eToro Makes Forex Trade Child’s Play

Um, yeah. Scary people.

This is a gaming site no matter how you dress it up. Sure they are not involved in casino , poker but just another form of gaming.

Online forex trading pulls in quite a bit of naive investors daily…eToro is just additional bait to pull in other victims.

They may very well succeed given the many surfers always looking to make a quick buck…

I’m unsure of what this service would be used for. A serious forex trader does not want to guess if a base currency will appreciate against the counter currency. The trader will use advanced charting techniques and overall economic forecasts to evaluate each currency pair; he certainly would not use a game.

As for the lay investor (or gamer), they are unlikely to place money in a risky, foreign investment. It will be interesting to see if this concept survives. I give it a year before it’s in the deadpool.

Translate the inherently complex into cartoon figures to make it easier for people to lose their money…great. If this is the only way you can play on Forex, it’s best you stay away.

they should rename it eTarded - who would put money into this!?!

even if you do win, what’s the spread? what’s their cut? do the trades even make it out to market or do they fill them all in-house and screw you over even more?

i’ll pass on this, and shame on you Roi for not exposing this for the fraud it is. that 3d email app had much more utility than this and you guys trashed it, this should be trashed soooooo much harder.

Great, a tool that make it fun to lose all your money trading forex!
Casual traders who are serious won’t use this because they want to spot trends, which I eToro’s system doesn’t make easy to see.

Trading forex is a serious trading, and it’s quite unlike casino games. Making it into a casino game is just a disservice to the casual gamer (yes gamer) and their wallet.

Brilliant idea! Fun trading!!! Played it and had lots of fun :)))

hehe, this is cool
Michael wrote “The trader will use advanced charting techniques and overall economic forecasts to evaluate each currency pair; he certainly would not use a game.”
But that’s exactly the reason unexperienced traders don’t want to enter the world of Forex, because it’s too intimidating, so I think what they’re doing is actually contributing to the Forex community by allowing people to learn about it and get the basics. if they want to take it to the next level - they can always use a “normal” platform.

I think this is a really interesting concept actually. Certainly innovative and perhaps could have the long-term effect of making the markets less scary and unknown to the general public while increasing liquidity. Need to check out their execution - I expect subpar at this point, but we’ll see.

Still, all previous comments certainly have validity.

some of the brightest individuals on the planet trade forex. thinking your are going to beat these chaps with a site like this is financial suicide. cheers.

I admit it’s kind of a different way to look at Forex, but the question that should be asked is do they offer what other platforms offer.
Has anyone here tried using a forex platform? I’m an engineer and I can’t say I feel comfortable using them. I think that if etoro offers the same characteristics like the old platforms (stop loss, take profit, multi leverage, etc) but make it look pretty, I support the product.

While there are much better forex interfaces than the one linked, they are complicated for a good reason - forex itself is complicated.

What these guys have done is another gambling site, albeit one that uses the forex market to drive their backend.

Offering forex trading to retail “investors” is gambling. Plain and simple.

And there’s nothing wrong with that in my book.

It’s entertainment. Everyone knows it. Everyone knows the house always wins. Online casinos even publish their payouts (audited by big name accounting firms). And guess what? It’s always just a little bit below 100%

So the eToro people say it’s “investment”. Well what did you expect? Wink wink. Nudge nudge. Know what I mean?

Who would put their money on this? Casual gamblers who don’t feel like taking a trip to vegas or the nearest indian territory and won’t go looking for the shady online money transfer services that bypass the prohibition act, either.

The sheer hypocrisy of this prohibition was revealed for all to see when Massachusetts passed a state law adding a hefty fine on top of the federal gambling prohibition act. This measure was added to an act regarding the establishment of physical casinos resorts in MA. Typical protection racket…

I think they got “Crunched”!!! Downloaded, and try to make trades but kept getting error. Maybe the server could not handle the Techcrunch load.

Forex trading requires access to lots of data, and sophisticted software to analyse that data, in real time. It would be a mistake to use a Forex platform that presents cute pictures of stereotyped country citizens running along as a primary user interface (UI). This UI may lure the niave with a tale that Forex trading is easy and fun without requiring study and analysis. Buyer beware.

Lighten up people, this is a cool concept.

To all you badmouthers- I have been trading forex on etoro for about 2 months now and it is an amazing platform.
Its really easy to trash everything here. I am certain non of the bad mouthers didnt actually check it out. If you had you would see its very user friendly and it offers everything a novice trader needs. I once tried to trade on gtforex and was very upset by their terrible interface and lack of UI understanding.
This tool is meant for people who want to get intoforex. I started with practice account and only after a long time started to trade with real money. I dont think they have time restrictions so you can practice on demo money as long as you like there.
Try it, then make judgment.

What-is-this? Dumbing down of forex trading packaged as a cool idea.

Not at all a good idea.

With leverage, unsophisticated investors can lose their shirt (and then some) in a very short period of time indeed in Forex.

And eToro applies obviously ONLY to those unsophisticated investors.

I just been to the site yesterday and already a member there. I found their site via Google Ads which was optimized for Forex with PayPal ! Just started.. will let you know my experience soon

Cheers!

From what I see people want to keep Forex as complicated as possible to keep some sort of secret stupid pride, “some of the world’s brightest minds use forex” or “forex charts are complex because forex is complex” are dumb arguments - 90% of all forex traders lose, even the most experienced ones, so how can a non-professional trader do any worse?

@21, Nick Leeson made a loss of £827 million ($1.4 billion) with leveraged positions in the futures market for Barings.

You can make or lose money very quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing in forex because of leveraged positions.

@19 - Isn’t that the same as day traders trading stocks? Even serious professionals end up losing their shirts on deals. I think this is a good intro for novices to get into trading currency.

@23, no, day trading in stocks is usually non-leveraged, but sure, you can bet the farm in any financial market if you really want to.

For intro on forex markets, novices should use practice accounts with no real money at play. These are typically mini-forex or Contracts for Difference types.

But seriously, to get diversification on an investment portfolio, one would think that striking on your own in forex is a bad idea without a background in finance.

The games sound somewhat fun, but it sure does seem like gambling.

@17 I agree totally. Lighten up people. It’s about time someone took trading to the 21st century.

Hey Roi - I only have one beef with your post.

You write, “…Third, eToro is a BVI company, (a.k.a., a British Virgin Islands company)—classic tax strategy by gambling operators….”

Your arguments against their lack of parallels to online gambling has included your point three, which I think is ridiculous, and not relevant to the argument. The first two points were clear enough and then you go and throw in that off-shore banking comment. I guess I shouldn’t forget the affiliate program reference which is also over the top. If I had a nickle for every web company using an afiliate program………..

I’m not sure your experience but it’s fairly obvious you’ve had none with off-shore company creation and the many reasons for doing so. Please try and stick to what you know and not muddy your normally good writing with what you don’t.

i’ve traded spot forex for 4 years now. this is the stupidest thing idea i’ve ever seen to con more people out of their money. forex is the big boys’ game, play in their arena, with their toys, and they’ll FU up every time.
vc’s are so stupid sometimes, it amazes me how they got rich in the first place.
cheers.
rb.

I don’t know about the “big boy” comments. So-called Japanese housewives don’t seem to have any difficulties with currency trading, and, judging from the photo in the linked article, don’t seem to mind the platform they’re using.

Now what a casual user might find useful is a simple tool to estimate how much a currency might fluctuate when budgeting a vacation.

eToro, judging from the screenshot, is a bore.

I’m sorry people, but investing is not a game. Gambling on the other hand, now that’s a game of chance. This is exactly what eToro is touting. Take your money, play a game, and let’s see if you guessed right or wrong.

I realize eToro is trying to appeal to inexperienced investors, however, they should be offering products that also educate investors on how to trade in these complex markets.

“Forex Marathon – You pick the currency you THINK will go up and have it compete in a foot race against the currencies you THINK will go down.” Plain and simple, the website is asking people to make a guess and hope for a positive outcome. If you lose, oh well, it was fun playing the game.

As someone who has tried all *commercial* forex systems under the sun, I have to say that this is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in a long time.

这个游戏不错。

Money is no game!

This is dangerous!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

“Forex trading is not considered gambling and therefore does not fall under the scope of H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act”

Neither is playing the stock market but thousands lose their shirts each day doing exactly just that!

Pls try to be nice!!!!!!
This guys mad a gr8 software to make us do that easily!!!!!

Someone how cares…….

Hey Coffee Man,

Thanks for your comments!

eToro was very adamant in not wanting to come-off as a gaming operator and I felt the final two points about it being a BVI company and the affiliate program were two additional counter-arguments.

True, off-shoring is not unique these days. However, when you look at eToro’s activities from 10,000ft, it comes as no surprise that they would go that route. And like it or not, it’s a staple gaming operator move.

You are absolutely right about the popularity of affiliate marketing. The point I was trying to make there was the *wording* rather than the program itself. If you go to any gaming operator’s affiliate program you’ll notice what I mean.

Thanks again for commenting!

R.

Roi,

It’s cool that almost the all front page on Techcrunch is dedicated to Israel today: E-Toro, Yossi Vardi’s investments in SeeToo and AllofMe and Google Israel privacy issues. Not bad for such a small country.

I’d like to invite everyone to visit the Venture Capital Cafe (http://www.goisrael.blogspot.com >>> in process of moving to http://www.vccafe.com, so please bare with me) where I cover early stage companies, innovative technologies, and venture capital news with a spotlight on Israel.

If you follow the Israeli market, take a moment to subscribe - a lot of interesting developments are going up in December. Also,if you are a developer/designer in Israel looking for an interesting project, leave me a comment on the blog.

Thanks for the post!
E

No matter what you promote on the net, the key to success is marketing. and the guys at etoro, since they come from a successful online gambling company (which is all about marketing), basically know how to market a product and how to look at KPI. The problem with their concept (as i see it) is that they try to hit at dumb customers who will deposit and play a couple of hundred dollars, loose them and don’t come back… they think the casino player psychology will apply to the kind of forex trading application… maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong… reading the comments by proper forex traders, it seems that they’re wrong… however what they might be successful at doing is giving a basic forex education to a few people who will then go to proper forex brokers…

Why is the British pound represented by a dirty old man? Surely he should have a bowler hat and umbrella, not a filthy mac.

How to get unsophisticated rich people to part with their money.

As a Forex trader, I actually like their idea. What I don’t like is if a beginner gets on there to start trading, they’ll have no idea what they’re doing - just like in the complicated systems. This system is no less complicated, it just provides a “game” atmosphere that people can have fun with. It’s still just as easy to lose your money - if not more!

Investing the money and making decisions is not cartoon game. If you think it is, you’ll lose all your money quickly…

As a tax preparer I’ve seen a lot of people lose a lot of money with Forex transactions. I’ve yet to see someone who has made any money at it. This is a market better left to the professionals.

But in the last few years I’ve seen a big push to get individuals into this market. Just google “forex” and you’ll see what I mean.

I’ll stick to American trading; we’ve had enough toy recalls!
Chris Jones http://www.inspirationalexperiences.org

hey if you want something better to “trade”, try tradesports.com. it lets you buy and sell “contracts” for all major sporting events. at least then you have something entertaining to watch in case you lose…

http://www.floraltopia.com - a social network for flower, plant, and garden people.

No use for South Africans. It wont load with telkom.

I think it’s great, Albert Einstein once said that you can explain the basics of anything in under 5 minutes, and no one can blame Einstein in over-simplifying things…Forex basics can be taught in a fun manner, and excuse me all you big shot traders.

@46: I just talked to my brother that lives in South Africa, he said he uses telkom and that it works.

Cheers,
Andy

Hey -

Hasn’t anyone read their terms and conditions that you agree to. Look under the promotion tab and then click the link:

http://www.retailfx.com/terms.aspx

“IMPORTANT NOTE - GRANOLA HOLDING LTD DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY TRADING FROM CUSTOMERS IN THE USA”

I thought this was legitimate!?

I am residing in the NY (USA) and have asked their support team regarding the non US limitation of their services.

They have replied that RetailFX is a Non US broker and therefore, does not offer Real Money trading to US traders. They have also mentioned that starting next eToro WILL be offered to US traders via another certified US broker that is also regulated by NFA - IFX Markets.

I acn not wait to check it out on real money for the first time.

Let the Trade begin ….

FXMoneymaker

I’m wondering how many of the positive responses are coming from employees/owners of etoro?

Like gilltots (post #6) I really wonder if they will even take these trades to market. Why would they since they know that the vast majority (99%? 98%?) of their customers are guaranteed to loose their money. Here is why:

1) First off, there is no mention of their spreads. (I’m willing to bet the will be high).

2) Above all their leverage seems fixed at 400:1.
http://www.etoro.com/what-is-f.....lingo.aspx
That’s murderous. This means that the market has to move 0.25% to affect your position 100%. So the market will move a pip or two in the wrong direction and you loose all your money. The market moves several pips every few seconds. (At least etoro is responsible enough to post a warning that your losses can increase with a high leverage, in the last paragraph of that web page.)

3) The amount of money you can put in is way to low to trade at 400:1 leverage. You can open an account with $50, but the maximum you can put into your account each month is $10,000. So your account is automatically under capitalised for such a crazy leverage. So if you trade, you are more likely to loose in the long term.

4) With little money in the account you will not see a “big result” unless you “bet big.” Many customers will put most of their money on single trades (at least at the beginning) instead of putting in a safe 2% or 3% of their account. With such a high leverage they will be wiped out on the same day they open their account.

5) Do you want proof? Just look at the “Leader Board” results of the “Real Championships”
http://www.etoro.com/community/leader-board.aspx
The 10th highest – most profitable user – made only $77.77 in a month. That should tell you something. #1 made $1318 and #10 made $77. There’s a huge disparity there. Maybe there’s a reason for it. While you’re thinking about that, realize that if the 10th most profitable person made $77 in a month, it means that everyone else made less, or most likely lost money.

Caveat - If in fact it is possible to lower your leverage on etoro, then I certainly hope people will take advantage of that. (I have seen no evidence of this, and I am certainly not willing to give them any of my personal info to open an account.)

To sum up, Forex is a very risky investment. Put in only what you can afford to loose. I urge any first time traders to use a low leverage (like 25:1) and learn as much as you can.

Here is a great forex educational site:
http://www.babypips.com/school/

Look at their lesson entitled: “Leverage the Killer”
http://www.babypips.com/school.....iller.html

Hey Dr. Evil, it’s been a while…

1) Imagine where the world would be if people actually had an idea what they were talking about? huh?
“I bet their spreads will be high”
Have you even checked? their spreads are 2 pips, and I don’t know about you but that’s one of the only platforms I know that offers such a spread on the EUR/JPY.
Next time do your reasearch…
2) Again, didn’t bother to have a look before coming to a “conclusion”, their leverage options are X100, X200 and X400.
3+4) I fail to see how “a little money in their account” is etoro’s fault, they don’t have a maximum deposit limit - if you want to deposit $10,000 I bet nobody’s gonna stop ya…BUT they offer to open an account with as low as $50, what’s wrong with that?

5) hmmm, you must have no clue about forex trading, you want to have a look at the deutsche bank board? with traders that have a balance of ” -$10,000,000,” ?
Even ( around 90% of ) pro traders lose money in forex, that means there is no reason for inexperienced traders not to give it a try - they can’t do any worse.

The problem with Forex is that people like you turn it into something dark and “magical”, that’s bullshit, they said the same thing about stocks a few years ago and today tons of people trade their own stocks without any help from a pro broker.

See you again in the next austin movie dr. evil…

This new E-Toro trading idea is ridiculous.

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