Plus500 is a CFD broker that has been around since 2008. It’s one of the world’s most popular CFD trading platforms, and it offers trading in more than 2,000 stocks, ETFs, commodities, currencies, and indices. Plus500 offers access to over 55 different markets worldwide.
Plus500 is owned by Plus500 Ltd (company number 132839), which is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with license numbers 183/12 and 185/12 dated December 10th, 2012.
Plus500 Features
Plus500 is a CFD broker that offers over 80 assets, including forex, commodities, and indexes such as the FTSE 100. Plus500 also offers a wide range of order types like stop loss orders, trailing stops, and OCO (one cancels the other) orders.
Plus500 provides customers with a mobile app or desktop web platform for placing trades on the go. The website also has an easy-to-use charting tool for monitoring your positions or looking at historical performance data to help you make better trading decisions in the future.
Plus500 offers 24/5 customer service through phone or email, which is great if you need to speak with someone about an issue quickly during normal business hours when most brokers offer only limited support hours.
Plus500 Account Opening
Plus500 is a CFD trading platform. It allows traders to buy and sell financial instruments, including shares, commodities, and currencies.
The Financial Conduct Authority has been overseeing the business since it was established in 2008, and it has been in operation since then (FCA). It’s also registered with other authorities in Europe, Australia, Cyprus, and Malta.
Plus500 offers an intuitive interface that makes it easy to trade on their platform without having to worry about anything technical.
Plus500 is a company where you can open an account within just a few minutes by providing your name, address, and date of birth along with other details like an email address, phone number, and credit or debit card details for verification purposes along with your tax ID number if you’re from outside the UK or Europe where governments don’t issue tax IDs but instead private businesses such as banks or landlords who’ll be able to provide this information if you need it.
Plus500 Markets & Products
Plus500 offers CFDs on Forex, Indices, Stocks, and Commodities.
Plus500 offers a wide range of products and markets. They offer over 70 asset classes to trade on, with a wide range of trading instruments, expiries, and leverage options available for each one.
For example, suppose you want to buy the EUR/USD pair but don’t know how much money you’ll need in your account before opening an order.
In that case, you can use one of Plus500’s fixed-expiry trades, which allow investors to fix their profit or loss at the moment they open their position – this means that if the price moves in favor of an investor then they will make more profit than if they had opened an ordinary trade where it might become too late before they see any positive movement in their account balance.
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Plus500 Commissions & Fees
Plus500 charges the following fees:
Spreads
Plus500 levies spread, which are calculated as the difference between the bid and the asking price.
The spread is added to the price that is being quoted whenever a trader opens a new position. That means there will be no additional fees added to the rate that was quoted. After logging in to your account, locate the instrument and then select the details icon to examine the spread.
Additional Fees
Plus500 does not charge users for the vast majority of its services; however, there are a few instances in which this is not the case.
The following might be relevant to you, depending on what you’ve been doing with your account. The following fees might be charged to your account, depending on the amount of trading activity you carry out:
Overnight Funding
When you are still holding a position in the market after a certain time, an overnight funding amount will either be added to or subtracted from your account (referred to as the “Overnight Funding Time”).
Currency Conversion Fee
Plus500 will assess a Currency Conversion Fee for any trades that are executed on instruments that are denominated in a currency that is distinct from the currency that is associated with your account.
A real-time adjustment will be made to the unrealized profit and loss of an open position to account for the Currency Conversion Fee.
Guaranteed Stop Order
A one-of-a-kind order type that can assist you in risk management by ensuring that the stop loss level will be met.
If you decide to make use of this feature, we ask that you keep in mind that because it ensures that your position will close at the requested rate, the spread that applies to it will be larger.
Inactivity Fee
In the event that you do not access your trading account for a period of time equal to or greater than three months, you will be subject to a fee of up to ten dollars (USD) per month.
After that point, this fee will be assessed once per month, provided that there is no activity on the account during that time period.
Currency conversion fee
The Plus500 currency conversion fee can be as high as 0.7% of the open position’s unrealized profit or loss.
This is updated in real-time and displayed. A currency conversion fee will be assessed if the instrument’s currency is different from the currency held in your account.
Guaranteed Stop Order
In the event that you go with the Guaranteed Stop Order, you will be subject to a wider spread. This ensures that your trade will be completed at the price that you have specifically requested.
Overnight Funding
Plus500 levies an “overnight funding fee” fee on customers who choose to hold positions beyond the “overnight funding time.”
When you click on the “details” link that is located next to the instrument on the main screen, the time, as well as the percentage, will be displayed. There are two names for the overnight funding fee: the financing rate and the funding fee.
The formula to calculate the fee is:
Trade Size Position Opening Rate Point Value * Daily Overnight Funding %
Daily Close Rate Point Value Overnight Funding Percentage Trade Size
Deposit and Withdrawal Fees
At Plus500, there are no fees applied to either deposits or withdrawals. There are times when fees are assessed, such as when conducting international credit or debit card transactions, initiating or receiving international wire transfers, or converting currencies. Plus500 does not control these fees; rather, they are determined by your bank.
Plus500 pays for the majority of payment processing fees. If you are charged any of these fees, these are determined by your payment issuer and not Plus500.
Trading Fees at Plus500
When compared to the fees charged by other brokers, Plus500’s fairly standard. At Plus500, the only fee associated with trading is the market spread.
Some brokers may tack on commissions to each trade. Plus500, on the other hand, does not levy any commissions on individual trades.
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Plus500 Mobile App
Plus500 has a mobile app that can be used on Android, iOS, and Windows phones. It’s available in a number of languages, including English, Arabic, French, and Spanish.
The Plus500 mobile app is easy to use, with a good interface providing full functionality for trading options.
The range of markets includes all the major financial instruments, such as stocks, forex pairs, and commodities like gold or oil.
You can also trade with CFDs on some cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, if you want to take advantage of their price volatility without having to buy them outright (which could prove costly).
Plus500 also offers educational components such as its Plus500 Academy, where you can learn more about financial products and learn how they work together through interactive tutorials, which are great if this is your first time trading online.
The company also provides live market news, so you’re always up-to-date with current events affecting the markets too!
Plus500 Desktop Web
If you’re using the web, it’s likely that you’ll want to use the Plus500 desktop web platform.
This allows traders to access their accounts via any compatible device and is available in several languages for convenience.
The platform is intuitive and easy to use, with a clean display that gives an overview of all assets available on your account. It also has a range of charting tools that can help you get an edge over other traders during live trading sessions.
Plus500 Customer Service
Plus500’s website does not provide comprehensive information regarding the company’s location or language, but the company does now offer a Live Chat function in addition to the 24/7 WhatsApp chat and email support it already provides.
Even for questions about sales, no telephone number is listed on the website, which is the most glaring omission.
Both prospective customers and existing customers are required to submit questions either via a chat messaging system or an email ticketing system that is available around the clock.
Even though it is impossible to speak with a live representative over the phone, Investopedia responded to each of the chats and emails sent within a few minutes, which is considered a relatively prompt response time.
There is no in-person service available at any of the local branches. We put the email service through its paces.
Their response to our request for information about the average spread between EUR/USD and USD/JPY was a little strange because they were unwilling to disclose this information.
Plus500 claims that its revenue comes from the spread, implying that this data would be collected and should be disclosed to prospective customers as its competitors do. Plus500 also states that its revenue comes from the spread.
The following is what the email response read: ” We regret to inform you that we are unable to supply the information that you have requested.
In any event, these two foreign exchange pairs are provided using a dynamic spread, which tracks the market spread and adds an additional amount on top of it.
This spread serves as the primary form of compensation for our services and follows the currently offered spread.”
Plus500 Pros and Cons
Here are some of the pros of Plus500
- Easy-to-use platform.
- Great account opening process.
- Plus500 gives customers in more than 50 countries access to CDFs on forex, stock indices, individual shares, commodities, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies (subject to regulations).
- The user interface of their trading platform is intuitive and straightforward, allowing for the creation of watchlists, the examination of charts, the placement and monitoring of trades, and so on.
- Plus500 operates under the watchful eye of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), one of the United Kingdom's primary regulatory bodies, known for its stringent approach to enforcing fair market practices for consumers and businesses alike. Simply put, the fact that an authoritative government body oversees a company speaks volumes about its reliability.
- Guaranteed stop-loss orders are available on certain instruments (subject to a wider spread) and protect the trader from market gap risk.
- With Plus500's negative balance protection, clients are guaranteed never to lose more than they have initially deposited, as required by ESMA rules that took effect in 2018.
Here are some of the cons of Plus500
- Mediocre research tools (although Plus500 acknowledges this and is working on improving them).
- Average CFD fees.
- Customers can only get help from Plus500 through WhatsApp chat and email. The lack of a phone number, even for sales questions, is especially noticeable.
- Plus500 does not work with customers in the United States because CFD trading is illegal there. TradeSniper is a new platform offered by the firm for trading futures. Traders from the United States can use this platform.
- To the dismay of sophisticated traders everywhere, WebTrader does not support direct integration with any third-party analytical or automation tools. Further, there is no option to conduct a backtest.
Plus500 Safety
To eliminate market risk and prevent significant losses, the company takes a principal role and uses its parent as a hedge.
Plus500 is registered with the right regulatory bodies in Europe and Asia-Pacific, but it does not offer extra deposit insurance.
- The Financial Conduct Authority has granted Plus500UK Ltd. authorization and regulation under their supervision (FCA #509909). (License No. 250/14) Plus500
- CY Ltd. has been awarded a license by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission authorization and regulates the company’s activities. The company’s office is located at 8 Angel Court, Copthall Avenue, London EC2R 7HJ.
- ASIC licenses Plus500AU Pty Ltd under AFSL #417727, the FMA in New Zealand under FSP No. 486026, and the FSCA in South Africa under Authorised Financial Services Provider #47546.
- The Seychelles Financial Services Authority has granted Plus500SEY Ltd. permission to operate and regulate its activities (License No. SD039).
- Plus500SG Pte Ltd (UEN 201422211Z), which operates under the auspices of the Singapore Monetary Authority, holds a capital markets services license. (License No. CMS100648-1) for dealing in capital market products.
Plus500 is required by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to safeguard client funds by maintaining a separate bank account for them. The money contributed by customers is stored in different bank accounts so that it is protected in the event that the business goes bankrupt.
4 Plus500 customers have access to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme for compensation of up to £85,000 if the company goes bankrupt (FSCS).
Plus500 customers have safeguards in place to prevent them from losing more money than they currently have in their accounts, as required by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) rules that took effect in 2018.
Although the spread is wider for guaranteed stop-loss orders, they can be used on certain instruments when the market is volatile. Both the web and mobile apps have a timer that automatically logs the user out after a certain amount of inactivity.
Plus500 is an excellent broker for intermediate and advanced traders.
It’s not the best choice for beginners, but Plus500 is a good choice for you if you want to take your trading to the next level and beyond.
Plus500 is a CFD broker, not a forex broker; it allows you to trade on futures market indices and individual stocks.
Plus500 does not offer currency exchange services or leverage on currencies—the main focus here is on stocks in various countries around the world (and precious metals).
Plus500 complies with all regulatory requirements from numerous jurisdictions as well as its home country of Cyprus.
Regulators have granted the company licenses in several countries, including Great Britain (FCA), Australia (ASIC), and South Africa (FSCA).
Conclusion
Overall we think Plus 500 is a great broker for intermediate and advanced traders. Their trading platform is easy to use and has lots of great features.
The service is also very good, with an excellent support team who are always happy to help you with any questions or problems.
They also offer great promotions that can earn you some nice rewards if you’re looking for something other than a profit.
