Has anyone done or come across with comprehensive comparison between Etoro and other more established international brokers like Captrader, Ameritrade or Interactive Brokers.
Comparison like user friendliness, fee, commission, charges, maintenance charges, annual fee, requirement to trade like once a month, CS support, other pros and cons?

Generally i understand Etoro spread or charges is on the high side. But for retail investor with not much Capital, it might be one of the best option.

Ameritrade TOS has high commission as well, like $10.50 commission each for opening and closing position for stocks

Avoid etoro as is not a stock broker. You don't buy stocks. You buy CFDs and to buy CFDs, you use leverage.

Fees nothing can beat interactive broker that's provided you have USD 100k. If you don't, then use any of the white labels which don't charge you any monthly fees.

User interface depends on individual. If one used to stock broker page, should not have issue to navigate.

So far some of the white labels of IB have replied to me in less than 24h.

Hi Ramjade,

Interactive broker that need USD100k and the monthly charges is the reason that it is not an option for me.

Any example white labels which don't charge monthly fee? for me to look into.

What is the main difference between CFD and getting the real stock itself?
https://youtu.be/8Am2q7Kb5BU?t=588
what does it mean in the video that "you are buying the underlying asset"?

As long correct trade is made, i believe still can profit from it?
I don't intend to use leverage in Etoro.

https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-au/platform/c...s-share-trading

Read this
https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/4...ithout-leverage

Read the last 5 pages of this thread and you will know what labels IB are there. Then you simply compare price and see which is cheaper.

Again as mentioned in the Q&A, if you don't intend to use leverage, then don't go for CFDs. You will be charged interest if you are going for CFDs

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Mar 25 2019, 07:25 AM

You need to create an order to trade between currencies inside your account - the rate you'll get will basically be identical to the rate on XE plus a small amount of Commission.

There's a couple of things to consider :

IB has 2 routing options - IDEALPRO and FXCONV - IDEALPRO creates a virtual currency position, and FXCONV actually converts one currency to another, by default it's always IDEALPRO that's selected - so make sure you change to FXCONV.


Another thing is - you're able to run negative balances on margin (ie. deposit USD , buy stocks in GBP) , if you deem the rate it not good at the moment, you can convert the currency at a later stage, you earn interest on the positive currency and pay interest on the negative balance.

Is there any group to join for IB? i am really at loss haha... Maybe low IQ.

No group that I'm aware of .. but plenty of IB users across different forums

Quite a few users here also, I'm sure any questions can get answered here

to simplify.. can u guide me the steps...?

my base currency with IB is SGD.

if i want buy HKEX...
where and how to convert.
SGD TO USD TO HKEX?

if buy USD
can i just click BUY? or need to convert and parking USD first before purchase?

You can use TWS for every trade you do, be it stocks or Foreign Exchange.

Eg say you want to buy 10,000 USD with SGD

Ticker > USD.SGD

Just put a BUY order for 10,000 USD.SGD and set destination to FXCONV. As soon as your order gets filled, you can use the USD to buy any USD denominated product on any exchange.

https://imgur.com/cEaOu4O

If you open an IB account, you also get a paper account with $1 million (or $100k - I can't remember exactly) which you can use to familiarise yourself with the platform

Just to add more explanation.

elea88, I assume you need HKD for HKEX. IB does not have the pair SGD.HKD. So you need to convert twice, SGD -> USD -> HKD. You can follow the suggestion by rjb123 for SGD -> USD (meaning to BUY the pair USD.SGD).
Then you need to SELL the pair USD.HKD to get your HKD.

Some basic concept about forex trading. For a currency pair, i.e USD.SGD, the first currency (USD) is the base currency, the second currency (SGD) is the quote currency.
Assumed 1 USD = 1.3514 SGD.
When you :

1) buy 10,000 USD.SGD, you will get 10,000 USD. For this BUY, 13,514 SGD will be deducted from your IB account. The commission charged is 2 USD. Buying a currency pair will give you the base/first currency.

2) sell 10,000 USD.SGD, you will get 13,514 SGD. For this SELL, 10,000 USD will be deducted from your IB account. The commission charged is 2 USD. Selling a currency pair will give you the quote/second currency.

IB has a youtube channel with tutorials, i.e. Forex with WebTrader

Hope this helps.

This post has been edited by hyperzz: Mar 26 2019, 11:00 PM

Thanks, for all the replies and info.
need to spend some time over the weekend to study the comparison between brokers.. and what suit me best..

Also look at below Etoro demo account on the x1 which is "buying the underlying stock? "


and x5 leverage which is CFD with the daily charges.

Just avoid Etoro as per everyone's advice here man, stick with IB and it's white labels

if you check the live market, the buy price you buy from etoro is more expensive than the real live market price
like ASNA now price is 1.14, but even X1, you buy at 1.15

thou etoro claim you are buying the underlying share, but they sell you 0.01 more expensive
mean the moment you buy, you already losing, lol

Ya, but at least give some points that why Etoro shouldn't be considered?
i see a few points that may be addressed:

1. Not real stock, as it is CFD - Does it really matter? As some stock is able to receive dividend and
And refer my post above, if x1 leverage basically is not leverage.. and price movement should be similar to real stock?
Roughly understand that Etoro is able to receive dividend too.
REITs may not be available for Etoro.
Stock price "spread", i yet to find out more.

2. Sometimes Etoro trading website freeze at critical time?
I am not planing for short term trading. Thinking to buy and hold when there is a bargain. So this shouldn't affect me that much.

3. unknown charges
As shown my post above.. x1 leverage basically no other hidden charges? (to be confirmed)


Generally i think overall cost to trade / invest on Etoro should be cheapest.
But i will definitely find out more about other brokers.

Hopefully i am not de-railing from topic.. as this topic is "foreign broker"

point accepted.

i will try to compare against other broker demo account and compare the price to check on this.
but my trading style, shouldn't be that much difference. (atho it does chip off profits).

Need to see the full picture of fee, commission, charges of all the brokers then only can come to conclusion.
It can be different brokers for different investors/traders with different pocket depth (capital) and trading style, i guess?

But generally it is more important to make the correct trade and make money?

FYI - HKEX doesn’t only list HKD denominated ETFs - USD also. Same goes for LSE , they sometimes have 3 variants (EUR, USD, GBP)

You're right. I was only thinking in general term, most of the listed companies are denominated in HKD. But HK is truly an international hub, even the local bank transfer can be made in USD or EUR, besides the default HKD.

Indeed it is - single account number with HSBC can receive pretty much any international currency and it just creates a balance in that currency.

A dream compared to most other countries where the bank will just convert it into base.

Shame that it’s become so much more difficult to open accounts with banks there now compared to before!

My understanding of CFD:

1) CFD is a financial product created by the broker itself. The value of CFD exists only in the 'world' of the broker that sells it. Outside this broker, its CFD is worthless and not recognised by other brokers and therefore not transferable. If you buy the real stock, you can transfer the stock to another broker should you become dissatisfied with your current broker.

2) CFD is only traded within the system of the broker that sells it. Therefore, the broker is the market maker and has full control over the price movement. The real stock is traded over a stock exchange like NYSE, NASDAQ, SGX, HKEX, etc. The stock price movement is determined by market forces. Supposedly CFD will mirror the price of the stock that it is tracking but the broker can manipulate the price by applying a spread (the price difference between the CFD and the stock) or latency(delay in tracking the real stock).

3) Whenever you buy or sell CFD, the counter-party on the other end is always your broker, not another trader. Therefore, if you buy CFD from eToro, you must sell the CFD back to eToro. The broker is the one to determine the buy-back price.

4) Yes, you can buy CFD without leverage, just like buying stock. No interest will be charged.

5) If the broker collapses, all the CFD become worthless but real stocks can still be transferred to another broker.

Big brokerages like IB, Saxobank, CMC Markets also issue their own CFD. If I have to buy CFD (i.e. no other way to buy the real stock), I will only deal with a strong and well established broker. eToro is relatively small but they have done a great job in marketing.