Plus500

Company overview

Plus500 is a Cyprus based brokerage which was established a couple of years ago. It has a range of trading products, one of which is Forex. As of August 2010, Plus500 is approved by FSA!

Available Platforms

Plus500 has a platform which is very easy to understand, and provides access to other financial instruments, such as commodities, indices and some stocks in various countries. The emphasis with this broker is on appealing to the beginner to trading, but they provide the facilities that a seasoned trader would want, with real time quotes, and the usual range of orders such as trailing stops, stop loss, limit orders and market orders.

The website has a number of training videos which are valuable in ensuring that you fully understand the trading platform

Account Types

Most brokers offer a free demo account for you to try out their service, but unusually the account that Plus500 offers does not expire after a certain time. This means that you can keep on practicing until you feel comfortable about trading, rather than being limited to a timeframe such as two weeks.

Plus500 is offering a sign up bonus of $20 when you open a free account. A live account can be opened with a minimum deposit of $50, and this gives you up to 200 to 1 leverage on Forex. A bonus is also added to your first deposit, and this is released once you have placed a certain amount of trades – the website gives full details of the levels of bonus available, and you must make sure you use the correct code when you fund the account.

No commission is charged – as with many Forex brokers, the profit is made from the spread between bid and ask prices. Some customers have reported seeing large spreads with this broker, but our research did not bear this out. It may be a factor related to the time of day, as spreads often increase in light trading periods.

Support

Plus500 has both fax and email support, but no instant telephone support. This also means that you do not have the facility of trading over the phone, which can be inconvenient if your computer system or internet connection should fail.

Summary

• √ No commissions.
• √ Well capitalized.
• √ Custom easy to use platform.
• x No telephone support.