Plus500 Review

Is Plus500 Safe?

Plus500 was founded in 2008 in Israel and has grown into one of the largest online brokers in the world – not only is the company publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, meaning an additional level of scrutiny, it’s subsidiaries are regulated by seven national authorities:

• Plus500UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 509909).
• Plus500CY Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC Licence No. 250/14).
• Plus500AU Pty Ltd holds AFSL #417727 issued by ASIC, FSP No. 486026 issued by the FMA in New Zealand and Authorised Financial Services Provider #47546 issued by the FSCA in South Africa.
• Plus500SG Pte Ltd (UEN 201422211Z) holds a capital markets services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for dealing in capital markets products (License No. CMS100648-1).
• Plus500IL Ltd is registered in Israel and licenced to operate a trading platform

As per regulations, all client funds are kept segregated from the brokers own and Plus500 also offers negative balance protection, ensuring that clients cannot lose more than they have in their account..

Plus500 does not highlight any industry recognition it has received, but the company did win the Best Trading App Award from Daytrader.com in 2019.

Trading Conditions

While Plus500 is a market maker.  As soon as a client places a trade on the platform, an automated system (with no human interference) sets a hedging trade as the counterparty to protect Plus500 against any potential loss by acting as the counterparty. Because it is a closed system where Plus500 is the counterparty, there are few requotes and fast trade execution.

Spreads at Plus500 are variable and always changing. The Plus500 prices used in this review are are taken on 29.09.2020 12:00h. For more accurate information, check their website.

Plus500 makes a profit from the difference in the buy and sell spreads.

Account Types

Aside from a fairly standard demo account, Plus500 offers a single account with a minimum deposit of 100 USD.

There is no account choice at Plus500, which is unusual as most of its serious competitors have a number of account types with tighter spreads linked to higher deposit requirements.

Plus500 is a CFD Service. Your capital is at risk

Demo Account

The demo account gives the trader a practice area before you put up any money. The Plus500 platform is different from other brokers, so I would strongly advise you to have a good look around before you commit with a deposit. Some traders will enjoy the Plus500 platform, but others will prefer a more traditional layout.

Live Account

Besides the demo account, Plus500 only offers one other type of account with a minimum 100 USD deposit amount.

Spreads and Commissions

The spreads at Plus500 are variable with EURUSD spreads often below 1 pip.  As spreads are dynamic, expect them to be higher in times of low liquidity and for non-major currencies.

Depending on your location, leverage up to 1:300 is available and no commission is charged on any trades.  The maximum leverage of the Plus500 platform depends on the jurisdiction. For ASIC regulation, the maximum leverage is 1:300, and for FCA and CySec regulation 1:30.

The currency pricing used at Plus500 is taken from a third party and reflects actual market value, Plus500 will then add the spread to create the trading price. Spreads are published alongside the instrument on the platform.

Deposit & Withdrawal Fees

Deposits and withdrawals are generally commission-free, though a 10 USD withdrawal fee is charged after more than five withdrawals have been made in a single month. Withdrawals via bank transfer may also incur a 6 USD charge.

Plus500 also requires a minimum withdrawal amount of 50 USD for Skrillex and Paypal and 100 USD for bank transfers and credit card. Withdrawals below this amount incur a 10 USD fee.

Withdrawal takes 3-7 days depending on the payment method.  This is slower than expected, as most brokers process all withdrawals within one working day.

Deposit and withdrawals methods include Credit Card, PayPal, Skrill, and bank transfer.

Inactivity Fee

Plus500 charge an inactivity fee of 10 USD per month after 3 consecutive months of inactivity.

Customer Support

Plus500 offers 24/7 customer support via email, online chat and WhatsApp message in 31 different languages. This is a much higher level of service than is commonly available.

The only way the customer support could be improved is by offering phone support for more complex queries and troubleshooting.

Trading Platform

Unlike most Forex brokers, Plus500 only offer their proprietary trading platform. This could be a concern as most similar providers also offer MetaTrader 4 or 5 in conjunction with any first-party software.

The Plus500 platform is web-based and obviously made to appeal to new traders who want to avoid the complexity of more common platforms.  The platform looks fantastic, is very easy to use and has a solid reputation in the trading community. Exceptionally, it is available in over 30 languages.

Unfortunately, the platform is not customisable so traders used setting up their own charts over a bespoke workspace will be disappointed.

Mobile Apps

Plus500 mobile apps are free for Android and IOS. They offer all of the features of the web and downloaded version of the trading suite, and make a convenient on-the-go trading solution.

Trading Tools

Plus500 offers a few basic trading tools within the platform.

You can set automated price and percentage alerts which will inform you when a certain price has been reached or when a price has increased or decreased by a chosen percentage.

You can also view trader sentiment and set alerts to inform you when a predefined percentage of traders are buying or selling an instrument.

All of these alerts can also be sent via email and SMS.

Evaluation Method

We value transparency and openness in the way we review the partners. To bring transparency to the forefront, we have published our review process that includes a detailed breakdown of the Plus500 offer. Central to that process is the evaluation of the reliability of the broker, the platform offering of the broker and the trading conditions offered to clients, which are summarised in this review. Each one of these is graded, and an overall score is calculated and assigned to the broker.

Plus500 Risk Statement

Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. Plus500 would like you to know that: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76.4% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Overview

Plus500 is a leading brand in the CFD trading industry and has a loyal following of traders, with a lot of focus on making the trading platform easy to understand and a focus on trying to get the best trading conditions possible. While the education and research area could be developed further, note that the platform is not suitable for beginners/inexperienced traders.

All information presented is verified as of the date of the review. Most retail CFD accounts lose money. Your capital is at risk.