Plus500 CFD Broker Review | 2019 Guide

What Is Plus500?

Plus500 is a well-known CFD broker that offers a wide variety of financial assets for trading. The company was established back in 2008 and currently has more than 300 thousand active traders.

Plus500’s has developed a user-friendly platform which has a comprehensive interface that can easily be used to execute various trading functions.

In our review on Plus500, we will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this broker in order to determine if this CFD broker is the right trading platform for you.

Interface

Plus500 provides a smooth and exclusive trading platform which features technical analysis software and real-time quote for all assets.

Available Countries

The broker can be accessed by residents from over 50 countries, including the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Israel. US-based traders are not able to use the platform.

Trading assets

What sets Plus500 broker from other competitors is its wide array of CFD trading options which cover almost all financial markets. Over 2000 trading instruments are available, including indices, Forex, commodities, cryptocurrencies, shares, stocks, options, and ETFs.

The broker also offers trading in fiat currencies such as the Romanian leu, Turkish lira and Mexican Peso, and shares from across all of the European countries.

Supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, Stellar, Cardano, Tron, EOS, IOTA, NEO, and Ripple XRP.

How Plus500 Works

Plus500 offers CFDs trading, which comes with several benefits when compared to spot transactions. CFDs (or Contracts for Difference) is a contract which tracks the price of the underlying asset, with the buyer of the contract receiving the difference between the initial value of the asset and current value of the asset at the time of the contract’s end.

The asset tracked in the contract is not owned by the buyer, CFDs being mostly traded on leverage and can also be sold short.

CFD’s enable traders to trade using the price of Bitcoin without actually buying and owning any bitcoin.

Plus500 also offers margin trading, a tool which allows traders to leverage their positions appropriately.

Plus500 Accounts

Plus500 has two account types, the first one being a demo account, which has no time limit and signup fee, and a live account which requires a minimum initial deposit of at least EUR 100. Forex account users have a maximum leverage of 1:30.

Opening a live Plus500 account requires the user to submit a scanned copy of an official document that proves your identity. A utility bill or bank statement will also be asked in order to check if the stated address is correct.

In the compliance test, you will have to answer a few basic questions for them to establish your trading experience so that they know you understand the risks of trading.

Opening a live account shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes.

Software

The Plus500 trading platform ca either be downloaded on your PC, accessed via browser, or via apps for Android and IOs mobile devices.

Regulatory status and fund security

Plus500UK Ltd is authorized and regulated by a number of organizations:

• the Financial Conduct Authority (#509909),
• CySEC (#250/14) Plus500SG Pte Ltd,
• the MAS (#CMS100648-1),
• IE Singapore (#PLUS/CBL/2018),
• ASIC in Australia, AFSL #417727,
• FMA in New Zealand, FSP #486026,
• Authorised Financial Services Provider in South Africa, FSP #47546.

As all trading activities are made via CFDs, neither the company nor the users have any rights to the underlying assets.

Plus500 is also licensed to operate in Israel and it is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.

Deposits made by UK clients are kept in separate bank accounts in agreement with FCA’s client money rules, which obligate Plus500 UK to use its own funds only for hedging purposes.

When it comes to website security, Plus500 makes use of an encrypted https protocol which secures connections between its server and the browser used by the client, and credit card transactions are secured via SSL certificates.

Fees and commissions

Plus500 takes no fees and commissions, Plus500 only charges spreads –the asking price and bid price of an asset. Spreads are variable, even on the currency pair which has the most liquidity.

Additional charges are applied if positions are held open for an hour. An inactivity fee of $10 is applied when the account is not used for a longer period of time.

The minimum initial deposit amount is EUR100.

Payment methods, deposits, and withdrawals

Plus500 supports a number of payment options for deposits and withdrawals, including Debit/Credit cards such as MasterCard and Visa, online payment providers such as PayPal, Neteller and Skrill, and bank transfers.

No fees are charged when making deposits, but you may have to pay a commission for currency conversion should your account be denominated in another currency. To make deposits, your account has to be fully verified and you can only make the transfer from a payment method that has your own name. The minimum amount you can deposit is based on your account denomination, which is usually 100 units of the base currency (USD, GBP, EUR, etc.)

Withdrawal processing times

Withdrawal times vary depending on the method used. Withdrawal requests are processed in usually 1 to 3 business days. Electronic wallets, e.g. PayPal and Skrill, withdrawals are processed within 3 to 7 business days. Keep in mind that wire transfers between bank accounts take up to 5 business days. Credit card withdrawal times depend on the issuing bank.

Customer Support

Plus500 offers support service to its customers on a 24/7 basis. Users are able to contact supports through email or live chat.

Customer support is available in a variety of languages. The broker also has an extensive FAQ page which covers questions on common topics such as opening an account or trading,

The live chat usually connects relatively fast to Plus500 operators, but are times when you will have to wait of there are many users using the chat function.

Conclusion

Plus500 is a broker platform which offers plenty of trading instruments and enables users to get exposure to many markets through CFD trading. The platform is licensed to securely and legally operate in many countries.

It should be noted that 80.6% of retail investor accounts lost money when trading CFDs with this broker. CFDs are a high-risk trading solution, so make sure you can afford substantial losses.

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