The world’s leading social trading and investing platform, now Finns also have the opportunity to invest in stocks through eToro without brokerage fees.
Discussion about eToro experiences here.
eToro has at least some absolutely great ads. I’ve put a few below, in case anyone hasn’t seen them.
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What is the basis for that no-fee policy? They must be getting their money from somewhere.
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At this point, I felt a lump in my throat…
we’ll get a lot of local people to bring some volatility 
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eToro costs link below.
At least they have a withdrawal fee, meaning eToro charges a fixed fee ($5) for withdrawals, which covers part of the costs of international money transfers. In addition, there are currency conversion fees.
Stock trading is free, but CFD trading incurs fees.
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” In addition, all stock trades made on the Milan Stock Exchange (Borsa Italiana), Helsinki, Copenhagen and Oslo Stock Exchanges are executed as CFDs, regardless of the account regulation.”
&
” The eToro trading platform is not an exchange or a market. This means that you can only buy and sell stocks within the eToro trading platform. It is not possible to move open positions out of your eToro account to another broker or to another person. If you open a stock position on eToro, you are not issued a stock issuance certificate or allocated voting rights. Nonetheless, should the company issue dividends, your balance will be updated in accordance with your holdings.”
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I’d guess there might be some spread too. The first sentence, “You get value for all your money…”, doesn’t really inspire confidence. However, I would gladly welcome a “nearly” commission-free/cost-free option here in Finland as well.
Pay attention to taxation. For me, eToro is a no-go. CFD sales losses are not deductible from sales gains in Finland
No commission, but the difference between the buy and sell price (spread) is large.
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If you copy someone (CopyTrader), how do you know if you are copying CFDs? And if you then incur a loss, how do you know what proportion of the loss came from stocks (tax-deductible) and what proportion from CFDs (not deductible)?
What excites me about eToro is the ability to copy a good model portfolio or a person, but this CFD thing scares me if I incur a loss. And I don’t understand how one can know their own costs in advance if there are costs in CFDs?
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I’m interested in eToro, because even a poor person like me can buy those fractional shares
. Are there any users of this service here? Do the only fees come when you withdraw sales profits.. meaning that 5 euros..
I’m not going to play with any leverages or anything.
Is there anything else to consider..
Grateful for answers
You cannot deduct capital losses from capital gains because you can only trade CFDs on eToro.
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I don’t see many positives for stock pickers on eToro, at least not for the Finnish stock exchange. As @MoneyWalker mentioned, you lose the opportunity to sell loss-making holdings at the end of the year and thus lighten capital gains taxation. I have encountered this same topic in my circle of acquaintances, as the company’s advertisements are constantly pushed through, e.g., on YouTube.
In addition, it has been explained above where eToro gets its money from. Spreads. To simplify, it’s pretty much a trading cost. There are no free lunches, at least not in the investment world. Europe lacks real brokers like WeBull, Robinhood, etc., in the US, which, as I understand it, offer genuinely commission-free buying and selling.
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For me, the problem is taxation. If you copy someone’s portfolio, there can be hundreds of sales in a single day. So, how do you report those capital gains to the tax authorities? Can you get a report from eToro that satisfies the tax authorities?
So, can’t a Finn use WeBull or Robinhood? Or is the problem with taxation?
Hey, so investing in the Finnish stock exchange through eToro is not worth it, but you can buy real American stocks there “for free.” So you can make purchases with small amounts.
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Hey eToro users! Could you tell me how to deal with the Finnish tax authorities regarding capital gains obtained on eToro?
It’s apparently a book-entry account, where all sales are subject to tax. eToro, as an international investment platform, probably doesn’t handle this, so it’s the investor’s responsibility. Even though the account is abroad (apparently in Cyprus), should I still pay tax on these to Finland immediately?
Can someone tell me how to handle this? Thanks
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I started using eToro last autumn as a test for one of my gaming portfolios.
eToro does not automatically provide a summary to the tax authorities, so all sales must in principle be itemized manually in the tax return from a report downloaded from eToro. And, of course, taxes must be paid on the profit.
There have been references here to the popular method of copying other investors on eToro. This can be tempting, but I haven’t pursued it due to expected reporting challenges. The problem is that copying is CFD trading, which means losses cannot be deducted.
Instead, eToro can also be used for regular stock trading, and in that case, losses are deductible in the normal way. It’s worth familiarizing yourself with it so you know when it’s CFD and when it’s direct stock trading!
eToro seems to be doing quite well, and bull jackets and other corporate gifts arrive at the front door constantly. However, the users are still paying for it. So, even though trading is “cost-free,” the buy and sell prices are always worse than the actual rates would be. The biggest problem, however, has been the closure of some stocks. Sometimes, you cannot set a price for a sale and have to close at whatever is available on the bid at that moment. With such stocks, the only way is to monitor what is available on the bid side from Tradingview or similar before pressing the button. This can easily melt away even a percentage of the profit that the calculator showed at the time of sale.
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I’m returning to this forum as the tax return deadline approaches. Many have probably started investing on the eToro platform, and I haven’t come across this (quite essential) question before.
I started on eToro last year and learned through practice that CopyPortfolios do their “rebalancing” after the turn of the year (it might happen at other times too). This means there’s a quick sale-repurchase of the portfolio’s stocks, which is subject to capital gains tax, as eToro is naturally a securities account. Their rebalancing is frustrating in itself, as I’m personally holding for the long term with a multi-year time horizon.
So I’d like to ask the forum experts what eToro’s “pause investment” practically means? Does it freeze the CopyPortfolio so that a similar situation (rebalancing) cannot occur, and I can calmly hold without annual tax burdens? Or does “pause investment” still make sales on the account (but no new purchases)? Any experiences?
Copying CopyTraders is a separate matter. Many trade quite frequently, so my question concerns these more “hold” portfolios… Thanks!
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There was critical discussion about this topic in other threads today. I went ahead and removed the superlatives from the title, as it sounds like a silly advertisement without sources.
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