UK based Plus500 is an online broker offering quick and efficient Forex and CFDs (Contracts for Difference) trading as well as stocks, indices and commodities trading. It is regulated by the British Financial Conduct Authority and in Australia by ASIC and it serves over million clients worldwide. Plus500 is considered as one of the fastest growing brokers in the European and Asian continent. Compared to the other Forex brokers around, the company has its own in house developed trading platform and offers simple and clean cut trading. One of the main aspects of Plsu500 is the low spreads it offers to its customers that start from 2 pips.
Trading Offer
Plus500 is a well known and popular Forex and CFD online broker. It is very popular in Europe and Asia and it differs from other similar brokers in the sense that it offers an in-house developed online trading platform. The platform comes in three versions: as a downloadable package, web based version and as a mobile trading platform. The switching between versions is effortless and the trading platform only provides the essential information to traders in one screen. Furthermore, the company provides two types of trading accounts- a demo account which has no time limit and is free of charge and a live account that requires a minimum deposit of £100.
The underlying assets available include currency pairs (Forex trading), indices, commodities, shares and ETFs. Trade Share CFDs are available in over 20 different countries. With Trade UK and Global Shares traders can profit from falling or rising markets and safe 0.5% compared to a traditional UK share purchase. There is also flexible trading in stocks CFDs with leverage. Customers can also trade more than 50 Forex pairs with up to 1:200 leverage, trade indices with up to 1:294 leverage, trade commodities such as oil, silver and gold with up to 1:150 leverage and trade on the ETF market with up to 1:100 leverage. The CFDs list consists of shares, Forex, commodities, indices, options and ETFs.
When opening a position at Plus500, press the Buy button to buy an instrument. The following fields will then show up in a pop up window: Amount for Forex Purchase, Number of Shares for Stocks, Number of Contracts for Indices, Close at Profit Rate (Stop Limit) and Close at Loss Rate (Stop Loss). There are also two advanced options, namely Trailing Stop and Only Buy When Rate Is (Limit Order). Plus500 doesn’t allow scalping.
Spreads, Fees, Margins
The company offers a competitive low fixed spreads of different underlyings. Moreover, compared to other online brokers, Plus500 doesn’t change commissions on its trades for spreads. Furthermore, if you hold a position open after a specified hour, a funding premium fee is either added to or taken from your account in order to cover the benefit or cost of the associated funding. The funding premium is usually 3 times the daily amount to cover a weekend period. Fees are also charged on inactive accounts according to the user agreement. The value of the inactivity fee is £10.
Since Plus500 is a Forex broker, it uses margin calls. The margin or traders is monitored in real time and if their maintenance margin becomes more than 40% of a customer’s equity, they will get an e-mail or an SMS. The maintenance margin level is the min amount of equity a trader needs in order to maintain an open position.
Bonus Information
Right upon registration, new customers are given a £20 welcome bonus. To get this bonus you must download the trading software on your PC and click on Real Money. Afterwards, you need to enter your new account details and validate your phone number. Then you will receive an SMS with a three digit code you need to enter at the website in order to get the bonus. If you don’t want to receive this bonus, contact the customer support service. The bonus expires in three months and traders can get only one bonus per one IP/household address. To cash out the bonus, you need 60 TPoints (aka trader points). Trading an amount of £750 for each instrument is worth 0.17 TPoints. For example, if you open a position on UK100 and buy a position for £17,000, you will get 3.85 TPoints.
Plus500 also offers other bonus deals. In particular, it gives up to £6,000 first deposit bonuses to customers that want to make their initial deposit. To claim this bonus, you must download the software and click on Trade for Real. Then open a new account and visit the Funds Management sector. Afterwards, select a funding method and enter the necessary bonus code. For example, for a deposit of £400, you will get a £100 bonus. To withdraw this bonus, you need 150 TPoints. The bonus code is FIRST500. Customers that will deposit £40,000, get a bonus of £6,000. The withdrawal requirement is 10,000TPoints for this bonus and is claimable with the bonus code FIRST50000. Every instrument gives different TPoints per amount traded. The first deposit bonus also expires after three months. The company doesn’t offer tell-a-friend bonuses. It also doesn’t have a VIP program.
Website
Plus500 has an easy to use interface and traders can easily find what they are looking for. The website has excellent functionality and all categories are nicely arranged. It is also very easy to navigate and loads fast. Java technology is used. Furthermore, the company also offers Web Trader giving all customers the opportunity to trade for real money or with real quotes.
As previously mentioned, Plus500 offers a virtual trading platform which can be downloaded on PCs, accessed from a web browser as well as on mobile devices. The web based platform is most suitable for Mac users. The mobile trading platform is compatible with and fully functional on smart phones and tablets running on Android, iOS and Windows Phone operating systems and provides seamless trading on the move.
The company also offers news about its investors and the value of its shares and it also publishes regulatory news, company reports and its financial highlights. Customers can also learn where to buy Plus500 Ltd shares if they are interested. There is also educational information so that beginners can learn how to use Plus500 for trading and how to get started in no time. Education information is also provided about CFDs. Everything is explained into details and there are also step by step guides on opening and closing a position (with examples) and finding an account including info about rick control and orders, fees, instrument types and pricing and leverage and margin.
An excellent feature about Plus500 is that it offers an unlimited free demo account which is quite a rarity among leading Forex brokers nowadays. As the name implies, it has no time limit and there is no commission charged for opening such account.
Banking and Payment Options
Funding and cashing out money to and from your trading account at Plus500 is available via the following banking methods: Visa, MasterCard, Skrill, PayPal and Wire Transfer. Deposits are instantly processed. Only Wire Transfer deposits can take up to three business days. The policy of the company is to make withdrawals to a customer’s original source of payment wherever possible. To fund their account, traders must complete all verification procedures such as phone verification and provide valid documentation such as photo ID and residence verification. The minimum deposit is £100, while the maximum deposit is £100,000. Plus500 may also request traders to give extra documentation such as copy of their passport, driver’s license or other official document when they request a cashout in order to prove that they are the real owners of the account as well as for the purpose of maximizing the protection of their funds. All documentation is reviewed within 24 hours. Afterwards, the cashout transaction is processed. It usually takes between 1 and 5 days for the funds to reach your destination. The company doesn’t charge fees for depositing and withdrawing.
Additional Details of the Broker/Company
Plus500 has a customer support service whose agents are ready to assist traders in any matter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Help and support is available by filling in the provided online contact form with necessary details such as their name, subject, description of the problem or question, e-mail address and type of query. Customers can also attach a file if necessary. Unfortunately, as of this writing, the company doesn’t offer live chat and phone support. For more information, you should also visit the Help page and try to find answers there.
When considering the reliability of online Forex trading brokers, the most important thing is to check if they are licensed and regulated and by whom. Customers at Plus500 can trade with a peace of mind knowing that the broker is licensed and regulated by the British Financial Conduct Authority in London under registration number #07024970. The registration number of the owning company is ID #509909. Furthermore, the company holds traders’ funds in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and keeps them into a protected client bank account. If you want to learn more about the conflict of interest policy, read the published statement.
Plus500 was founded in 2008. The trading platform allows customers to trade on movements in the price of indices, shares, Forex and commodities without buying or selling the underlying instrument. In 2009, the company started offering CFD on shares without fees and in 2010 it introduced ETFs. The iOS and Android trading apps of the company were launched in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The following year the company went public in the AIM sector of the London Stock Exchange. This year Plus500 signed a sponsorship deal with Spain’s top football club Atletico de Madrid and it introduced the new Windows app.
Conclusion/Experiences/Comparison
Plus500 offers an easy to use and navigate trading platform with clutter free interface that features multi asset trading capability. New customers can try out the demo account for as long as they like and enjoy the generous welcome and first deposit bonuses, while existing traders can take advantage of the competitive low fixed spreads. The company also gives customers the possibility to integrate their trades in other markets on one screen. They can also easily deposit money and cash out their profits. All in all, Plus500 makes a good choice for a virtual broker.