- Minimum Deposit: $0
- Products: Stocks, Indices, Forex, Commodities
81% of retail CFD accounts lose money
Trading 212 is a CFD broker regulated by the UK’s FCA, the Bulgarian authority FSC, and CySEC in Cyprus. Trading 212 provides commission-free stock and ETF trading. Account opening is fully online, straightforward and quick. Trading 212’s web and mobile trading platforms are well designed and easy to use. It is a good choice for beginner investors. On the negative side, the product portfolio is limited, and some popular asset classes such as options or bonds are missing. Forex fees are quite high and the lack of USD as an account currency can make US stock trading costly due to conversion fees.
Pros
- Real stocks and ETFs are commission-free
- Quick and easy account opening
- Great trading platforms
Cons
- High forex fees
- Limited product portfolio
- USD unavailable as account currency
Trading 212 main highlights
| Country of regulation | UK, Bulgaria, Cyprus |
| Trading fees class | Low |
| Inactivity fee charged | No |
| Withdrawal fee amount | $0 |
| Minimum deposit | $0 |
| Time to open an account | 1 day |
| Deposit with bank card | Available |
| With electronic wallet | Available |
| Number of base currencies | 8 |
| Demo account provided | Yes |
| Products offered | Stock, ETF, CFD (forex, stock, ETF, index, commodity) |
Fees
Trading 212 is cheap for trading stocks, ETFs and CFDs, but it is expensive for forex trading. Trading stocks and ETFs at Trading 212 is commission free. Trading 212 charges no inactivity, custody or account fees, but conversion fees are high. Deposit and withdrawal are free at Trading 212.
Trading 212 fees snapshot
| Assets | Fees Level | Fees Terms |
|---|---|---|
| US stock and ETF | Low | Commission-free |
| S&P 500 CFD | Low | The fees are built into the spread, 1.1 points is the average spread cost during peak trading hours. |
| EURUSD | Average | The fees are built into the spread, 1 pip is the average spread cost during peak trading hours. |
| Inactivity fee | Low | No inactivity fee |
Markets and products
Trading 212 offers traders CFDs on 29 commodities, 36 indices, 1536 shares, and 184 forex pairs, alongside access to exchange-traded securities such as fractional shares. Trading 212 does not offer cryptocurrencies
Disclaimer: (CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 71% 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)
Mobile trading apps
The Trading 212 app is undeniably popular, with over 10 million downloads on the Google Play store. The app integrates educational video content for beginners, but experienced traders will find the lack of advanced features to be disappointing – especially when compared to the best mobile trading apps.
Apps overview: Trading 212 offers an incredibly easy-to-use mobile app for Android and iOS devices. The default watch list screeners make it easy to sort through markets such as stocks, forex, indices, and newly added symbols.
The biggest drawback I could find in the Trading 212 app is the lack of substantial research tools. It does have a robust economic calendar that conveniently highlights upcoming events for any given symbol.
Ease of use: Trading 212 is the first broker I have reviewed that also has its own Google chrome plugin, which provides quick access to the platform from within the browser. It’s also worth noting that its watchlists are customizable and automatically sync with the web platform. These features helped earn Trading 212 a Best in Class ranking (top 7) for Ease of Use in our annual review.
Charting: There are 45 indicators and 19 drawing tools that have been cleanly integrated into the app’s charting tool. The mobile app has near-identical functionality to the corresponding web version.
Trading tools: Unfortunately, good-till-date order expirations are not currently available and instead default to good-till-cancel. These kinds of subtle details illustrate how much room there is for the app to improve its customization options.
Upcoming events: One feature that stands out in the Trading 212 mobile app experience is the ability to see upcoming events when you are looking at the symbol properties of a particular instrument such as the EUR/USD. The event is displayed along with its potential impact, expected forecast, and exact time. One thing I would note: It would be nice if you could subscribe to and receive alerts about any given event – a functionality I’ve observed on CMC Markets’ trading platform.
Other trading platforms
Platforms overview: Trading 212 offers a web-based trading platform, as part of its multi-asset offering. As with its other platforms, you’ll gain access to both of its accounts – CFD and Invest – and their respective markets. Most of the platform’s features are easy to use and it boasts a clean, simplified layout that includes robust charts and integrated news headlines.
One useful feature that Trading 212 shares with eToro: the website will cache a user’s credentials locally, so that they are automatically logged in when they access the platform via their browser.
Charting: Trading 212’s web platform – like the mobile app – features solid charting. You can choose from five different types, and you’ll gain access to 45 indicators alongside 19 drawing tools. You can create and save your own chart templates – a feature which I’ve found helpful when applying settings across a variety of charts. One noteworthy – albeit small – limitation: you can open multiple charts and switch between them, but you cannot detach the chart from the platform.
Trading tools: The web platform is missing the mobile app’s useful tool that allows you to discover upcoming events simply by glancing at the symbol of a given instrument. Rather, you have to do it the old-fashioned way and manually open the economic calendar to view those events.
Research
Trading 212 does not have a particularly strong research offering; it provides just a touch more than what I’d consider the bare minimum. Users gain access to news headlines and analysis, a hotlist of popular trading symbols, and a genuinely useful economic calendar.
Research overview: Trading 212 provides daily market analysis across a range of instruments, from within its web trading platform. However, research material is sparse, and the research that is available appears to simply be out of date. For example, the last video uploaded to its YouTube channel was more than a year before the time we conducted testing (August 2021).
Market news and analysis: Trading 212’s web platform provides news briefs and nearly a dozen technical analysis snippets, complete with price references for popular CFD markets like forex, commodities and metals.
Education
Trading 212 has a good variety of educational videos, with over 170 available on its YouTube channel. Detailed articles and advanced materials are limited to the help center, however, and there are no archived webinars.
Learning center: Education at Trading 212 consists mostly of videos, many of which are embedded in its web and mobile platform. Besides some posts in its community forum and FAQs in its help section, Trading 212 does not offer educational articles.
Room for improvement: Trading 212 would benefit from the addition of educational features I’ve found on the best brokers’ platforms, such as articles organized by experience level, and quizzes for evaluating and tracking your progress.