Interview with eToro

Jeff MacKenzee, the account manager of the eToro partners team agreed to answer some of my questions regarding eToro's innovative Forex trading platform. eToro is known for brining to the on-line Forex market trading some untraditional types of Forex trading. eToro platform doesn't look like any other and can be easily understood by someone who never read about Forex or charting. More information about eToro is available here.

eToro is a relatively new Forex trading platform, what long-term goal do you set for yourself as a trading platform?

eToro's goal was to create a visually engaging interactive platform based on real-time financial information and transactions, while translating the financial information into several real-time intuitive visual representations and allowing traders to execute multiple financial transactions in an easy "one click" interface.

As the on-line Forex brokerage market looks more like oversaturated now, how do you feel about your future? Was it hard to enter this market? What were your main principles to start providing retail Forex trading services?

eToro provides its traders with the most professional tools, surrounded by a friendly interface. eToro is currently offering advanced trading options like stop loss and take profit, enabling people who have little understanding of trading methods to learn what exactly those options are, and how to take advantage of them. The platform also stands out in the market with its community feature, allowing traders to interact with other traders, share advice and even compete for prizes. In addition, eToro is offering some of the lowest spreads on the market, as low as 2 pips on EUR/JPY for example.

You have developed a custom and very original trading platform for your clients. Why did you choose this way and not offered some generic trading platform, like MetaTrader?

eToro's advantage is in its simplicity. eToro is the only forex platform that deals with the mental element of entering a new and unknown territory, that most inexperienced traders get when they first have a look at other forex platforms. The user friendly interface allows millions of people around the world to start trading and learn what Forex is, using simple graphics instead of complex charts.

Seeing as your platform doesn't offer powerful tools for market analysis and trades execution, would it be justified to say that you as a Forex platform aim on the newbie traders rather than professionals?

Professional traders might find eToro extremely useful, eToro offers some of the lowest spreads on the market and unlike other platforms it does not limit scalping. Professional traders know they can enjoy that combination and generate large profits. The newbie will certainly find eToro to be the easiest platform to start trading on and will enjoy the practice mode where he can trade with demo money with no real financial risks until he feels more experienced to try trading with as little as $50 of real money.

Currently you are offering a variety of payment methods to fund the trader's account, like wire transfer, credit card and PayPal. Do you plan adding more options to deposit/withdraw money?

eToro currently supports Wire transfer, Credit card, Paypal and Western union. Should there be a demand of any other means of payment we will gladly consider it.

Especially in the light of some types of trading offered in eToro platform, do you think that Forex trading is some sort of gambling? Or do you prefer to present Forex as a form of active investing?

Forex is the largest financial market in the world, which according to the The Bank of International Settlements carries a trade volume of $3.2 trillion per day. Yet very few people actually trade that market because they are hardly any places in which one can learn how the Forex world works. eToro presents the movements in a more appealing manner, while explaining to the traders why things happen. Moreover, eToro's news ticker lets the traders know when important announces are expected, and warns for volatility. All of those actions are intended to make people understand that Forex is far from gambling and that there is a reason why, for example, a change in interest rates in the United States will also cause changes in EUR/USD rates.

eToro brought innovative approach to the quite old-fashioned Forex trading market. Do you plan any new features for your trading platform, or do you think that it is it already overloaded with them?

eToro is constantly improving its platform and launches newer versions, The possibilities are endless. eToro is working in 2 levels in order to improve the platform: financial improvements, like the recently integrated stop loss and take profit; platform improvements, offering the traders new trading methods on top of the ones currently available.

eToro is regularly holding different traders' contests and competitions. Are they popular among your clients? Do you plan keep them as the regular events? If so, will you be increasing the prize funds?

eToro introduces social elements such as chat features and championships, the idea is to create a trading community that will allow traders to share ideas and ask questions regarding the trades. The trading championship is very popular among traders, and championship leaders often share their trading methods and tips in order to teach the other traders how to trade successfully.

The user support is one of the basic and most important parts of the Forex brokerage. As far as I know traders often leave different on-line brokers just because of their lack of a quality support. How do you approach the user support problem?

eToro has a large support group that is dedicated to assist our traders either via phone, email, or live chat. The support staff is qualified and trained to help with technical issues regarding the program itself, and of course any questions regarding trades, deposits and withdrawals.

What form of market analysis would you recommend to your clients? Do you offer any educational materials on Forex market to them?

The eToro forum has a dedicated section for forex education, For example - the admin posted a list of the major announcements and their effect on the markets, referring them to the calendar on www.forexfactory.com in order to help them prepare for market volatility.

What is, in your opinion, the main quality the Forex trader should possess to succeed in trading? Is the Forex trading really for everyone?

In our opinion, it is needed to break the "circle of silence" that surrounds Forex trading. Forex is indeed complicated - but as the phrase (attributed to Albert Einstein) goes - "any scientist who couldn't explain to an eight-year-old what he was doing was a charlatan".Most traders tend to say that they can't explain how to trade Forex because it is too complicated, we at eToro think that even the Forex world can be explained using a fun and intuitive platform.

eToro is a new player on the on-line Forex market, it still has to gain traders' confidence and the loyalty of its customers. But in every business industry the leading positions always have been conquered with innovations and extraordinary approach to the traditional methods. So maybe eToro has some interesting future? If you have any comments on this interview or ideas for the future interviews you can leave a comment here, or via the contact form.