Plus500 is a global CFD broker, listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market and regulated by many authorities including the UK FCA and CySEC of Cyprus. Plus500 has a simple, easy-to-use site, with an especially well-designed mobile platform. The account opening process and customer support are great. During our account opening testing, our account was opened within a day. Plus500 also provides a demo account that can be opened immediately. On the negative side, Plus500 has standard research tools, like recommendations and fundamental data are not available. Also, CFD trading fees are average.

Plus500 main highlights

Country of regulation	UK, Cyprus, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Israel, Seychelles, UAE
Trading fees class	Low
Inactivity fee charged	Yes
Withdrawal fee amount	$0
Minimum deposit	$100
Time to open an account	1 day
Deposit with bank card	Available
With electronic wallet	Available
Number of base currencies	16
Demo account provided	Yes
Products offered (CFDs)	Indices, Forex, Shares, Options, Commodities, ETFs

Fees

As is the norm in the brokerage industry, Plus500 generates its revenues principally from customer trades that “cross” the bid/ask spread, which are competitive within the industry. The spread is stable with trade size, but obviously is paid on each unit.

Additionally, the broker also generates revenues by charging premiums, effectively a financing charge, on positions held overnight by clients, which may be subject to currency conversion charges if they trade in a currency other than the account’s base currency. Furthermore, there are fees for “guaranteed stop loss orders” (GSLO), and inactivity fees kick in after an account has no login activity for three months. Visit Plus500 website for more info about fees and charge.

One of Plus500’s selling points is that it does not subject client accounts to ancillary fees. There are no charges for withdrawals or terminating an account. The minimum amount of money need to trade varies with the underlying instrument. Funding options include Visa or MasterCard debit/credit cards, e-wallets (PayPal or Skrill), and bank transfers.

Markets and products

At Plus500 you can trade mainly CFDs (CFD forex, stock index, stock, ETF, commodity). Further popular asset classes like ETFs and options are also available on CFDs. Futures trading is only available for US citizens on the Plus500 Trade Sniper platform.

Plus500 offers a good selection of CFDs, althought it falls short compared to some of its competitors. 

Plus500 products list

• Forex CFD – 66

• Stock index CFD – 29

• Stock CFD – 1900

• ETF CFD – 96

• Commodity CFD – 22

Disclaimer: Forex and CFDs are complex leverage-based products, which carry a high level of risk. These complex products are over-the-counter derivatives and are not suitable for everyone. You must consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the risk of losing your capital. Investing in these products does not provide any entitlement, right or obligation to the underlying financial instrument. The profit and loss are determined by the price movement of the underlying and can expose you to the high risk of losing your capital rapidly. 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Safety

Plus500 is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is regulated by more than one top-tier financial authority, including:

• Plus500UK Ltd authorised & regulated by the FCA (#509909)
• Plus500CY Ltd authorized & regulated by CySEC (#250/14)
• Plus500SG Pte Ltd, licensed by the MAS (#CMS100648-1)
• Plus500SEY Ltd authorized & regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (#SD039).
• Plus500EE AS is authorized and regulated by the Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (Licence no. 4.1-1/18)
• Plus500AU Pty Ltd (ACN 153301681), licensed by: ASIC in Australia, AFSL #417727, FMA in New Zealand, FSP #486026; Authorised Financial Services Provider in South Africa, FSP #47546. You do not own or have any rights to the underlying assets
• Plus500AE Ltd is incorporated in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). It is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) under License No. F005651, holds a category 4 license with a ‘Retail’ endorsement and is not authorized to hold or control client investments or client money.
  Plus500AE Ltd is responsible for facilitating the opening of trading accounts and offering of CFD services by Plus500CY Ltd

Research

Plus500 has limited research options. It has great charting tools and its own market analyses, but there are no recommendations or fundamental data.

Education

Plus500 only provides a demo account, and a few basic videos and articles about trading. There are no webinars available and the education section is not well-structured.

At Plus500 you can learn in the following ways:

• Demo account
• Basic educational and trading platform videos
• Educational articles about asset classes, risk management tools, and an FAQ
• An ebook about using the trading platform (can be downloaded from the trading platform)

You can find the educational tools on the Plus500 website, under ‘Trading’ if you click on ‘Risk management’ or ‘Trading Academy’. In addition, if you browse their FAQ, you will find a few more videos detailing, for example, the process of payment verification. These can be of great use, as there’s a high risk of losing money when trading CFDs with this – or any – provider.

To practice, it’s best to try out the demo platform, as with this you are trading from a virtual account and thus your potential losses remain virtual as well. It is recommended that you practice trading with the same amount of virtual currency as you would in real trading. At Plus500 you can self-adjust your demo account balance.

You can also find educational materials on Plus500’s Trading Academy that can be accessed on the Plus500 website under ‘Trading’ and ‘Trading Academy’.