrawal request from the “Account Balance” section. A signed withdrawal request is required and a user’s first withdraw will require a copy of a photo ID or passport, a copy of the front and back of the credit card used to fund the trading account and a copy of some recent utility bill. There is no bank withdrawal fee but a $25 fee accompanies Wire Transfer withdrawals. Withdrawals are processed within five business days of the request.
eToro is an exciting new force in the FOREX community. It’s proof that FOREX trading can be fun and entertaining. It wouldn’t be surprising to see more people catch onto FOREX, thanks to eToro’s innovative and inviting presentation. The program is in its infancy right now and it will be very interesting to see where the developers and programmers take it from here!
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