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Plus500 Review
Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Plus500 is a UK-based broker with offices in the City of London.
The firm is a significant provider of Contracts for Difference (CFDs), offering trading on stocks, currency, commodities, ETFs, options, and indices, as well as a variety of trading technology.
The company currently offers a portfolio of over 2000 instruments, as well as a variety of features and trading tools to help traders better manage their trading accounts, such as Stop Limits, Stop Loss, and Guaranteed Stops, as well as email and push notifications on market events and price movements and changes.
Plus500 is one of the few brokers that offers cryptocurrency CFDs to traders interested in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (availability subject to regulation).
Plus500 holds traders’ funds on a segregated basis when they open an account, in compliance with the Financial Conduct Authority’s client money rules.
Pros
- Segregates client funds
- Established in 2003
- Regulated by CySEC and ASIC
- Min. deposit from $1
Cons
- Doesn’t offer VPS (See alternatives)
- Limited range of instruments
- Not FCA Regulated (See alternatives)
A minimum deposit of €100 is required for a live account. Plus500, on the other hand, provides a free demo account that you may utilize to experiment and familiarize yourself with their platform.
Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, UK (FRN: 509909), CySEC (Licence: 250/14), ASIC (AFSL #417727), and FMA in New Zealand (FSP 486026). All Plus500 client funds are held in a segregated bank account and they work with tier-1 banks. Plus500 was established in 2008 and their head office is in Israel.
Before we get into the specifics of Plus500’s spreads, fees, platforms, and trading tools, you might want to open the Plus500 website in a new tab by clicking the button below to get the most up-to-date information directly from the company.
Disclosure: If you sign up with a broker through one of our links, we may receive a commission.
What are Plus500’s spreads & fees?
Plus500, like most brokers, charges a fee based on the spread, or the difference between the bid and ask price of an instrument.
The commissions and minimum spreads shown here are taken from Plus500’s website.
| Forex | Plus500 | City Index | XTB |
| EUR/USD(Average: 0.7 pips) | 1.8 pips | 0.7 pips | 0.1 pips |
| GBP/USD(Average: 1.1 pips) | 1.3 pips | 1.7 pips | 0.1 pips |
| USD/JPY(Average: 1.1 pips) | 1.0 pips | 0.6 pips | 0.1 pips |
| AUD/USD(Average: 0.8 pips) | 1.8 pips | 0.6 pips | 0.2 pips |
| USD/CHF(Average: 2.3 pips) | 1.7 pips | 2.3 pips | 0.2 pips |
| USD/CAD(Average: 2.9 pips) | 2.0 pips | 0.5 pips | 0.3 pips |
| NZD/USD(Average: 3.6 pips) | 2.2 pips | 2.8 pips | 0.3 pips |
| EUR/GBP(Average: 2.4 pips) | 1.5 pips | 0.5 pips | 0.1 pips |
The spreads are variable and are displayed for information purposes.
As you can see, Plus500’s minimum EUR/USD spread is 1.8 pips, which is low when compared to the average EUR/USD spread of 0.70 pips.
The table below compares the costs of trading one lot of EUR/USD with Plus500 vs. similar brokers.
How much does Plus500 charge to trade 1 lot of EUR/USD?
You would likely spend $15.4 if you bought one standard lot of EUR/USD (100k units) with Plus500 at an exchange rate of 1.1719 and then sold it the next day at the same rate.Here’s a quick rundown of the fees and how they compare to IG and XTB.
| Plus500 | IG | XTB | |
| Spread from: | $ 18.00 | $ 6.00 | $ 2.00 |
| Commission: | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Total cost of a 100k trade: | $ 18.00 | $ 6.00 | $ 2.00 |
| $12 less | $16 less | ||
| VISIT Plus500 | VISIT IG | VISIT XTB |
Fees and quotes are displayed for information purposes and could change.
What can you trade with Plus500?
Over 2000 different instruments, including over 61 currency pairs, are available to trade at Plus500. Below, we’ve summarized all of Plus500’s several types of instruments, as well as the instruments given by IG and XTB for comparison.
| FX / Currencies | Plus500 | IG | XTB |
| # of forex pairs offered | 47 | 90 | 48 |
| Major forex pairs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Minor forex pairs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Exotic forex pairs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cryptocurrencies* | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Commodity CFDs | Plus500 | IG | XTB |
| # of commodities offered | 6 | 34 | 21 |
| Metals | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Energies | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agricultural | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Index & Stock CFDs | Plus500 | IG | XTB |
| # of stocks offered | 957 | 8000 | 1606 |
| UK shares | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| US shares | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| German shares | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Japanese shares | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SEE Plus500’S INSTRUMENTS | SEE IG’S INSTRUMENTS | SEE XTB’S INSTRUMENTS |
What’s the Plus500 trading experience like?
1) Platforms and apps
Plus500 provides a user-friendly custom trading platform that can be accessed through a browser. If you’re looking for a MetaTrader broker, check out our MT4 broker comparison.
Plus500 offers Android and iOS mobile apps, making it easy to keep track of and execute deals while on the go.
Still not sure?
Open a demo account and learn how to trade.
2) Executing Trades
When you trade with Plus500, the minimum and maximum trade size depends on the symbol.
Plus500, as a market maker, may have lower entrance criteria than an ECN broker, which benefits from the bigger number of trades and often has higher capital and minimum trading requirements.
Market makers usually offer a lower minimum deposit, fewer minimum trade requirements, and zero commission trading.
Margin requirements vary by trader, account, and instrument, as they do with most brokers. On their website, you may see the most recent margin and leverage details.
Stop losses (with trailing stops), limit orders, negative balance protection, price alerts, and other risk management features are available through Plus500. Here you can find a list of all of Plus500’s account features.
We have included a list of some of the most common funding options that Plus500 provides to its traders.
Trading Features:
- Offers STP
- Low min deposit
Accounts offered:
- Demo account
- Micro account
- Mini account
- Standard account
- Islamic account
Funding methods:
- Credit cards
- Bank Transfer
- PayPal
- Skrill
- Payoneer
- Neteller
3) Client support
Plus500 offers support in many languages like English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Polish, Arabic, Hebrew, Danish, Norwegian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian and Chinese.
4) What you’ll need to open an account with Plus500
Because Plus500 is regulated by FCA, FMA, FSCA, CySEC, and ASIC, every new client must pass a few simple compliance tests to confirm that you are aware of the risks associated with trading and that you are permitted to trade. You’ll probably be asked for the following information when you register an account:
- a color copy of your passport, driver’s license, or other government-issued identification
- a three-month utility bill, bank or credit card statement that shows your current address
You’ll also need to answer a few questions regarding your trading experience, so set aside at least 10 minutes to finish the account opening procedure.
You may be able to explore Plus500’s platform right away, but you will not be allowed to make any transactions until you pass verification, which depending on the circumstances could take from a few hours up to a few days.
To begin the on-boarding process with Plus500, you can go to their website.
What is Plus500’s Platform?
Plus500 provides its customers with a variety of trading platforms that are compatible with a variety of desktop, smartphone, and tablet devices. The following are some of them:
- Webtrader Plus500 (web-based trading application). Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox are all compatible with this.
- App for iPhones and iPads that allows you to trade.
- Android Trader is a marketplace for Android-based smartphones.
- Windows 10 Trader is a program designed to run on Windows machines that run the Windows 10 operating system.
- App for Windows Phone.
Plus 500 WebTrader Interface
The markets, which may be accessible by clicking the Trade icon at the top of the page, are featured on the Plus500 Webtrader’s streamlined interface. Active and closed positions can also be shown on the navigation bar, immediately to the right of the Trade button.
The markets that the trader can trade are listed, with the Bid and Ask prices, as well as the highest and lowest prices for the day, displayed for each listing. Traders can Buy or Sell an asset by using the Buy or Sell buttons next to the Bid and Ask prices. Below the market prices is a chart for the selected market. Traders can choose between line, bar, and candlestick charts by pressing the corresponding buttons above the chart window.
How to trade on Plus500?
Simply click Buy next to the ask price or Sell next to the bid price to exchange an asset (the prices listed to the left). When these buttons are pressed, a little window appears, displaying the asset, current price, amount to invest in the transaction, required margin, and stop loss and take profit prices.
After adjusting each of these options, the trader can click the transaction execution button (which in this screenshot is SELL).
What risk management tools do Plus500 offer?
The following are the risk management tools available on the platforms of Plus500.
Guaranteed Stop
In the event of a significant market gap or massive slippage, a guaranteed stop loss protects the trader’s funds. You can only use a guaranteed stop on Plus500 for some markets. Any instrument that supports this feature will have a checkbox next to it. When creating a new trade, you must select a Guaranteed Stop. It’s not available for open trades.
Price alerts
Price alerts can be configured to notify you when the asset reaches a predetermined buy or sell price. This function is represented by a bell icon in the instrument list. When you click on this bell, you’ll be taken to a screen that says “Price Alert.” The trader receives a price alert in the form of an SMS, an email, or a push notification.
Trailing Stop
A trailing stop is a type of trade protection that automatically protects a position from reversals while locking in profits when the price moves in the trade’s direction.
When a trade is profitable, a trailing stop moves with it. To put it another way, it pursues the trade. When the market price hits the trailing stop level and reverses against the position, it freezes and can potentially close out the position.
72% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
