eToro adds real-time stock trading

Launched Sunday April 19th, eToro clients are able to open positions on any of the 230 stock CFDs the CySEC regulated social trading  broker currently offers, in real-time using all of the firm’s trading platforms (be it the WebTrader, or the Mobile Trader apps).

With the new instantaneous trade execution, clients will be able to take advantage of intraday price movements on stocks, just like on every other instrument. The company touts that integrating real-time stock trading across their systems will have multiple advantages…

More April eToro news: eToro raising an additional $12 million from Commerzbank

Clients will be able to:

– Open both Long (BUY) and Short (SELL) positions on all stocks

– Leverage stock trades by x2 (coming soon!), or use no leverage (x1)

– Open and close stock positions from the WebTrader and from the Mobile Trading app – without going through the eToro OpenBook

– Use Stop Loss and Take Profit orders to limit losses and lock in profits and edit them 24/7

– Copy more diverse traders – as more and more investors add stocks to their portfolios – Copy experience will become more diversified

– Invest as little as $25 in any stock – enable fraction share investment, which means invest as much as you want, no matter what the share price is.

Terms of eToro real-time stock CFDs trading:

Variable Spreads: Since you’ll now be able to open both long and short positions on stocks, each stock will come with a buy and sell price, which means a spread between the two. However, stocks don’t have fixed spreads, the difference between the bid and ask prices is determined by market participants (buyers and sellers) – therefore the spread you will see on eToro will also change according to market conditions. This means that you have to place your Stop Loss and Take Profit orders carefully, to prevent them from closing your position due to the spread widening unexpectedly.

Holding fees: Buying stock CFDs entails paying a small holding fee. The holding fee (similar to the rollover fee in currency markets) will be charged once a day. You will be able to see all holding fees listed on our fees page once real-time stock trading is launched. Note that there will be no holding fees charged for unleveraged long positions (leverage of x1).

Changes to Stop Loss: Sometimes stocks, just like any other market, have periods of low liquidity (meaning it’s harder to buy or sell a certain amount). To protect you against losing more than the amount you’ve invested in the stock position (long or short), we will no longer allow setting the Stop Loss rate at 100% of the amount. The maximum Stop Loss rate will be specific for each stock and will be shown inside the open trade pop up.

Market orders: As mentioned above, you will be able to open a market order whenever the market is closed; this is true for stocks as well as for currencies, commodities and indices. Placing a market order means that the trade will be executed at the first available rate when the market opens. It also means that you can now copy over the weekend and if you choose to copy open positions, all open positions will be copied when the market opens.

In addition, it’s important to notice that with this change, the amount allocated to an order will not be available for trading, since the order amount will be considered as “reserved” equity unless the order is canceled.

Trade size limitations: Bitcoin trades will be limited to 10 units per trade, and stock CFD trades will be limited to $10,000 per trade.

To read more about stock CFDs at eToro, click here.

Read Also: