Leading social trading company eToro has announced that clients can now invest directly in shares on the platform free of ticket or management fees. The new offering includes fees in the spread of 0.09% per side and eToro will absorb stamp duty for UK shares.
CFD trading, which allows leveraged investments and short-selling, has been the only method that eToro clients had to expose themselves to the stock market. Now, users also have the option to own the underlying asset.
The option to buy shares allows eToro users to buy shares with the cost of stamp duty excluded from the price, receive dividends on the ex-dividend date rather than waiting for issuance while enjoying instant execution and settlement at a fixed price. The offering can also be used on eToro’s social trading feature where customers can copy other investors’ trading moves. Users are also welcomed to invest in the broker’s curated CopyFund portfolios.
By adding shares to its investment offering, the innovative broker allows users to hold shares, cryptocurrencies, ETFs and thousands of other financial assets all in one portfolio.
Yoni Assia, Founder and Chief Executive Offcer of eToro, commented:
“eToro enables people to invest in the assets they want to own, from newly available assets such as cryptocurrencies to more traditional options like shares or commodities. We want investors to be able to hold all these assets in a single portfolio.
“Price really matters and we think ticket and management fees are exactly the kind of old world practices that put many people off investing. That’s why we’re not charging them, and absorbing stamp duty to boot. We’re making it easy to invest, and that means rethinking some of the outdated practices investors might be used to from other investment providers. It also means we’ll continue to expand the range of assets we make available to our 10 million users.”
eToro announced that it will absorb stamp duty for UK shares, which is charged at 0.5% on transactions over £1,000. By absorbing stamp duty, eToro lifts a burden from investors who would otherwise be potentially discouraged from taking the risk.
Typically, a £10,000 investment in a UK listed company incurs a £50 stamp duty charge for the investor on top of the platform’s own fees and charges. eToro’s pricing would only expose the investor to a total fee of £21 as user would pay no stamp duty.
The broker has expanded its trading portfolio to thousands of shares available across European, Asian and US markets with more due to be added to the platform in the coming months. Additionally, eToro has opened its arms to the cryptocurrency market and allows the trading of 10 digital assets, with further coins to be added throughout 2018.
“Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen our investment community grow to over 10 million people around the world. Many of our customers are investing for the first time and they’re investing in cryptocurrencies. They’ve told us that they want to invest in other things, just as easily as eToro allows them to buy into cryptocurrencies, and to be able to have everything in one portfolio. Now, people can invest in shares with the same ease they enjoy when investing in cryptocurrencies”, Yoni Assia added.
