eToro: on the cutting edge of Social Trading

Just over one year ago, when eToro launched its groundbreaking OpenBook platform, many people dismissed social trading as a farfetched idea that would never catch on. Now, when social trading has become an established, if not the leading mode of trading, those same skeptics find themselves asking how they ever traded outside the framework of a social investment network.

And indeed, social trading has opened up many doors that were previously closed to non-professional retail traders, and even created some new ones in the process. Thanks to the eToro OpenBook traders can share information easily, through automated live trading feeds that make the entire investment community transparent, which means that any ideas generated by the community is up for grabs for everyone.

However, unlike other social trading networks, eToro’s brand of social trading is not only about sharing information, but also about putting it to practical use. With the groundbreaking CopyTrader feature, traders can implement the trading skills of expert traders, or “Gurus” as they’re known in the OpenBook community, to their own portfolio. All you have to do is find the Guru you want to copy, select the percentage of funds you want to dedicate to copying that particular Guru, then sit back and watch your copied positions make their way in the markets.

The best thing about CopyTrader is that unlike any other automated trading mechanism it enables you to retain full control over your account. Don’t like a certain copied trade? You’re free to close it at any time. Don’t like the way your Guru trades? You’re free to stop copying him/her whenever you choose. Sounds simple, but this one little feature has brought about an entire new mode of investment called “people based” portfolios, wherein instead of investing in the unpredictable markets you invest in a much more predictable variable, which is the Guru’s trading ability.

Your next question is, how can I find the Guru for me? Well, the eToro OpenBook has made that pretty simple too, with the brand new “Guru Finder” feature. Just enter your criteria in the many parameters at your disposal, such as win/loss ratio, average trade duration, risk level, etc., and the Guru Finder will deliver a list answering your criteria exactly. You can then check out the Gurus’ personal profiles to find out more about their performance, their portfolios and their popularity in the OpenBook investment network. The Gurus themselves can also turn their copiers into extra profits through eToro’s Guru Program.

Recently, in light of the tremendous success and growth of the OpenBook social trading network, eToro has made some modification to its famous WebTrader online trading platform in order to accommodate the new social options available to eToro traders. The new WebTrader is even more streamlined and easy to use. The updated interface is simple to navigate and can also be customized according to your personal preferences. For example, you can now collapse and expand the live market rates box to make the specific markets you’re interested in more immediately accessible. In addition, the new rates box now includes a miniature price chart to give you a general idea of the current trend for each instrument, which you can then expand in the WebTrader charting software by clicking on the chart button.
The WebTrader is also automatically synchronized with eToro OpenBook, so any copied trades (manual or automatic) will immediately appear in the “Open Trades” panel in the WebTrader interface, where you will be able to edit them if you wish to do so. Thus, as far as social trading is concerned, no other platform even compares in terms of usability and smart design.