Plus500 Review – Should You Use This Broker?

Plus500 is one of the oldest and most popular online CFD brokers. It offers thousands of assets and boasts a proprietary trading platform with several technical analysis tools. But, is it really worth considering compared to other brokers? In our Plus500 review below, we’ll discuss some of this broker’s main characteristics, including its trading platform, trading costs, and how it compares to other online brokers.

Is this CFD broker worth using? Keep reading our Plus500 review to find out.

About Plus500

Plus500 Ltd is a publicly-traded company headquartered in Israel, founded in 2008. It is listed on London Stock Exchange and operates in many countries under different licenses, including Plus500AU Pty Ltd. and Plus500UK Pty Ltd. Multiple subsidiaries are open in different countries (i.e., Plus500AU Pty Ltd. is headquartered in Australia) to comply with the regional financial and monetary authority.

The company provides CFD trading (contracts for differences) on many asset classes and is available in more than 50 countries around the world. CFDs are high-risk derivatives or contracts between buyers (like you) and sellers (the CFD broker) based on the price of an underlying asset.

When trading CFDs, you do not buy or sell the underlying asset, you speculate on future price movements. Because of this, you can easily open both long positions (when you expect the asset price to increase) and short positions (when you expect the asset price to decrease).

Plus500 offers a few different types of accounts, including retail investor accounts (retail CFD accounts) and a professional account for more advanced traders. A professional account can be accessed only if you meet certain criteria, such as having a portfolio of over €500,000.

CFDs with this provider can also be traded via a demo account. This is available for people who want to familiarize themselves with the platform before signing up, which is useful considering that many retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs without practicing good risk management.

With that said, let’s kick off our Plus500 review by taking a look at some of the key features.

Plus500 Features

Plus500 is a CFD broker, which means that you cannot buy real stocks or own cryptocurrency – you can only bet on the future price movement of these assets. You can trade these high-risk, complex instruments on many asset classes, including currency pairs, stocks, commodities, ETFs, indices, and crypto (availability subject to regulations in your region).

It also provides CFD trading on options – either call (if you think the asset price will go up before the option expires) or put (if you think the asset price will decrease before the contract expires). Apart from these offerings, authorized financial services provider has several other features, as reviewed below.

Proprietary Trading Platform

Plus500 offers two trading platforms: WebTrader (or Web Trader), which is available via your favorite browser, or the downloadable version for Windows 10. Below, we’ll focus on WebTrader, but all of its characteristics apply to the downloadable version as well because they are the same, including the account opening process.

The web trading platform comes with a straightforward interface and intuitive options. In your trading account, you can create watchlists, so you can monitor any asset you are interested in, analyze price charts, and manage your trades.

It has a wide variety of customizable technical indicators, but unlike other competitors like AvaTrade or FP Markets, Plus500 is not compatible with MetaTrader 4, one of the most popular trading platforms provided by many forex brokers.

However, active, more experienced retail traders may be delighted to know that, unlike other CFD brokers like Capital.com, Plus500 offers CFDs on options, so you can easily diversify your portfolio and increase your return chances with these more complex instruments.

The proprietary trading platform only allows manual trading. If you want to use third-party automation tools, you may find Plus500 lacking. In this case, you may want to consider either eToro’s trading platform for semi-automated social trading or a MetaTrader-friendly broker like AvaTrade or Forex.com for forex trading.

Other features and trading tools you have access to on CFD Plus500’s trading platform include:

• Real-time information regarding your portfolio, balance, and profit and loss
• Information about open and closed positions
• Risers and fallers
• Popular assets, including cryptocurrency (availability subject to local regulations)
• Traders’ sentiments on each financial asset
• Deposit or withdraw money
• Live statistics

Plus500 doesn’t offer any advanced tax accounting tools for its retail investor accounts or professional ones, but you can download a report with your account’s activity.

Research & Guidance

In terms of research, technical analysis tools, and guidance for new traders, Plus500’s trading account is quite average. Perhaps one of the most useful sections is the calendar, which shows both economic events and earnings. This should save significant time for news traders, especially when coupled with the market news section.

In addition to this, there is a satisfying variety of technical indicators that will help you with your analysis, including more than 100 technical indicators and 20 drawing tools. This is an excellent competitive advantage compared to many other CFD brokers that currently lack such features (i.e., eToro only provides price charts and no technical indicators).

Risk Management

As trading CFDs exposes you to a higher risk than trading the underlying assets, it’s important to consider the risk management tools supported by Plus500. While many retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider, there are several ways to manage your high risk.

Client transactions can be customized with different orders:

• Stop limit orders, which means you can open a position and set a profit limit, at which the financial instrument will be sold automatically, and you book your profit. You can also set an expiration time for this type of order. 
• Stop-loss order, where you can specify a minimum price for the CFD (lower than the current market price) at which the position will be closed automatically to minimize your loss in case the market goes against you.
• Stop-loss orders may suffer from “slippage,” which means that the price gaps (up or down) quickly, so your position may be closed at the next available price to your detriment. In this case, Plus500 allows you to open a guaranteed stop order, which has no slippage risk, but this order has a higher spread (cost). 
• Trailing stop orders mean that your order remains open as long as the price moves in your favor. When or if the market goes against you, the CFD will be sold automatically, and you book your profits. 

Plus500’s trading platforms also support market orders for trading CFDs, which means opening a position at the current market price, but these do not protect you against sudden price moves against you.

These additional order types are an excellent feature for active traders, but not all brokers support them, which makes Plus500 stand out from the crowd. Another competitor with a trailing stop order is InteractiveBrokers, but its trading accounts are not compatible with the same markets as Plus500 – for instance, trailing stop orders on IB cannot be used with cryptocurrency.

Trading CFDs is generally considered riskier than trading stocks or forex. It is common to lose money when trading CFDs due to the nature of these contracts. While you can always lose money when trading, CFDs have a heightened risk because you have a high risk of losing ALL of the money you invest. This is not unique to the CFDs with this provider – this is true for all retail CFD accounts.

Mobile Trading

Plus500 offers mobile trading for Android and iPhone users, but many users complain about app lagging, frequent downtimes, or delays. Other than this, the mobile app is similar to the web platform.

It provides all the order types explained above, customizable, full-screen charts, depositing or withdrawing money, and all the technical indicators available on the web platform. One aspect that could be improved is security since the app provides direct access to your funds.

If you are looking for improved mobile trading apps, Power E*Trade may suit your needs. It is more suitable for experienced traders, and has real-time data streaming and third-party investment research on financial markets around the world, along with a large variety of tools for trading CFDs and technical indicators. 

Plus500 Safety and Regulations

Plus500 is a fully regulated financial services provider holding a capital markets services license in many countries, including the United Kingdom (Plus500UK Ltd.), South Africa, New Zealand, Australia (Plus500AU Pty Ltd.), and Singapore (Plus500SG Pte Ltd.).

Trading CFDs with this provider may be limited in other regions due to local regulations, such as the United States.

Plus500 is also authorized and regulated by the following regulatory bodies:

• Financial Conduct Authority
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission
• Australian Securities and Investment Commission
• Seychelles Financial Services Authority
• Monetary Authority of Singapore
• Financial Sector Conduct Authority (South Africa)

In turn, this translates into many security benefits for its clients:

• Plus500 provides a segregated bank account, thus you will not lose any money in case of bankruptcy because corporate funds are kept separate
• If Plus500 defaults, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the UK covers up to £85,000
• Negative balance protection means that you cannot lose more money than you have in your account

Plus500 Pricing

Plus500 is a market maker, which means that its main revenue source is the bid/ask spread. This is a cost built into the quoted price you see when you buy an asset.

For example, assume that one share costs $1 if you want to buy it now, and $1.0001 if you want to sell it. The bid/ask difference (spread) of $0.0001 is called 1 pip and is the broker’s profit. This cost is very common in forex trading, too.

This fee is completely transparent, so if you want to check, you can click on the Details icon next to your chosen instrument. The spread is variable, so you should verify each individual instrument to see how much this fee is. In the case of opening guaranteed stop orders, your trading costs will be higher than with other order types.

In addition to this, the market maker has a few other trading costs:

• If you open CFD positions and hold them overnight, you need to pay a variable overnight financing fee applied by all CFD brokers on the market. This fee can be found in the Details icon next to each instrument. To avoid this fee, you simply need to buy and sell the assets during the same trading day (thus, no open positions overnight)
• Inactivity fee of up to $10 per month if you stop logging into your Plus500 account.
• A currency conversion fee of up to 0.7% (if you use a currency other than the euro)

Plus500 Customer Service

If you need help, Plus500 provides many quick customer service channels, and several of them are available non-stop. Support response may vary via mail, but it usually takes between 2 minutes and 3 hours to be contacted back.

The trading platform also has a live chat option where you can instantly contact the team, or opt for WhatsApp messaging if you cannot access it. Plus500 does not provide support via phone.

Who is Plus500 Best For?

Plus500 may be an excellent broker for casually and actively trading CFDs. You can find many asset types, the spreads are competitive, and you can access useful technical indicators, depending on your trading strategy. It may not be suitable for long-term investors since you cannot buy real stocks or trade actual assets (only CFDs). 

The trading tools are suitable for people who are new to the financial markets, but experienced traders who may want to use automatic trading may not find Plus500 a worthwhile option. Overall, it’s a well-rounded CFD broker for beginner and intermediate active traders looking for lower costs. 

How Does Plus500 Compare?

Based on our Plus500 review above, it is quite competitive compared to many other online CFD brokers. For instance, it is regulated by more authorities than Trading212, which makes it a safe choice for citizens in more than 50 countries in the world, including South Africa (Financial Sector Conduct Authority), and other regions.

However, unlike Robinhood which provides real-asset trading, Plus500 only offers CFDs, which are known to be at higher risk than actual financial instruments. While Plus500 has more financial instruments classes available, other brokers like WeBull don’t charge an inactivity fee.

If you are completely new to the online trading world, you may find Plus500 difficult to manage, but you can easily try its demo account to familiarize yourself with the platform. Fidelity may be more suitable for people with low or no experience because of the abundant research resources, basic information available via videos or webinars, and quick customer service team available via phone.

FAQ: Plus500 Review

What is the minimum deposit required by Plus500?

In general, you need to deposit at least 100 units of currency, but different payment methods may require a higher minimum deposit. For example, a bank transfer must be at least $500, but instant payment methods like PayPal and debit or credit cards require only $100.

Does Plus500 have a demo account?

Apart from real money accounts, Plus500 has a demo account that allows you to practice trading CFDs on the financial markets with virtual money. The demo account has the same features as the real trading account, allowing you to test your strategy and get familiar with the trading platform before risking your hard-earned cash.

What deposit/withdrawal methods are available on Plus500?

In general, you can deposit and withdraw money via debit or credit card, bank transfer, or from Skrill or PayPal. These may be subject to limitations depending on your country.

Does Plus500 allow leveraged trading?

Yes, but the maximum leverage for retail traders depends on your chosen asset. For instance, there is maximum leverage of 1:30 for major currency pairs and minimum leverage of 1:2 for cryptocurrency. These limits are part of the current ASIC Product Intervention Order regulation and, as a regulated broker, Plus500 must comply since leverage involves significant risk and can lead to losing money rapidly.

Does Plus500 have assets listed on London Stock Exchange?

Yes, Plus500 allows trading CFDs on shares listed on London Stock Exchange and more than 20 other stock exchanges from around the world. 

Final Verdict: Plus500

In this Plus500 review, we have assessed several features, benefits, and drawbacks. Plus500 has an intuitive and safe trading environment and is authorized by the major financial markets authority in each country it operates. It is also a public company that trades on London Stock Exchange, which offers enhanced transparency.

If you don’t mind the lack of automated trading and in-depth advanced research opportunities for advanced traders, you will find this broker highly functional. Risk management tools may be quite limited, notwithstanding the guaranteed stop order that comes with higher spreads.

To conclude our Plus500 review, if you seek low costs and you’re looking for a solid online trading platform, this may be the right broker for your needs. Still, you need to keep in mind that CFDs are high risk and many retail accounts lose money when trading them.