Plus500 Review
Usability first
Pros
- Free demo account
- User-friendly trading platform
- Good mobile app
- Many trading instruments
- Competitive spreads
Cons
- No MetaTrader platform
- Fewer analysis tools
Introduction
Those who search the internet for experiences with the CFD broker Plus500 often come across negative reviews of people who feel robbed. This is caused by the fact that Plus500 also attracts users who have little knowledge of CFD trading because of their simple platform. Beginners are adviced to first use the demo account. These people do not know how to deal with CFDs and as a result they lose their investment, after which they blame Plus500 for this. However, if you know how to trade with CFDs, it is a great way to trade in large amounts of stocks with a small capital because of leverage.
You should keep in mind that 76.4% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Plus500 is one of the better of hundreds of active CFD brokers worldwide. It is best known for their clear and easy-to-use trading platform. This broker was established in 2008 and offers a lot of trading instruments. It is one of the largest brokers in the world and has an intuitive and nicely designed website and mobile app.
Target audience
Plus500 is the ideal broker for the CFD investor who needs a clear and simple trading platform. Plus500 distinguishes itself from other brokers by the simplicity of the web trader. For the more demanding advanced CFD investors, there are also some advanced functions.
Is Plus500 reliable?
Plus500 is registered in Cyprus with the name Plus500CY Ltd. and is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. According to European regulations, Plus500 must also meet the conditions for offering financial services in the United Kingdom. Plus500UK Ltd. is authorized and regulated by the FCA (reference number 509909). This is one of the strictest financial regulators in the world. This ensures you a secure trading environment. So you can say that it is a reliable broker where you can trade with confidence.
Trading instruments
You can trade CFDs in forex, cryptocurrency, indices, commodities, stocks and ETFs with a maximum leverage of 1:30. Check here how a leverage works. The minimum deposit for trading CFDs with this broker is £100. The big UK companies can also be found here. The range of CFDs is big as you can see below.
Forex
Stocks
Cryptocurrencies
Commodities
Indices
ETFs
Trading platform
Plus500 is well known because of their nice trading platform. A lot of internal technical expertise is hidden behind this simple trading platform. This makes it possible to respond very quickly to changing market conditions. It allows users for example to respond quickly to important events such as IPOs, cryptocurrencies and emerging companies such as producers of medical products based on cannabis. The trading platform of Plus500 is very clear and therefore very user-friendly. The superfluous functions that you have with competitors have been omitted for efficient trading. Some functions of this platform are:
- Stop limit / Stop loss / Trailing stop
- Guaranteed stop
- E-mail & push notifications on market events
- Warnings on price movements
- Free real-time quotes
- Percentage change & sentiment of traders
- 24/7 support
Plus500 has good customer service and can be reached via live chat, social media and contact form. Experienced investors may miss some analysis options in the trading platform. The user interface of the webtrader looks like this:
Prices in the image are illustrative. The menu is in the blue bar on the left. The available assets and your profit/loss can be seen in the top bar. The trade graph can be seen at the bottom of the screen. This chart is available as a candle chart or as a line chart. By laying technical indicators over the price chart you can make an analysis of the price fluctuations. You can also change the time unit from 1 minute to 1 week.
Spreads
Plus500 offers tight fixed and variable spreads. The spread is the difference between the purchase price and the selling price. For example, if the purchase price of Shell is 21.44 and the sale price is 21.40, then the spread is 0.04. The lower the spread, the better. It is also useful to know that an inactivity fee of £10 is deducted from your account every month if you do not log in for more than 3 months. So make sure you log in regularly.
Demo account
Learn to use the trading platform in the free demo mode. You can practice CFD trading indefinitely. Once you understand it, you can easily switch to real mode.
In short
Plus500 is a well-arranged, easy-to-use broker with high reliability. This broker has good customer support services. However, the advanced investor will miss some analysis functions. Thanks to its competitive spreads and attractive trading platform, Plus500 is the ideal broker for beginning to average skilled CFD investors.
- Very user friendly
Competitive spreads
No MetaTrader platform
Fewer analysis tools - Active investors
110,000
- Reliability
- Trading platform
- MetaTrader 4
- MetaTrader 5
- Social platform
- Suitable for:
Experienced investor
- Functions platform
Average
- Mobile app
- Tradable assets
2,000
- Spreads
Low
- Spread EUR/USD*
0.6
- CFDs in stocks
1,900
- CFDs in forex
50 pairs
- CFDs in cryptocurrencies
14
- CFDs in commodities
22
- CFDs in indices
30
- CFDs in ETFs
95
- Loss-making investors
76.4%
- Customer service
- Education
- Usability
- Inactivity fee
£10 PM after 3 months
- Bank transfer
- Credit card
- Skrill
- PayPal
*This was the spread on 1/1/2020
Enable desktop mode for a better visibility of the comparison tables.
- Pros and cons
- Active investors
- Reliability
- Trading platform
- MetaTrader 4
- MetaTrader 5
- Social platform
- Suitable for:
- Functions
- Demo account
- Mobile app
- Spreads
- Spread EUR/USD*
- Tradable assets
- CFDs in stocks
- CFDs in forex
- CFDs in cryptocurrencies
- CFDs in commodities
- CFDs in indices
- CFDs in ETFs
- Loss-making investors
- Customer service
- Education
- Usability
- Inactivity fee
- Bank transfer
- Credit card
- Skrill
- PayPal
- Social trading platform
Copy professionals
No MetaTrader platform
High spreads on crypto - 400,000
- Allround investor
- Average
- Average
- 3
- 1,200
- 1,000
- 47 pairs
- 92
- 13
- 13
- 21
- 75%
- £10 PM after 1 year
- Very user-friendly
Competitive spreads
No MetaTrader platform
Fewer analysis tools - 110,000
- Experienced investor
- Average
- Low
- 0.6
- 2,000
- 1,900
- 50 pairs
- 14
- 22
- 30
- 95
- 76.4%
- £10 PQ after 3 months
- Excellent platform
Low spreads
Traders Trends
High trading fee - Unknown
- Active investor
- Professional
- Low
- 0.5
- 2,200
- 2,000
- 57 pairs
- 6
- 25
- 33
- 54
- 81%
- £10 PM after 3 months
- Variable spreads
Good education
Higher spreads in MT4
Inactivity fee - 100,000
- Allround/experienced investor
- Professional
- Low at large volume
- 3
- 2,100
- 2,000
- 55 pairs
- 19
- 26
- 74%
- £25 PM after 3 months
*This was the spread on 1/1/2020
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
