Plus500 is a regulated broker renowned worldwide for being sponsored by many famous athletic clubs such as Atletico Madrid and Atalanta FC.
It is no surprise then that people in search of a brokering service, to invest in online, are looking towards Plus500 and want more information about them and their services. We’re here to analyse and answer important questions one might be asking themselves at a moment like this.
Plus500: Is It Safe?
To start considering whether to open or not an account with a broker, your first concern should always be safety. To be considered legally safe, a broker must be regulated by a financial regulatory body. That’s why the safety of Plus500 has already been repeatedly proven by a variety of top-tier international regulatory bodies.
As of today, Plus500 maintains a presence across the world with many registered and regulated subsidiaries. These includes:
- Plus500CY Ltd: this company is regulated in the European Union by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission under license No. 250/14;
- Plus500AU Pty Ltd: this company is regulated by ASIC (AFSL #417727) in Australia, by the New Zealand FMA (FSP No. 486026) and by the FSCA in South Africa (FSP #47546)
- Plus500SG Pte Ltd (UEN 201422211Z): this company is regulated in Singapore as a capital markets services for dealing in capital markets products by MAS (license No. CMS100648-1);
- Plus500SEY Ltd: this company is regulated in Seychelles by the SFSA (No. SD039).
Furthermore, to enhance customer funds safety, Plus500 have enabled many customer money protection measures, including negative balance protection and segregated bank accounts.
Negative balance protection is an essential feature for Plus500 because it activates an automatic block of your funds in case your account balance would reach below $0. Segregated bank accounts instead will be used in order to divide traders funds from Plus500 funds. This is a precautionary measure taken against the unlikely event of the broker’s bankruptcy, so that liquidators would not be allowed to touch your funds. To achieve that, your money will be stored in separate bank accounts linked to top tier banks across the world and only you, the customer, will have access to it.
Moreover, there are some insurance protections for certain countries which will results in a consistent refund such as:
- For UK Traders: £85.000;
- For EU Traders: €20.000;
Remember that in certain countries you must choose the Plus500 company regulated for your country.
This broker accepts customers from hundreds of different countries around the world, but there are a few exceptions. While not having an official list of non-accepted countries, according to our research, Plus500 does not accept customers based in:
| Africa | Asia | Europe | Americas |
| Cameroon
Côte D’Ivoire Egypt Nigeria Zimbabwe |
India
Indonesia Iran Japan Pakistan Philippines Thailand |
Belgium
France |
Brazil
Canada Cayman Islands United States |
Plus500: Markets & Assets
Plus500 gives you a very vast range of different markets and assets to invest in thanks to CFDs.
“Contracts for Difference” or CFD are derivative products that give you the chance to trade without the need of possessing the underlying assets. With CFDs you can gain profit (or lose your investment…) by investing your capitals on price fluctuations of an asset while trying to speculate on the right prediction.
Depending on where you are based as a trader, you can invest in one or more of the following assets:
- Forex pairs: including EUR/USD, EUR/GBP, EUR/AUD, GBP/USD,AUD/USD.
- Shares: including AMZN, TIT-I, TSLA, AAPL, FB, NIO.
- Indices: including Germany 30, Europe 50, US-TECH 100, USA 500, ASX 200, Spain 35.
- Cryptocurrencies: including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Stellar, Cardano
- Commodities: including Oil, Brent Oil, Sugar, Natural Gas, , Palladium, Silver.
- Options: including Oil | Call 66.5, Gold | Call 1775, USA 500 | Call 3940, Amazon | Put 3030.
- ETFs: including iShares Silver, USO-Oil Fund, UNG-Gas Fund, GLD Gold, Commodity Index Fund.
Plus500: Account Types
Before you start to open an account with Plus500, remember that there is more than one offer to consider before you start your new financial journey.
In this case, we managed to identify three major Plus500 account types. But before you decide which one is the right for you, here’s how you open a trading account with this broker.
Prelude: How To Open A Plus500 Account
As well as for other online brokering services, Plus500 let you open a trading account entirely online from your preferred device, without the need to go to an office or another physical place to finish the procedure (unlike bank accounts and alike).
To register with Plus500 you will need from 5 to 10 minutes to fill in, while account verification may take a little bit longer, meaning from 1 to 3 business days.
With all that being said, to open an account you must:
- Enter your: name, email, county of residence, account type.
- Provide your personal details like address and birthdate.
- Provide a series of answers regarding your financial status.
- Provide information regarding your financial knowledge by filling in a short test.
- Provide a proof of identity and verify your ID via: passport (preferred), national ID or driver’s licence.
- Provide a proof of residency and verify it via: bank statements (preferred), utility bills and so on.
Plus500: Demo Account
If you’re interested in trying out what Plus500 has to offer, you can opt for a demo account. This special kind of account is easy to open and doesn’t have any limit to their use, which is a very important detail for those intending to learn more about stock trading or forex trading. And that’s true also for those people who just want to see how a trading platform works.
What a demo account does basically is the same as what a standard account does, only thing is: you don’t have to use real money. In fact, demo accounts work with a virtual balance which reacts to our actions and to the market exactly as if we were using actual money.
Plus500: Standard Account
While being an excellent choice for beginners and unsatisfied traders who want to change broker, remember that demo’s zero risks means also zero gains. At some point you will feel like you’re ready and competent enough to start profiting from the stock market for real.
Once finished with the demo, or if you just want to go straight to the point, you can choose the most popular account by far: Plus500 Standard Account. This account has every essential feature needed to start trading, doesn’t need you to download any software and it can be open with just $100.
Plus500: Professional Account
Plus500 professional account is not for everybody.
To be eligible in order to open a pro-account with Plus500 in the UK or EU, you have to comply minimum with two of the following requirements:
- An average of 10 significant size transactions completed per quarter in the past year;
- A €500,000+ financial instrument portfolio;
- A relevant financial experience such as working at least for one year in the sector on derivatives trading for example.
If you are a trader based in Australia and you want to open a pro-account with tr Plus500AU Pty Ltd instead, you must comply with at least one of the following requirements:
- A net assets of +2.500,000 AUD (including properties, businesses or other financial investments);
- A gross financial income of +250.000 AUD gain in the past two years..
Once opened a professional account, you’ll have access to many exclusive perks, features and benefits otherwise unreachable. Those include:
- Better spreads
- A leverage on FX pairs up to 300:1
- A personal account manager
- Negative balance protection still active
- Many discounts and promotions from Plus500
Plus500: Deposits & Fees
Minimum deposit depends on your payment method and it can go from credit card $100 minimum deposit, to wire transfer $500 minimum deposits. When you decide to deposit, there will be no fee as long you deposit the minimum requirements, which are the same mentioned above. In other cases, you’ll have to pay a fee.
Deposits can be made via:
- Wire Transfers;
- Credit Cards (MasterCard and Visa);
- e-Wallets Transfers (Skrill)
- PayPal
Furthermore, your first deposit will include a bonus if you sign up with Plus500 AU Pty Ltd or Plus500SG if your deposit is more than 300 SGD or 400 AUD (depending on your local currency). With all that being said, European traders based in the UK and EU are not eligible for this bonus.
As for withdrawals, they support exactly the same methods supported for deposits and most of them do not have any fees. Plus, as for deposit methods, also fees will be the same: if you want to withdraw less than minimum deposit, you’ll have to pay a small fee.
Plus500: Fees, Spreads & Commissions
Due to the fact of being one of the top CFDs brokers on the market, Plus500 has assumed a policy of zero commissions on trade. Still, there are some additional standard costs to cover such as spreads of Forex trading.
Actually in the Plus500 case we noticed that FX average spreads are slightly higher if compared to the competition. To give you an idea, here’s actual spreads for Plus500 trading platform:
- EUR/USD: 0.6 pips
- S&P 500: 0.03% value
- Bitcoin: 0,50% value
- Gold: 0.08% value
Furthermore, remember that we are speaking about a broker which deals with CFDs, so there’s always an overnight fee to cover. This is not an “hidden” fee and you can check its amount on every asset present on their trading platform.
The formula used for calculating this fee is: Trade Size*Opening Rate*Daily Overnight Funding%.
Additional Fees
There are also some additional fees to consider when starting trading with Plus500 which shouldn’t be ignored. One of these is the inactivity fees, which is a quite common fee to cover on many brokering services.
In this case, they will charge you with a $10 monthly fee after three months of account inactivity. In case your balance will reach $0, Plus500 may reserve the right to close your account (this rule doesn’t apply to demo accounts).
Moreover, there’s also a trading conversion fee to be aware of for all traders who use a currency different from the base currency of their account.
Plus500: Platforms Available and Financial Tools
When you choose to trade with Plus500 you have 3 main trading platforms where you can operate:
- Web Trader
- Mobile App
- Desktop (Windows 10 App)
Plus500 offers an easy web trading platform to use, adaptable for both newbies and advanced traders.
The brokers have developed their own proprietary platform which seems clean and well-designed at a first glance. Alas, its basic look reveals also the lack of technical chart analyses and other advanced features useful to investigating the market.
Furthermore, we noticed that there is no social trading or copy trading available with this platform, which may feel restricting for many traders today.
Plus500 mobile app is where the broker really shines though, as you can see from their high rates on the app stores. This trading app has the same functionality as the aforementioned trading platform and every market available with your account is available also on the app.
Plus500: Educational Tools
Plus500 Educational tools for traders may not be the most comprehensive one can imagine, but they do focus on essentials and other useful aspects of trading. It is a helpful guide and manual for newbies and intermediaries. Not a university program for finance.
As of today, the service is relegated to an informative Trader’s Guide, which is an “how-to” series of videos used to learn more about online trading. Titles of this series go from “What is CFD Trading?” and “What is a Rollover” to videos about margin requirements and slippage.
In conclusion, the broker suggests opening a demo account with them in order to execute what you learn and practice (which is something we suggest too).
Plus500: Sponsorships
Plus500 reached maximum notoriety in the last few years not only thanks to the services they’re offering worldwide, but also for their high-tier sponsorships.
As of today, their main sponsorships came from to-level sport clubs, especially from European football clubs. Most famous FCs between them are:
- Atletico Madrid: a leading Spanish football club;
- Atalanta FC: an historic and recurring top-4 Italian football club founded in Verona in 1907;
- Legia Warsaw: the most successful Polish football club founded in Warsaw in 1916;
- BSC Young Boys: one of the most famous and successful Swiss football clubs based in Bern.
Plus500: To Conclude
Plus500 is shown to be a very friendly-user brokering service, with many pros related especially to the famous trading platform app, which made them so popular.
As of today, Plus500 is one of the most important CFDs brokerage services on an international scale with over 200 financial instruments where you can invest with. Still, they have spreads which are not extremely competitive if compared to competitors.
In any case, we still think that this is a very good option for early traders and traders with a mobile-trading focus in mind and give to this broker our thumbs-up.