Review of eToro Costs
eToro Review: Costs
Joining eToro is free and they do not charge any commissions or fees on trades. Their revenues come solely from the spreads (the difference between the Ask and the Bid prices of the symbol you’re trading). Here’s a representative list of some of their spreads (as of 01/06/15) – click here for the current eToro fees:
| Currencies | Symbol | Minimal Spread | Overnight Fee (per 10,000 units) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sell | Buy | |||
| Euro/US Dollar | EUR/USD | 3 Pips | 0 | -0.32 |
| British Pound/US Dollar | GBP/USD | 4 Pips | -0.6 | 0.01 |
| New Zealand Dollar/US Dollar | NZD/USD | 5 Pips | -1.52 | 0.35 |
| US Dollar/Canadian Dollar | USD/CAD | 3 Pips | 0.03 | -0.49 |
| US Dollar/Japanese Yen | USD/JPY | 2 Pips | -0.28 | 0.01 |
| US Dollar/Swiss Franc | USD/CHF | 3 Pips | -1.4 | 0.09 |
| Australian Dollar/US Dollar | AUD/USD | 4 Pips | -1.00 | 0.16 |
| Euro/British Pound | EUR/GBP | 4 Pips | 0.03 | -0.52 |
| Euro/Swiss Franc | EUR/CHF | 5 Pips | -0.9 | 0.02 |
| Euro/Japanese Yen | EUR/JPY | 4 Pips | -0.2 | -0.28 |
| British Pound/Japanese Yen | GBP/JPY | 6 Pips | -1.28 | 0.03 |
| Euro/Australian Dollar | EUR/AUD | 7 Pips | 0.23 | -1.51 |
| Euro/Canadian Dollar | EUR/CAD | 7 Pips | 0.08 | -0.72 |
| Australian Dollar/Japanese Yen | AUD/JPY | 5 Pips | -1.05 | 0.16 |
| Canadian Dollar/Japanese Yen | CAD/JPY | 6 Pips | -0.56 | 0.05 |
| Swiss Franc/Japanese Yen | CHF/JPY | 6 Pips | 0.04 | -0.7 |
| US Dollar/Hong Kong Dollar | USD/HKD | 7 Pips | -0.98 | -0.5 |
| US Dollar/Ruble | USD/RUB | 3 Pips | 1.5 | -7.4 |
| US Dollar/Yuan | USD/CNH | 10 Pips | 0.1 | -2.74 |
| Bitcoin | BTC | 1% | -0.001 | -0.072 |
Understanding eToro Fees
It’s worth noting that since June 15th 2014 eToro also started charging overnight rollover fees/credits (see table above as well). Before this date they only charged a Carry Over the Weekend fee. You’ll always find the full up-to-date list of all the spreads and overnight rollover fees & credits at the eToro website (see link above).
Higher Fees But Less Slippage
While the spreads charged by eToro are slightly higher than what you would pay at other brokers, it’s worth noting that the slippage is extremely low (i.e. the difference between the price a “Popular Investor” you copy traded at and the price you got when the trade was copied in your account). From our experience more than 90% of the trades were executed at the same price of the “Popular Investor”. If slippage occurred it would be maximum 1 pip.
Overnight Rollover Fees
With regards to the overnight rollover fees, they’re on average a bit higher than those charged by most other brokers as well. This is certainly something you need to take into consideration, especially since many of the traders you can copy on eToro have the tendency to leave their trades open over long periods of time (i.e. weeks and months). Hence open trades should be monitored over time to avoid overnight rollover fees to start adding up.