Plus500 UK Broker Review 2012 - Ratings, Likes, Dislikes, Comparison, Demo, Open Account
Review and ratings of Plus500.com broker - Plus500UK Limited is available on this page. Compare it with other FX brokers or share your experience.
Retail Clients: | |
Active Private Traders: | |
Institutional Clients: |
Recommendation is based purely on our own opinion, but we try to be objective as possible!
Commission Type: | Spread |
Forex Trades Fee: | 26.00 EUR |
Displayed 'Forex Trade Fee' is spread based. Commission for Forex trades is an estimation of fees charged per round turn of $100,000 major pair units. The cost of no-commission brokers is calculated as average spread markup on majors. |
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Execution Type: |
CFD
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DD - Dealing Desk, STP(MM) - Straight Through Processing/Instant Execution, STP(DMA) - Straight Through Processing/Direct Market Access, ECN - Electronic Clearing Network |
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Minimum Deposit: | 100 EUR |
Minimal Contract Size: | 1 |
Maximal Leverage: | 1:50 |
Account Base Currencies: | GBP, USD, EUR, ILS |
Minimum deal size: 5,000.00 EUR/limited by margin.
Spread Type: |
Fixed
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EUR/USD: | 2.0 |
GBP/USD: | 4.0 |
USD/JPY: | 2.0 |
USD/CHF: | 5.0 |
AUD/USD: | 5.0 |
USD/CAD: | 5.0 |
Spreads are taken out of Plus500 desktp trading platform.
Islamic (Swap-Free) Acc.: | |
Managed Accounts: | |
Segragated Accounts: | |
Virtual Trading: | |
Demo Account Duration: | Unlimited |
Account Opening: | |
U.S. Citizens Allowed: | |
Account Opening Type: | Online |
Time To Open Account: | 1 minute |
Paper-Work Required: | |
Notarization Required: | |
Documents Delivery: |
Copy of passport or ID is required once asking to withdraw the money but not when opening an account - it's a must according to the FSA regulation.
Deposit Currencies: | EUR |
Withdrawal Fee: | 0.00 EUR |
Deposit/Withdrawal Methods: | |
Wire Transfer: | |
Credit/Debit Cards: | |
PayPal: | |
Moneybookers: | |
Neteller: | |
Check: | |
ACH: |
You can also get 25 Euros bonus just to open real trading account and validating your phone number.
Prize Contest: | |
1st Deposit Bonus: | |
Between 30 and 7,000 EUR, depends on deposit. |
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Refer a Friend Bonus: |
WEB App: | |
Desktop App: | |
Mobile App: | |
Automated Trading App: | |
API Programming: | |
Software/Platforms: | |
MetaTrader4 (MT4): | |
VikingTrader (Currenex): | |
PowerTrader (Currenex): | |
MirrorTrader (Tradency): | |
ZuluTrader: |
Forex: | |
Stocks: | |
Options: | |
Futures: | |
CFDs: | |
Spread Betting: | |
Underlyings: | |
Currencies: | |
Oil & Gas: | |
Precious Metals: | |
Commodities: | |
Indices: | |
Stocks: | |
Bonds: | |
No. of Currency Pairs: | 48 |
All underlyings are traded as CFDs, including currencies!
Market: | |
Limit: | |
Stop: | |
Market If Touched (MIT): | |
Trailing (Server Side): | |
Trailing (Client Side): | |
One-Cancels-Other (OCO): | |
If-Then (Conditional): | |
Bid/Offer (Inside Spread): |
Hedging Capability: | |
Scalping Allowed: | |
One-Click Orders: | |
Chart Trading: | |
Guaranteed Stop-Losses: | |
Fractional Pips: |
Charting Package: | |
Free Data Feed: | |
News Feed: | |
Market Alerts: | |
Calendars: | |
Analysis: | |
Trading Strategies: | |
AutoChartist: | |
Online Community: | |
Investment Education: |
Phone Support: | |
Email Support: | |
Live Chat Support: | |
Skype Support: | |
Call-Back Support: | |
Phone Dealing: | |
24/7 Support: |
Beside email support there is also a Fax support available.
Plus500 CFD Broker Review
Plus500 is London based CFD broker covering wide range of underlyings, including stocks, indices, ETFs, commodities and Forex, especially suitable for private investors looking for simple and easy to use trading tools.
Very Positive - Broad spectrum of investments offered, in-house developed trading platforms for web, desktop and mobile trading.
Could do Better - There is a lot of room for improvement in education and research, as well as customer support channels.
Introduction
Plus 500 is authorized UK broker specialized in offering trading with CFDs (Contract for Differences) in currencies, commodities, shares, and indices. The company, Plus500UK Limited, is authorized and regulated by FSA (Financial Service Authorities) and compliant with MiFid. One of the policies that Plus500 strictly follows is related to anti-money laundering, which is not tolerated. That is why proof of identity is checked on account opening and these records are maintained afterwards, all money transactions of clients are closely watched, methods of depositing money are carefully selected, etc.
If you will look at the risk disclosure notice you will find that trading CFDs carries high risk and is not suitable for many investors, since they trade on margin and can incur large losses. CFDs are especially not suited for long term investing, they do not provide the same rights of underlying instruments, and you should only invest in CFDs money you can afford to lose. Before you start trading CFDs you should get familiar with all the risks involved and only then take the final decision whether it is suitable for you or not.
Account Opening
The account opening procedure starts with downloading and installing the trading software, which can be web, desktop or mobile based. Once the installation is complete you will be offered to register new real or demo account in case you are not yet an existing client. It only takes a few minutes to complete the download, installation and registration process.
Funding account is easy and several methods are available, including credit and debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, Diners, American Express), PayPal, MoneyBookers.
Forex Trading
There is wide range of investments offered by Plus500. You can trade stocks, stock indices, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), commodities, and naturally currencies.
Forex trading is available at zero commissions and no fees. Spreads are fixed so you always know how much the transaction will cost you. Spread on most traded currency pair EUR/USD is 2 pips. You can leverage up your Forex positions up to 50 times, while minimum required deposit is 100 Euros (this way you have a buying power of 5,000 Euros). The trading platform is free and it includes professional charting tools, advanced trading capabilities like setting stop and target limits, and offers trading with variety of FX pairs.
Forex Symbols: EUR/USD, EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF, EUR/CAD, EUR/AUD, EUR/NZD, EUR/NOK, USD/CHF, USD/JPY, USD/NOK, USD/CAD, GBP/JPY, GBP/USD, GBP/CAD, GBP/AUD, NZD/USD, AUD/NZD, AUD/USD, GBP/CHF, GBP/NZD, GBP/SEK, GBP/DKK, GBP/NOK, AUD/JPY, AUD/CHF, AUD/CAD, CHF/DKK, CHF/SEK, CHF/JPY, CHF/NOK, CAD/JPY, CAD/CHF, NZD/CAD, NZD/CHF, NZD/JPY, DKK/NOK, SEK/NOK, EUR/SEK, EUR/TRY, USD/PLN, USD/TRY, USD/SEK, EUR/PLN, USD/DKK, USD/CZK, USD/SGD, EUR/HUF.
Stocks Trading
When trading stocks, Plus500 is actually offering you trading stocks CFDs. This is similar instrument to stock, yet not the same. You are for example entitled to dividend, while you have no voting rights. With Puls 500 you will be able to trade stocks CFDs with no commission, the only thing you pay is spread between bid and ask price. Since spreads are low, they offer you frequent change of position. If you decide to open account and start trading stocks CFDs, you will get 25 Euros for free to start trading with. So no starting deposit is required but once you find trading with Plus500 attractive, you can fund your account by wire, credit card or MoneyBookers. It is important that you are aware of the fact that trading stocks via CFDs carries leverage, so you only need small amount of capital to realize high trading volume. This can be profitable and dangerous as well. It is important that you have total control of profits and losses by predefining target and stop-loss orders to close position automatically when certain price is reached.
German Stocks: Adidas, Allianz, BASF, Bayer, Beiersdorf, BMW, Commerzbank, D. Lufthansa, Daimler, DeutscheBorse, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Tele., Deutsche Bank , E.ON, Fresenius, Fresenius Med, Heidel. Cement, Henkel, Infineon, K+S, Linde, MAN, Merck, Metro, Munich Re, RWE, SAP , Siemens, ThyssenKrupp , Volkswagen.
U.S. Stocks: First Solar, Netflix, Dollar Tree, Renren, Baidu, Sears Holdings, Ford, China Petro., B. of America, Apple, GMCR, Alexion, Zynga, Starbucks, Google, McDonald's, Southern Company, O'Reilly, S.Copper, UnitedHealth, RIM, Philip Morris, Canon, EMC, Sina, MasterCard, Sterlite, Corning, Dominion, AMEX, BMO, Microsoft, eBay, Exxon, Apollo Group, PulteGroup, UPS, BBBY, Pandora, GoldmanSachs , Biogen Idec, EXPD, Boeing, Yahoo!, Yandex, G. Motors, Electronic Arts, HP, Amazon, BMC Software, Pfizer, Caterpillar, Petrobras, DOW, Coca Cola , Chevron, Amgen, Colgate-Palmo., China Unicom, Illumina, Exelon, Activision, CA, Enterprise Prod., Gilead, Cisco, Citi Group , IBM, Marvell, G. Electric, NVIDIA, Texas Inst., Mosaic, Virgin Media, Sony, Intel, Visa, Vertex, Berkshire Hath., Monsanto, Bristol Myers, Goldcorp, JPMorgan, Home Depot, Urban Outfitters, AT&T, Wynn Resorts, AIG, Groupon, Devon Energy, Occidental, Morgan Stanley, Citrix Systems, NetApp, SanDisk, MetLife, Marathon Oil, BK, Simon Property, F5 Networks, Danaher, Kimberly Clark, Adobe, Xilinx, Walt Disney, WellPoint, Cognizant, LinkedIn, Dell, Toyota, Qualcomm, Honda, ADP, Abbott, Honeywell, Altera, Halliburton, Cenovus , Kraft Foods, UNP, Costco, Qiagen, Altria, Expedia, Schlumberger, Apache , 3M, FedEx, Lockheed Mart., UTX, Nike, Franklin, Warner Chilcott, Flextronics, NScorp, Priceline, Symantec, Sigma-Aldrich, RBC, Comcast, Manulife , Life Tech., NII Holdings, Joy Global, Tenaris, Allergan, Deere, US Bancorp, LV Sands, CSX, Intuitive Surgical, Carnival, Yum!, Wal-Mart , Johnson Controls, Micron, Baker Hughes, CVS Caremark, Seagate, Cerner, VMware, Potash, Fastenal, Akamai, Applied Mat., Mylan, Viacom, Barrick Gold, Itau Unibanco, ICICI Bank, Imperial Oil, Teck, Broadcom, Mattel, Staples, EOG , Linear Tech., J & J, Microchip, Medtronic, ConocoPhillips, G. Dynamics, Covidien, Time Warner, Baxter, Infosys, Target, Lowe's, Verizon, PepsiCo, Accenture, Ctrip, Autodesk, FLIR, National-Oilwell, Celgene , Liberty Media, FCX, America Movil, Ross Stores, VeriSign, Express Scrip., Lam Research, Maxim , Newmont Mine., BCE, NTT DoCoMo, Chunghwa Tele., Wells Fargo, Emerson , TD Bank, Walgreens, Anadarko Petroleum, BlackRock, Oracle , China Mobile, Paychex, Garmin, DirecTV, BNS, Merck, Henry Schein, Fiserv, Eli Lilly, T. Reuters, Suncor Energy, Illinois TW, Stericycle, TransCanada, DENTSPLY, Intuit, News Corp, PACCAR, PNC Financial, Praxair, Taiwan Semi., P&G, Whole Foods.
UK Stocks: Essar Energy, B.A. Tobacco, Lloyds , Man Group, RBS, B. Petroleum, xstrata, Tesco, Barclays, Vodafone, British Sky, Unilever, Rio Tinto, ARM, 3i, In. Power, Smiths, Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton, Ashmore , HSBC, Lonmin, Wolseley, SSE, Next, Petrofac, Tate & Lyle, Weir, RB, ICAP, Carnival, Sainsbury, United Utilities, Anglo American, BAE Systems, G4S, GSK, Morrison S., J. Matthey, Vedanta, Capita, GKN, ITV, Investec, Cairn Energy, Glencore, Fresnillo, RSA Insurance, Inmarsat, Admiral, IAG, Experian, REXAM, British Foods, CSCG, ENRC, Hammerson, AMEC, Old Mutual, Royal Dutch S., Standard Chart., Intertek, Tullow Oil, Aviva, Aggreko, AstraZeneca, Resolution, Hargreaves L., Shire, Sage, BG, Antofagasta, Compass, Prudential, BT, British Land, Burberry, Centrica, Diageo, IMI, IMT, Inter. Hotels, Kingfisher, Land Securities, LGEN, M. & Spencer , National Grid, Pearson, Randgold, Reed Elsevier, Rolls-Royce, Sabmiller, Schroders, Serco, Severn Trent, SNN, Standard Life, Whitbread.
Austrian Stocks: Andritz, Erste Group, Immofinanz, OMV, Raiffeisen, Schoeller-Bleck, Tel. Austria, Verbund, VIG, Voestalpine , WienerBerger.
Italian Stocks: A2A, Ansaldo, Atlantia, Autogrill, B. Popolare, BMPS, Buzzi Unicem, Campari, DiaSorin, E.Green Power, Enel, Eni, Exor, Fiat, Fiat Industrial, Finmeccanica, Generali, Impregilo, Intesa, Lottomatica, Luxottica, Mediaset, Mediobanca, Mediolanum, Pirelli, Prysmian, Saipem, Snam, STMicroelec., Telecom Italia, Tenaris, Terna - Rete, Tods, UBI, UniCredit.
French Stocks: Accor, Air France-KLM, Air Liquide, Alcatel-Lucent, Alstom, Axa, BNP Paribas, Bouygues, Capgemini, Carrefour, Credit Agricole, Danone, EADS, EDF, Essilor, France Tele., GDF Suez, Lafarge, Loreal, LVMH, Michelin, Natixis, Pernod Ricard, Peugeot Cit., PPR, Publicis, Renault, Saint-Gobain, Sanofi-aventis , Schneider Elec., Societe Gener., STMicroelec., Suez, Technip, Total, Unibail-Rod., Vallourec, Veolia, Vinci , Vivendi.
Dutch Stocks: Aegon, Ahold, Air France-KLM, AkzoNobel, Aperam, ArcelorMittal, ASML, Boskalis, Corio, DSM, Fugro, Heineken, ING, KPN, Philips, PostNL, Randstad, RDS, Reed Elsevier, SBM Offshore, TNT Express, TomTom, Unibail-Rod., Unilever, Wereldhave, Wolters Kluwer.
Finnish Stocks: Cargotec, Elisa, Fortum, Kemira, Kesko, Kone, Konecranes, Metso, Neste Oil, Nokia, NokianRenkaat, Nordea Bank, Orion, Outokumpu, Outotec, Pohjola Pankki, Rautaruukki, Sampo, Sanoma, Stora Enso, Tieto, UPM, Wartsila, YIT.
Belgian Stocks: AB Inbev, Ackermans, Ageas , Befimmo, Bekaert, Belgacom, Cofinimmo, Colruyt, Delhaize Group, GBL, GDF Suez, KBC Group, Mobistar, Solvay, Telenet, UCB, Umicore.
Danish Stocks: Carlsberg, Chr. Hansen, Coloplast, Danske Bank, DSV, FLSmidth, GN Store, Maersk, NKT Holding, D/S Norden, Novo Nordisk, Novozymes, PANDORA A/S , Topdanmark, Tryg, Vestas, WilliamDemant.
Swedish Stocks: Alfa Laval, Assa Abloy, AstraZeneca, Atlas Copco , Boliden, Electrolux, Ericsson, Getinge, H&M, Handelsbanken, Investor, Lundin Petroleum, Modern Times, Nordea Bank, Sandvik, SCA, Scania, SEB, Securitas, Skanska, SKF, SSAB, Swedbank, Swedish Match, Tele2, TeliaSonera, Volvo.
Swiss Stocks: ABB, Actelion, Adecco, Credit Suisse, Holcim, Julius Baer, Lonza, Nestle, Novartis, Richemont, Roche, SGS, Swatch, Swisscom, Syngenta, Synthes, Transocean, UBS , Zurich Fin.
Spanish Stocks: Abertis, ACS, Banco Popular, Bbva, Gas Natural, Grupo OHL, Iberdrola, Inditex, Repsol YPF, Santander, Telefonica.
Greek Stocks: Bela, BIOX, ELPE, ETE, Hellenic Cola, MYTIL, OPAP, TITK.
Norwegian Stocks: Aker Solutions, Archer, DNO Int., Fred. Olsen E., Frontline, Gjensidige, Marine Harvest, Norsk Hydro , Orkla, PGS, Prosafe, RC Cruises , REC, Schibsted, SeaDrill, Statoil, Storebrand, Subsea 7, Telenor, TGS, Yara Intl.
Indices/ETFs Trading
Indices and ETFs are also traded as CFDs. You trade them without commission and no fees. Spreads are tight and you will get real-time index rates for free. Leverage is up to 15 for trading indices and ETFs.
Indices Traded: Germany 30 , Greece 20, USA 30, Germany MCap, US-TECH 100, USA 500, Europe 50, France 40, Denmark 20, Swiss 20, UK 100, Sweden 30, Netherlands 25, Italy 40, Japan 225, Spain 35, Czech 15, Austria 20, Norway 25.
ETFs Traded: iShares Silver, VXX Volatility, iShares EU50, iShares FTSE, iShares AEX, iShares DAX, Lyxor CAC, XLF, QQQ, SPY, iShares Japan , iShares EEM, iShares Korea, iShares China.
Commodities Trading
Trading commodities CFDs is similar to trading other instruments, the only difference is that leverage is up to 12 in this case.
Traded Commodities: Oil, Gold, Natural Gas, Silver, Cotton, Sugar, Coffee, Corn, Platinum, Heating Oil.
Free Bonus
There are two kinds of bonuses you can get with Plus500. First one is related to opening real trading account. You will need to validate your phone number in order to get 25 Euros.
And the other bonus is related to first deposit amount. The higher it is the higher bonus you will get. For 100 Euros deposited you will get 30 Euros bonus, for 1,000 Euros deposited, you will get 200 Euros bonus, and for 50,000 Euros deposit, you will get 7,000 Euros bonus. Bonus is added to your account once required number of trader points is reached (each trading symbol has assigned trading points per trade). Bonus expires in three months and is only valid for first deposit per household/IP address.
Customer Support
Support to Plus500 clients is available 24 a day, 7 days a week. Support is available through email at support@plus500.com or by fax. Missing phone and live chat support is one of the major drawbacks of this broker.
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Written by: Goran Dolenc
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