ADVFN Logo ADVFN

We could not find any results for:
Make sure your spelling is correct or try broadening your search.

Trending Now

Toplists

It looks like you aren't logged in.
Click the button below to log in and view your recent history.

Hot Features

Registration Strip Icon for smarter Trade smarter, not harder: Unleash your inner pro with our toolkit and live discussions.

eToro Launches Commission-Free Stocks, ETF Trading

Share On Facebook
share on Linkedin
Print

The social trading company is also scrapping management fees and will absorb stamp duty costs

©

Retail broker and social trading company eToro announced on Monday morning that it is launching commission-free trading in stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Unlike many other firms operating in the retail trading market, eToro has offered direct access to stocks and ETFs, rather than just contracts-for-difference, for some time.

But, until now, the firm had charged a mix of fees for access to those financial instruments.

Monday’s announcement means that the firm will no longer charge commission or management fees. The social trading company also said that it would absorb any stamp duty costs.

“We want to encourage more people to invest in stocks,” said Iqbal Gandham, UK managing director at eToro. “Going commission free is an important first-step, but it’s not enough. We need to get people excited about investing.”

Scrapping complex fees

For now, the new service will only be available to UK and European residents that are clients of eToro’s UK or Cypriot-regulated entities.

Investment fees for retail traders have been something of a controversial issue in the past twelve months, particularly in the UK.

In February, the Financial Conduct Authority released a statement saying many investment platforms obfuscate their fee structures, making it difficult for consumers to compare services.

A month later, the British regulator issued another statement, saying that it was mulling a ban on exit fees charged by retail investment platforms.

Brokerages like eToro have been trying to take advantage of this state of affairs by offering commission-free trading services.

But regulatory changes in Europe, which restrict leverage on foreign exchange and CFDs trading, have also pushed retail brokers to broaden their service offering by providing their clients with multi-asset trading abilities.

Commission-free equities trading has, however, also found itself mired in some controversy.

Robinhood, a US-based firm and arguably the most successful company to offer stocks trading with no fees, makes the bulk of its money selling order flow to high-frequency traders – something critics have claimed creates conflicts of interest.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR FREE ON ADVFN, the world's leading stocks and shares information website, provides the private investor with all the latest high-tech trading tools and includes live price data streaming, stock quotes and the option to access 'Level 2' data on all of the world's key exchanges (LSE, NYSE, NASDAQ, Euronext etc).

This area of the ADVFN.com site is for independent financial commentary. These blogs are provided by independent authors via a common carrier platform and do not represent the opinions of ADVFN Plc. ADVFN Plc does not monitor, approve, endorse or exert editorial control over these articles and does not therefore accept responsibility for or make any warranties in connection with or recommend that you or any third party rely on such information. The information available at ADVFN.com is for your general information and use and is not intended to address your particular requirements. In particular, the information does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by ADVFN.COM and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making (or refraining from making) any investment decisions. Authors may or may not have positions in stocks that they are discussing but it should be considered very likely that their opinions are aligned with their trading and that they hold positions in companies, forex, commodities and other instruments they discuss.

Leave A Reply

 
Do you want to write for our Newspaper? Get in touch: newspaper@advfn.com