Social trading is a convenient way to trade in almost any asset, such as forex, crypto, and stocks. Essentially, it allows users to replicate the trades of top performing traders.
But with so many platforms on the market, it's hard to know which one matches your specific needs. In this article, we review the best social trading platforms, while also helping you to understand what to look for.
With some platforms restricting access to US customers, the article is divided into two sections: worldwide trading platforms and US-friendly trading platforms.
The firm's main research and development office is based in Tel Aviv Israel. It originally specialized in Forex and indices spreadbetting and CFDs but has recently expanded in stock trading also. At the time of writing, eToro has 2.2 out of 5 star on Trust pilot. The comments suggest that the platform offers some impressive features but withdrawing money can be difficult. Having said that, some of the negative reviews appear to be rants rather than constructive criticism. This can be examples of traders losing money through their own recklessness rather than eToro's fault. You should therefore take this reviews with a pinch of salt. OANDA is a global financial services company providing advanced currency solutions to both retail and corporate clients all over the world. In this article, we are going to review this broker’s trading options, tools, platforms, spreads, commissions, security measures, and educational resources to help traders make the right choice. AvaTrade offers a wide variety of trading solutions (spread trading, CFDs, and social trading), and peace of mind with its comprehensive regulation, covering the EU, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Clients can use a variety of platforms for discretionary and automated trading.
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76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing
76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Founded in 2007, eToro is an industry-leading platform that's most known for its social trading functionality. eToro enables users to trade in over 1,000 assets, which includes free stock and EFT trading. The platform is regulated by FCA and CySEC.
eToro is the best social trading platform if you want an immersive trading experience with no limit to the amount of social interaction. This is thanks to the "feeds" area, which allows for easy sharing of videos, news, and trade ideas. The more you use the feed, the more it will become specifically tailored to your own interests.
Features include the patented CopyTraderâ„¢ technology, which allows users to find the top performing traders, and then automatically copy them. There are no extra costs for using this tool, which is great for beginners who want to test things out.
There's also the machine learning technology, such as the MomentumDD CopyPortfolio, which cleverly identifies all traders who have the highest chance of success, and then groups them together into a portfolio that matches your risk tolerance.
Visit eToro (not for US customers)
Copy Trading does not amount to investment advice. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
Launched in 2006, AvaTrade is one of the best brokerage firms for social trading, especially when you connect it to the ZuluTrade platform (also in our list). They are one of the only brokers to provide forex trading with fixed spreads, which start at just 0.9 pips.
AvaTrade provides a range of social trading features, like the synchronised order executions in real-time. Perhaps the biggest feature is the AvaTradeGO mobile app, which allows you to find new trade ideas on-the-go.
The company is one of the most experienced and trusted in the trading community. In fact, when you look at the trading volume, they are one of the largest brokers in the world, with access to over 200 assets. The trust stems from their regulatory licenses that cover over 5 continents, which protects your assets in nearly all jurisdictions.
There is a minimum deposit of $100 for card and bank transfers.
Founded in 2015, NAGA Markets has recently entered the world of social trading, but has quickly amassed over 500,000 users and is growing in popularity every day. The fast growth is due to NAGA's wide product offerings, which include the:
If you want to dig deeper, you can sort the signal providers by number of followers, managed funds, performance, timeframes, and more.
Alongside the community that offers support for any moment, there is the NAGA Trading Academy, which provides educational materials to both beginners and advanced traders. Materials include videos, webinars, and written workbooks. If the materials are still too advanced, then you can talk with a NAGA account manager for one-on-one lessons.
The only downside of using NAGA is that you can't currently view a signal provider's open trades, which means the historic trading performance may sometimes not be accurate.
Founded in 2005, MultiBank is a global trading platform with access to over 1000 markets, including commodities, forex, and cryptocurrency. Users are attracted by the excellent customer service and ease of use.
In fact, you can open an account and get trading with just a few steps. Just fill-in your personal details, select an account option, and then confirm your identity. The company is regulated by the FSC, so you're in safe hands if your jurisdiction is covered.
Their user-friendly interface allows you to copy as many traders as you want at the same time. Once you have found the signal providers you want to follow, you can assign specific ratios of your capital to each provider.
The minimum deposit of $50 makes this a great social trading platform for beginners who want to start with a small amount of capital.
Founded in 2005, FP Markets is a CFD and forex broker based in Australia. It is regulated by ASIC, CySEC, and FSA of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
This is one of the best social trading platforms for forex trading, due to the low forex fees. With over 10,000 available products, you can also trade on CFDs and cryptocurrencies, although the stock CFD fees aren't as competitive.
When it comes to social trading, users can use the Autotrade tool, which allows for easy copy trading via the FP Markets MT4 trading account. While incredibly simple to use, the tool offers risk-management features, real-time statistics, and one-click implementation of trading systems.
FP Markets offer a series of educational materials, including e-books, videos, and a daily market report. This is great for learning the basics of trading, like money management, trading systems, and market volatility.
There is a minimum account deposit of $100.
ZuluTrade is an advanced social trading platform for following some of the top performing forex traders in the game. In fact, ZuluTrade has thousands of professional traders for you to copy. These traders are attracted by ZuluTrade's wide product offering, which includes:
The company was founded in 2007, with a strong foothold in the social trading community, especially with forex traders. Unlike with other platforms, the ZuluTrade signal providers are only rewarded when they have a profitable month, which incentivises them to perform well for their followers.
You can find the top traders by using their search tool, which allows users to analyse the trading strategy and performance in real-time. You can also interact with these traders by jumping into discussions on their social profile.
Collective2 is a US-based automated trading system with over 78,000 members in their community. To get started, you will first need to sign-up with one of the compatible brokers (Interactive Brokers being the most popular for US citizens).
With Collective2, traders pay a subscription fee to access an automated system that copies the most successful traders. The subscription levels and fees vary based on the amount of strategies you wish to follow. Most newcomers opt for the $49 solo plan to concentrate on one trading strategy. There's also the Portfolio Plus plan, which gives access to unlimited trading strategies, but it will set you back $299 each month.
With derivatives, equities, and fixed income securities all possible to be traded on, most users are tempted by the Portfolio Plus plan, so that they're never held back by account limitations.
Users can find the best trading strategies to follow by viewing the historical performance, where they can then set their account to automatically copy the strategy with one click.
Regulation makes it difficult for Forex brokers to offer their service to US citizens. As such, it can be hard for those in the US to find a broker to pair with their chosen platform.
The MQL5 website is compatible with many US-friendly brokers, which makes it a great choice. The platform allows you to subscribe to automated signals and trading systems through MetaTrader4 or MetaTrader5.
Whichever terminal you decide to use, you will be able to set-up an automatic copy trading system. However, you will have to leave your computer running for 24/7 unless a VPS service is used. This VPS utilises a virtual platform for smooth copy trading with no downtime. The good news is that MetaTrader offers a VPS service from just $10 a month. But still, this is extra work that not all traders will appreciate.
MQL5 is a great US social trading platform for traders with experience. It has a range of advanced trading features. However, the technical set-up can be problematic to new traders who aren't confident. There's also no guarantee that the system you choose will be compatible with your US broker account.
As one of the top social trading platforms, we are pleased to see eToro offer their service to US customers. But before we get too excited, we need to mention that the service only currently applies to cryptocurrency assets, including: BTC, ETH, XRP, ZEC, and ADA - amongst others.
eToro is currently seeking regulatory approval to expand into additional states and asset classes. The CopyPortfolio and CopyPeople tool allows US users to copy the trading actions from other people based in the US.
Regardless of your experience level, eToro's user-friendly interface makes it easy to get started. Simply open an account, rank the traders by performance, select a successful trader that matches your risk appetite, enter how much capital you want to copy with, and then click the "invest" button to start automatically copying.
*Cryptocurrency is offered by eToro USA LLC ("the MSB") (NMLS: 1769299) and is not FDIC or SIPC insured. Investing involves risk, and content is provided for educational purposes only, does not imply a recommendation, and is not a guarantee of future performance. The Lazy Trader is not an affiliate and may be compensated if you access certain products or services offered by the MSB.
Oh hello - it's ZuluTrade again. Under a slightly different brand name, ZuluTrade has partnered with US introducing broker, ZYTrade LLC, to build a trading service that conforms to all US regulations.
US citizens can finally take advantage of ZuluTrade's impressive list of features, including Zulu Rank, Lock Trade, Zulu Script, and Zulu Guard. These four features work together to protect capital, reduce trade errors, and make it easy to find/copy the top traders. The Automator tool allows traders to create their own trading strategy and rules, which will be automatically followed.
You have two brokers to choose from when opening your account, which are currently Gain and TitanFx. These are decent brokers, but the lack of options is a slight letdown, especially with non-US customers having 10x as many options.
While US customers can enjoy most ZuluTrade features, there are still a few limitations on what you can use. For example, US customers can only trade one pair at a time. As such, you will need to make sure the signal provider you're following doesn't open multiple trades at once, otherwise you will experience different results from what you expected.
The benefits of social trading are clear to see. But to really take advantage of this new trading strategy, it's important to find the best social trading platform for your specific needs.
For example, Etoro provides the best social interaction with their user-friendly interface and patented CopyTraderâ„¢ technology, while Multibank allows anyone to get started with a small minimum deposit of only $50.
Before depositing funds into your preferred platform, make sure you're covered with everything you require. As always, the most important requirement is to protect your hard-earned cash, so only use brokers that are regulated by authorities in your jurisdiction.
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