Plus500 - Broker Review and Trader Feedback

The Plus500 brand is owned by an AIM listed company called Plus500 Ltd with operations carried through 3 main subsidiaries: Plus500 UK 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 (Licence No. 250/14).
Plus500 AU Pty Ltd, ACN 153 301 681, AFSL # 417727, issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is authorized to issue these products to Australian residents.

Derivatives issuer licence in New Zealand, FSP #. 486026 authorises us to issue these products to New Zealand residents. Plus500 AU Pty Ltd, is also an authorized Financial Services Provider in South Africa, FSP 47546.

In Israel, Plus500IL Ltd is regulated by the Israel Securities Authority. To increase their public profile, Plus500 took to sport sponsorship and became the main sponsor of the Atlético de Madrid Football Club. The broker is also the sponsor of the Brumbies Rugby team for 2017.

Regulated in Multiple Jurisdictions: With regulation across the globe traders from almost anywhere can use the facilities of this broker.

Wide Range of Tradable Assets: The broker offers CFD trading in over 2000 assets across forex, stocks, commodities, indices.

Free Demo Account: Unlimited demo account for traders to test drive the product before committing real funds.

Low spreads: Some of the lowest spreads around.

No trading account choices: There is only one type of trading account which fits all. This might not work for more advanced traders who require different features to newbie traders.

Does not support automated trading: For such a well developed firm, it seems that unlikely that they are not setup to offer automated trading, perhaps this will change the future.

As for the trading conditions at Plus500, the broker does not charge traders any commissions. Instead, traders are required to pay a small spread on their BID and ASK price. The spread which Plus500 levies on its traders are floating. The minimum spread for benchmark EUR/USD is dynamic. The spread for the GBP/USD is higher while the USD/JPY typical spread is dynamic. The spread on commodities such as Crude oil is 14 cents per barrel, whereas the spread for Gold is around 50 cents per ounce. Overall, Plus500’s spreads are reasonably competitive.

As mentioned earlier, Plus500 coverage of the financial markets extend to more than 2000 different types of instruments which are too numerous to list here. Nevertheless, the markets covered include equities, ETFs, currency pairs, market indices, commodities and options. Depending on the asset traded, the leverage can be as high as 1:300.

The trading platform which Plus500 uses is a proprietary trading platform. It comes in 3 main versions, a desktop version, a web based version and a mobile optimized version. While it cannot be denied that most brokers also offer their traders similar choices in trading platform, Plus500 differ in one major aspect. Their trading platforms all work seamlessly and traders can switch from one platform to another without having to feel disoriented.

Among all the trading platforms provided by Plus500, the WebTrader is the most popular trading platform among traders in Europe and in Asia. This is largely due to the fact there is no requirement for any software to be downloaded and installed onto the computer before one can start using it. With the WebTrader, a trader simply requires an updated web browser to access the trading platform and begin trading straight away.

The Plus500 mobile trader is another popular trading platform among Plus500’s clients. Optimized for iOS and Android powered devices, the Mobile Trader is available for download at Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store. The Mobile Trader enables Plus500’s trades to keep in touch with all the developments in the financial markets regardless of where they are.

For the benefit of potential clients and existing clients, Plus500 has also provided their clients with a demo account. The demo account does not have an expiry period which makes it useful as a back testing platform for newly developed trading strategies. To open a demo account at Plus500, simply complete the registration process and select demo mode. Once you have done that you will be able to access the demo account.

Apart from the demo account, Plus500 has only made available one standard type of trading account for their clients. To open a standard account, traders are required to place a minimum deposit of $100. Due to Plus500 current system enhancements, all Plus500 trading accounts are being upgraded to a Gold account. Gold account holders enjoy lower premium fees but are subjected to a higher minimum trade size.

Opening a trading account at Plus500 is a simple and quick process. First of all you are required to fill in a registration form and submit it to Plus500. Next, you have to fund your trading account before you are able to conduct live trading. For those who have already opened a demo account, they simply have to switch to the real account mode and fund their account to start trading.

Please note, traders may need to upload ID documents in order to open an account. If you are not prompted to upload an ID at account opening stage, a copy will be required before you can withdraw funds.

To enable their traders to fund and withdraw money from their account without any hassles, Plus500 has provided several methods of fund transfer. These methods include credit/debit card, eWallets such as Paypal and Skrill and bank wire transfer. The time needed to process a withdrawal request is usually within 3 days. Recipient of payment however will depend on the processing time required by the authorized payment processor.

To initiate a withdrawal request, click on “Funds Management” and then “Withdrawal”. Then select your method of withdrawal. Once you have filled in all the required details, simply click “Submit” to begin the withdrawal process. It should be noted that each withdrawal request requires a minimum amount to be withdrawn before Plus500 will start processing the withdrawal request. In addition where possible, Plus500 will always try to return payment through the same method used for depositing the funds. This is to ensure that the transfer of funds meets all the required Anti Money Laundering regulations and best practices.

As a responsible client oriented broker, Plus500 tries its best to make sure that its traders are adequately equipped in terms of trader’s education. To accomplish this, Plus500 has made available some basic educational materials to educate novices on the financial instruments that they are trading with. Nevertheless, we feel that this is inadequate. In fact, we think more resources should be devoted by Plus500 in this area in order to ensure that their traders will become sufficiently knowledgeable about trading CFDs.

From our observation, there is no doubt that Plus500 has provided a high standard of trading services. Their proprietary trading platform is easy to use and powerful as well. The wide range of tradable assets ensures that traders at Plus500 will have ample trading opportunities to make a profit. However the one feature about Plus500 which makes it stands out from the crowd is the professionalism that the broker has demonstrated. While most brokers in the industry will pass the trader’s personal information to the sales team as a lead, Plus500 does not indulge in this sort of behavior. In fact, Plus500 does not possess a sales team, hence giving traders the peace of mind that they will not be hounded by any telemarketing sales personnel trying to promote the broker’s services and product.