Plus500 Overview

Having branches in Australia, Cyprus and the United Kingdom, the headquarters of Plus500 Ltd is located in Israel.

The authorization and regulation of Plus500 UK Ltd under number: FRN 509909 is overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority. The Cyprus subsidiary, Plus500 CY LTD gets its authorization and regulation under license No. 250/14 from CySec (The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission).  Plus500AU Pty Ltd, the Australian branch is licensed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (AFSL #417727) to provide Plus500 services to the people in this is country. It’s very important for traders to understand that they don’t quite gain ownership of the underlying assets when trading with Plus500 and they have to always take the disclosure agreements on the website of the broker into consideration.

The London Stock Exchange also has Plus500 cataloged in the AIM section. We strongly feel that regulation is key for all serious Forex brokers and Plus500’s numerous regulations are clear indications that depositing funds and trading, in general, is very secure with them.

Trading costs and commissions

Trading costs are amongst the key factors to consider when selecting a Forex broker to work with. These costs can be categorized into two groups: spreads and commissions, and the payments popularly called “swap rates” (overnight financing charges). The swap rates don’t have much to do with day traders. However, spreads and commissions usually affect every trader and must be looked at by everyone aiming to generate profits through trade. Plus500 full charges can be found here. Looking at the market nowadays, this offer is very competitive. Amazingly, Plus500 charge zero commissions, implying that you get whatever is on the spread. The offered spreads on popular commodities are commendable as well, around 50 cents per ounce, for Gold and 14 cents per barrel, for Oil.

Features

The solid Plus500 CFD trading platform is designed with premium standards and effectively manages CFD trade by thousands of traders on more than 2,000 instruments which include 59 Forex pairs and ETFs, Indices, Commodities, and Shares in over 20 markets across the world. The minimum required deposit for opening an account is $400.

The particular feature of Plus500 that impresses us the most is the total lack of the aggressive sales team most other brokers pass the information of their traders to. Traders interested in trading with Plus500 are only required to deposit funds after completing their registration to get going. This makes Plus500 the perfect arena for traders who are looking to self-explore the financial trading world without unnecessary hassles.

Offerings for Risk Management

Plus500 keeps the trust and peace of mind of its traders by offering them many tools for risk management. Traders have the freedom to control their leverage and make trades with no, low or high leverage depending on their ‘Equity’ and ‘Total Position Value’ which also depend on fund deposits and withdrawals. Traders can view their ‘Equity’ and ‘Total Position Value’ by accessing the Account Snapshot page through the main trading window.

Guaranteed ‘Close at Loss’ [Stop loss] and ‘Close at Profit’ [Limit] prices levels can also be set by traders for specific instruments to reduce risk. We are always looking out for this feature which isn’t offered by many other brokers. There’s the additional option of setting price alerts in order to receive notifications when specific sell or buy prices are reached in the market. A price alert is different from a stop, as the position is kept open allowing you to decide on the next action with the moving market. Clicking the bell icon found on the screen displaying the list and details of the Instruments opens a ‘Price Alert’ screen on which traders can adjust their preferences.

Plus500 offers an additional ’trailing stop’ tool which serves as a price limit as it also protects profits. Placing a trailing stop while opening a trade will result in locking in profits with the closure of a position not at the originally placed level but at the new level of the trailing stop. Without manually monitoring and adjusting the stop price of a position, this limits the chances of any “downside” risk.

Cryptocurrency Trading

In April 2013, bitcoins became available for trade as CFDs and Plus500 was amongst the pioneer brokers to offer this leveraged trade option, starting at the time with a leverage offer of 1:4. Responding to client demands, Plus500 had their leverage offer increased to 1:10 in January 2014. The bitcoin CFDs of Plus500, however, expiring every 4 days. Apart from this aspect, the bitcoin is pretty similar to all the CFDs of Plus500 and is available for trade in their demo account.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, bitcoin cash and ripple are available for trading at Plus500.

Other Features

The website of Plus500 is available in 32 different languages. Redirection to the site which is in your first language is very likely even if the language you are using to browse is different. You can easily switch to another preferred language, but this language change aims to ensure that traders are comfortable no matter their current location.

Plus500’s free and time-unlimited demo is one of the company’s most valuable features as it gives traders the freedom of practicing for as long as they like. This is not so alien to other brokers but is always very much welcome and valued.

Deposits/Withdrawals

Both deposits and withdrawals are uncomplicated with Plus500 and can be performed through bank transfers, credit cards, Skrill and PayPal.

Promotions

We were very pleased to have made this review around the time when Plus500 just signed a new sponsorship deal with the Atlético de Madrid football team. This sponsorship agreement means the Spanish giants will wear Plus500 on the back of their kit of their first team. Their trading protocols may not find this very appealing but it shows substantial reliability and longevity.

Customer Support

The Customer Support of Plus500 is available via live online chat and email 24/7.

Platforms

In addition to a WebTrader platform, Plus500 uses its trademark Forex trade platform which displays all important information on one screen, eliminating the need to scroll in search of some important features.  Accessing current position and past trade details has been simplified with four tabs at the top which are clearly labeled.

There are three versions of the amazing trading platform of Plus500 – a trading interface for mobile devices, a web-based platform, and a downloadable version. Different from the platforms provided by many other brokers, the platform of Plus500 owes its uniqueness to the fact that it remains constant, no matter the version. This makes switching between the seamlessly possible without the need to regroup.  Many brokers similarly offer unique platform solutions which are often limited in one way or the other. However, we always appreciate and show respect to brokers who create their unique trading platforms which often target certain specific upgrade services for their clients.

The trading platforms of Plus500 CFD open traders a wide range of trading features including guaranteed stop loss, advanced tools for technical analysis, etc.

The reliability and execution rate of the trading platforms of Plus500 are top class, an encouraging feat for traders. The spreads offered are also very competitive spreads (starts from the low figure of 1 pip), plus zero commissions on trades and a leverage which amounts to 1:300. Always keep in mind that CFDs are products which are leveraged meaning your whole capital can be lost. Please make sure you are totally aware of the risk involved in setting out to trade CFDs because it might not be so great for you. We recommend that you go through the User Agreement and Risk Disclosure Statement of the company before signing up to use their services.

Conclusion

The website of Plus500 is very user-friendly and its amazing user-centric approach gives both newbies and experienced traders a uniquely enjoyable trading experience. With almost 10 years of active service, it’s no error to see that Plus500 has placed itself amongst the global market’s leading CFD services.