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Plus500 Review 2024: Pros, Cons, and Everything You Need to Know
Luis Clark
- URL: https://plus500.com
- Minimum Initial Deposit: $100
- Maximum Leverage: 1:300
- Platform App: Desktop/Mobile/Web
- No. of Cryptos: 18
- Fiats Available: USD, EUR, GBP
- Withdraw Method: Electronic wallets (PayPal or Skrill), Bank transfer, debit, and credit cards
- Payment Method: Electronic wallets (PayPal or Skrill), Bank transfer, debit card, and credit card
- Trading Fees: An average of 0.7 in spreads, $10 inactivity fee
- Headquarter: Israel, Haifa
- Year Founded: 2008
- Promotion: Initial deposit bonus
Plus500 Review: Our Opinion
Plus500 is a great option for investors searching for a CFD trading platform that gives access to a large selection of financial markets and low trading fees (commission-free and industry average spreads).
The trading platform offers more than 2,800 CFDs and is well-regulated. That said, for crypto investors, Plus500 offers a limited selection of digital assets when compared to other CFD brokers that give users access to cryptocurrency CFDs.
Important Risk Warning: Investing in and/or trading CFDs, financial instruments, commodities, and other assets involves a significant level of risk. There is a possibility of losing all the funds you have deposited. Prior to engaging in any such activity, it is essential that you fully understand and acknowledge the associated risks. Please be advised that Skrumble.com does not offer investment or any other form of advice. The information provided in our review should not be construed as financial advice in any way.
An Overview of Plus500
Founded in 2008, Plus500 is a trademark of Plus500 Ltd and is headquartered in Haifa, Israel, with its subsidiaries in Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Seychelles, Australia, Estonia, Japan, the United States, and Bulgaria.
Plus500 is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Security and Exchange Commission (cySEC). It holds a license number 250/15 and is authorized to offer Contracts for Difference (CFDs) in its various underlying assets.
In line with this, the company’s primary service is offering online trading in CFDs delivered via their proprietary trading platform on desktop, mobile, and as a web app.
Plus500 also offers futures trading in the United States via Plus500 US and share dealing.
The broker has a premium listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 index.
Plus500 was founded by 6 graduates of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology with a start-up investment of $400,000.
Initially, Plus500’s trading platform was launched as a Windows OS-only offering, however, in 2010, the broker released a web-based version of its trading platform, which enabled Linux and Mac users to execute trades.
In the years following (2011 and 2012), Plus500 introduced its app for Android and iOS mobile devices (tablets and smartphones).
The broker has had its fair share of controversies as in October 2012, Plus500UK Ltd was fined £205,128 in the United Kingdom by the FCA for not reporting transactions accurately for over a year.
In its defence, Plus500 stated that it was not able to submit complete and accurate transaction reports due to the absence of documented procedures and the appropriate systems, training, and controls for employees.
In addition, Plus500 in 2015 was struck by a tremendous value loss when the broker’s stock fell by approximately 60% because the company decided to freeze the accounts of traders from the United Kingdom.
This happened because the UK Financial Conduct Authority ordered Plus500UK, a subsidiary of Plus500, to freeze the accounts of its users as a review of its anti-money laundering regulations.
The result was that most customers were unable to access the platform for over a month. That said, the Australian and Cyprus subsidiaries weren’t affected.
Pros
- Large selection of financial trading products
- Low trading fees
- Offers crypto education
- Supports over 2,800 CFDs
Cons
- Limited crypto selection
- Charges inactivity fees
Key Features of Plus500
Plus500 Demo Account
Plus500 offers users a demo account where they can practice and perfect their trading strategies before trading CFDs in the actual market.
The demo mode replicates real market conditions as closely as possible and allows you to trade CFDs on currencies, shares indices, and Commodities across several popular trading world instruments.
The demo account is available to both new and existing Plus500 users. New users can open a demo account during registration by clicking on “Demo Mode” in the “Select Account Mode” window.
There is no time limit to the demo account. Plus500 allows you to practice trading CFDs with the demo account for as long as is required for you to get familiar with the Plus500 platform and perfect your trading strategies.
You can switch from the demo account to Real Money mode and vice versa by scrolling to the app menu or the main platform screen and clicking on “Switch to Demo Mode” or “Switch to Real Money Mode”. This feature allows you to test your ideas on the demo mode and easily switch to the live trading platform where you can replicate the tested strategies.
Plus500 does not require users to have an actual trading account on the trading platform to use the demo mode. It also does not have a minimum deposit requirement.
Plus500 will automatically reinstate the initial demo amount to your demo account once your demo account balance drops to 200 EUR or its equivalent.
The platform also provides lots of video tutorials that will guide investors on how to effectively trade on the platform. These educational resources help to shorten the steep learning curve.
Plus500 Mobile App
The Plus500 mobile trading platform grants users unlimited access to online trading services on the go. The app supports CFDs in multiple asset classes across over 2,000 securities. It is available for download on the Google Play Store and the Apple app store.
The mobile app provides real-time market quotes on all products, it also allows users to access multiple markets within the same single screen.
The Plus500 app gives users unlimited access to the demo account where users can practice risk-free trading and perfect their strategies before trading with their money in the actual market.
It offers tight spreads, zero commissions, and zero deposit fees. It also sends real-time alerts to users via Push notifications, email, and SMS.
It offers over 20 drawing tools and 109 indicators as well as live quotes and charts.
Other features of the Plus500 mobile app include:
- A system alert that can alert users of conditions regarding change percentage, an instrument’s price, etc
- Daily, hourly, and 5-minute time frame increments for instrument change percentage
- The economic calendar which displays major global financial events and indicators
- A tool that shows the user traders’ sentiment
The mobile app supports the funding of accounts via several payment methods including credit/debit cards, bank transfers, etc.
Customer service is available within the app in 30 languages.
Plus500 Economic Calendar
Plus500 provides an Economic Calendar that allows investors to monitor market-moving events like monetary policy decisions and economic indicators. These market-moving events when announced can impact the financial markets.
The Economic Calendar lists daily events as well as the volatility levels attached to the events. In most cases, Economic calendars have a three-scale volatility Gauge. The volatility level is the likelihood that a specific event will impact the markets.
An event with a level 2 volatility is not excepted to have any significant effect on the markets. Events with level 2 volatility level affect the market moderately. This effect is dependent on other factors like political factors and news items. Finally, events with a volatility level of 3 are considered highly volatile and have a significant impact on the markets.
The Plus500 Economic Calendar is displayed as a chart that shows the days, weeks, and months of a year. The market moving events for each day are listed in chronological order, this allows the investors to have enough time to anticipate the release of interest to them.
The Calendar displays various data about the event such as the event name, time, location, related instruments, and relevancy. All data displayed on the Plus500 Economic Calander comes directly from Dow Jones.
As previously mentioned, the financial landscape can be swiftly disrupted by economic occurrences. Nevertheless, given that numerous economic events adhere to a predetermined timetable, the provision of a calendar that showcases these events aids traders in gearing up for the forthcoming trading days, weeks, and months.
They can also use the information to know the relevant instruments that will be affected by the event and also predict the potential performance of an index or a share.
The Plus500 Economic Calendar has the following sections:
Country & Event
The event section indicates the topic of the announcement and the focus of the announcement. The “Country” section indicates the country the event is related to. This will help traders to find relevant shares, Indices, and other instruments that they find interesting.
Time
This section displays the estimated time that the event is expected to take place, which will enable the trader to predict the perfect time to open a position and how the event will impact the market.
Expected Impact
This column lets the trader know how the event will affect the markets. The section shows the volatility level of the event and allows traders to better plan their trades.
Plus500 Review: Supported Cryptocurrencies
Plus500 supports 18 cryptocurrency CFDs.
Supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Stellar Lumens, Crypto 10 Index, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, EOS, Neo, Iota, Solana, Polkadot, VeChain, Polygon, Filecoin, Axie Infinity, Chainlink, and Uniswap.
Plus500 Review: Fees and Spreads
Plus500 offers a lot of its services to customers free of charge. The broker does not charge fees for deposits, withdrawals, dynamic charts and graphs, rolling your position, and live share CFD prices. Plus500 covers most processing fees as well.
However, on particular occasions, you may incur fees when transferring money to and from your Plus500 account but these charges are determined by your bank or payment issue and not the broker.
Plus500 also charges inactivity fees, which is fairly uncommon in the CFD provider space.
Spreads
Like most CFD providers, Plus500 receives compensation from their Bid/Ask spreads.
When you open a position on your trading platform you’ll pay the spread which is an average of 0.6 to 0.7 pips. But this varies depending on the particular trading instrument involved (dynamic spread).
The spread is also incorporated into the quoted rates and isn’t an additional charge or fee payable over the quoted rates.
To find the spread for a particular instrument you’ll need to login to your account, search for the instrument, and tap on the details icon (I) then scroll down to the information section.
Overnight Fees
Plus500 charges an overnight funding fee which is either subtracted or added to your account when you hold the position after the specific time referred to as the overnight funding time. This fee varies and can be found in the details link beside the trading instrument’s name on the main screen of the trading platform.
Currency Conversion Fee
This fee is charged by Plus500 on all trades that consist of instruments denominated in a currency different from the base currency of your trading account.
Currently, the currency conversion fee is up to 0.7% of a trade’s achieved net profit and loss.
It is reflected in real-time in the unrealized net profit and loss of your open positions.
Inactivity Fee
Plus500 charges an inactivity fee of $10 if you do not log into your trading account for at least 3 months.
The inactivity fee is charged once a month from that period onward as long as the user does not login into the account.
This inactivity fee is equal to $10 or the equivalent depending on your base currency.
Plus500 says that this fee is to offset the cost incurred for making the service available to the particular account in question even though it is not in use.
It is important to note that this fee is only collected from the user’s real money account only if there are sufficient funds in the account.
To avoid this fee, Plus500 advises that traders log into their accounts from time to time as this is deemed as activity enough to prevent the inactivity fee from being charged.
Guaranteed Stop Order
This feature guarantees that your position/trade closes at a specific price or requested rate. However, this comes at a cost, which is a wider spread for the selected instrument.
Plus500 Review: Payment Methods
Plus500 offers 3 payment methods, which include:
- Credit and Debit Card: For this payment method, Plus500 accepts only Visa and Mastercard cards. But there may be additional limitations based on your location.
- Electronic Wallets: The financial services provider supports Skrill and PayPal via this payment method.
- Bank Transfer: This deposit option supports direct bank-to-bank transfers.
To deposit on the proprietary trading platform follow these steps:
- Log into your trading platform account, click on Funds then Deposit.
- Next, choose your preferred payment method from the available options.
- Fill the empty fields in the form and hit the Deposit button.
It’s important to note that each payment method offers a minimum deposit level.
Plus500 Review: Security
Plus500 is registered and regulated by several regulatory bodies in different countries. For example, it is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and also listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.
The platform holds customers’ money following the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s client money protection rules. This means that clients’ money is deposited in a segregated client bank account and not held together with Plus500 funds.
Plus500 states that it uses only its company funds for hedging. It does not use client funds for hedging nor does it pass the funds through hedging counterparties. It also does not invest funds of clients in retail CFD accounts.
Plus500 has no exposure to sovereign or corporate debt. It has substantial liquidity and significant surplus regulatory capital reserves over its regulatory requirements.
Plus500 offers negative balance protection to customers. This is following ESMA rules. This ensures that clients can not lose more than they have put in their accounts. While guaranteed stop-loss orders can be used on some instruments, they are subject to a wider spread. Traders are also protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Users’ accounts are password-protected and have two-factor authentication. Plus500 also has a timer that automatically logs a user out of the web trading platform and the mobile application if it is not being used. This ensures the security of users’ accounts at all times.
Plus500 Review: Supported Countries
Plus500 is available in over 50 countries. Some supported countries include Australia, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, the United States, Israel, Japan, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Seychelles, Japan, Estonia, etc.
Licenses that Plus500 Holds
Plus500 is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC License No. 250/14). It also holds a capital markets services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. And it is an Authorised Financial Services Provider in South Africa and licensed by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority.
Plus500 is also authorized, regulated, and authorized to operate in Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, Seychelles, and Dubai.
Plus500 Review: Opening a Plus500 Account
Opening a Plus500 is quick and straightforward.
To open a Plus500 account go to https://plus500.com.
Next, click the Start Trading Now button at the top of the page.
Enter your email and password then click Create Account.
Verify your email by going to your inbox and clicking the Verify Now button.
To get the full benefits of signing up on the trading platform you’ll need to undergo the verification process.
Documents needed for creating a Plus500 Live account include a government-issued ID, a document for residential verification, and proof of your source of funds.
Once you have your verification documents and uploaded them, click on the Verify Account button.
You’ll also need to verify your phone number.
That’s it! You’ve successfully created your trading account on Plus500.
Plus500 Review: Different Types of Accounts
Plus500 offers 3 different types of accounts:
- Demo Account: The Plus500 free demo account is targeted at both beginners new to online trading and experienced traders looking to test their strategies. There is no risk associated with a demo account as it is funded with virtual money and strictly for practice trading.
- Plus500 Retail Account: This is a live account that’s targeted at retail traders. The account is also commission-free and charges industry-average spreads. Retail investor accounts lose money frequently so traders opening them must be aware of the risks involved.
- Professional Account: Professional accounts are targeted at experienced traders and users that create this account must provide proof of trade experience as well as deposit at least €500,000.
Plus500 Review: Trading Experience
Plus500 offers trading services via desktop, mobile, and web channels. Its trading platforms are basic as the broker does not offer features found in other CFD trading competitors such as expert advisors or automated trading.
The broker also features 3 order types including Market, Limit, and Stop. This is in addition to Take Profit and Stop Loss functions.
Guaranteed stops are available with certain markets but this comes with increased spread and cannot be included in previously opened trades.
Concerning the mobile app, Plus500 mobile applications include all the features available on the desktop and web apps.
Plus500 Review: Different Platforms Used to Trade
Plus500 offers its own proprietary trading platform. It does not support the usual MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, or cTrader.
Its custom platform is quite similar to WebTrader in terms of the features offered.
This may make it difficult to switch brokers in the long run for users who intend to do so.
Plus500 Review: How to Trade Cryptocurrencies on Plus500
You can only trade cryptocurrencies on Plus500 via CFDs. With CFD trading, professional and retail investors can trade cross cryptocurrencies as an underlying asset and profit on price movements.
You cannot buy and own cryptocurrencies on Plus500 like you would on a crypto exchange. That said, to trade cryptocurrencies via CFD trading you’ll need to log into your account and choose a cryptocurrency pair then pick buy or sell.
Plus500 Review: Customer Service
Plus500 offers customer service via emails and live chat.
To contact the support team via email, users are expected to fill out a form on the “Contact Us” page. Response to the information in the form will be sent to the email addresses specified in the form. All Plus500 emails are from the Plus500.com domain.
Plus500 does not have a call center and does not offer phone support.
Plus500 Review: Customer Satisfaction
Customer reviews on third-party review platforms show that Plus500 offers good customer service to users. The support team is responsive and readily offers help when the need arises.
There are however complaints of the mobile app being slow especially when trying to close positions.
Plus500 Review: Does Plus500 offer Education?
Yes, Plus500 offers education via its Trading Academy. The Academy features tutorial videos and articles about how to trade CFDs, options, futures, and much more.
In comparison to other brokers, the Academy offers one of the most robust educational resource centers for beginner and expert traders.
Plus500 Review: Is Plus500 Right for You?
Plus500 is right for beginner and intermediate traders looking to trade crypto CFDs. Experienced traders will find the broker basic in its offerings.
Final Thoughts
Plus500 is a reputable and regulated broker offering CFD trading, futures, and options. It is easy to navigate and offers a ton of educational resources via the Trading Academy.
However, Plus500 offers basic trading services, unlike other brokers that feature products like automatic trading, expert advisors, and much more. So advanced users may find the platform too plain.
Concluding our review of Plus500, it’s clear that they have both strengths and weaknesses. While they cater to a broad audience, they might not be the best fit for everyone. For a contrasting viewpoint and to explore another option, our in-depth look at XM is enlightening.
FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
Yes, however, you can only access Plus500 US, a subsidiary of Plus500 Ltd.
Plus500 is regulated in 4+ major regions including the United Kingdom, Cyprus, the United States, and Israel. It has also never been hacked.
Yes, you can make money from Plus500, however, the broker offers volatile products like CFDs, futures, and options, which can result in investors losing money.
Yes, Plus500 offers 18 crypto assets for trading via CFDs.
We always try to provide the most accurate information available, and make sure our team follow through.
If you want to know more about our Crypto Exchanges Review Methodology follow the link below
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