Image Credits: OTA Photos (www.tradingacademy.com) via Flickr
If you’ve ever wanted to get into trading, or if you’ve been trading but want to have a change of pace, getting to know your options can be tricky. Not only are some platforms a bit challenging to understand from the get-go, some platforms are outright suspicious and can make you doubtful of their performance. After all, it’s one thing to be a platform designed for trading, but it’s another to be a platform that optimizes your trading. In this article, we’ll look into this Plus 500 review – and what you should know before trading, should you want to choose this trading platform. Remember, it’s important to be one step ahead of your plans when it comes to trading, as you’re taking risks with your own expenses and savings. It’s better to know the tools you might be using, and if they’re the ones for your needs.
Plus 500: What This Review Shows
However, if CFDs are your game, then Plus 500 will make you feel right at home. In fact, Plus 500 currently has a portfolio with over 2,000 instruments – making it one of the largest leading platforms to trade in CFDs. This also makes Plus 500 one of the quickest-growing CFDs provider amongst trading platforms.
For the uninitiated, contract for difference or CFDs are a kind of contract between two parties, commonly consisting of a seller and a buyer. In these kinds of trades, sellers are supposed to give buyer a payment that’s equivalent to the difference between how an asset is currently valued, to how an asset will be valued by the end of the contract. Should the difference be negative, then the buyer will be paying the seller instead.
Plus 500: Is It Legitimate? Who Regulates It?
Plus 500 Ltd, the company behind the Plus 500 software, is in fact listed on the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) AIM section. Aside from this, Plus 500 Ltd has actually earned itself quite the reputation in the trading field, as it’s the first to introduce the popular cryptocurrency bitcoin into the realm of CFDs in 2013. By February the next year, Plus 500 Ltd has actually achieved a market value of $1-billion in the LSE.
Being listed under the AIM section of the LSE means not only is Plus 500 legitimate, but it actually has to comply with all the rules and regulations the LSE and its other regulating bodies. This means Plus 500 is also regulated by major financial institutions located in major countries, and these include:
- FCA, which is the United Kingdom’s main regulatory body for financial institutions. It stands for the Financial Conduct Authority, and it regulates Plus 500 UK Ltd via FRN 509909 as its FCA reference number.
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which is a non-profit Australian institution that is also the country’s corporate regulator. Those interested can look for Plus 500 AU Pty Ltd with the AFSL #417727, and ACN 153-301-681.
- CySEC, which is Cyprus’ way of monitoring companies and institutions offering financial services to the country and to the European Union. They make sure financial regulations and laws are followed by businesses operating in Cyprus and the EU. Finding Plus 500 CY Ltd can be done by inputting 250/14 as its license number.
Plus 500: How Does The Platform Fare?
Anyone who’s been handling trading platforms before may raise concerns primarily related to the user experience. Just how easy is a particular trading platform to use? After all, regardless of how many features a trading platform has, if it’s not laid out in a careful manner, users will not be able to enjoy it. Plus 500 understands this, and as such has provided a platform that is quite easy-to-use and efficiently laid out.
Interestingly, the Plus 500 platform makes sure everything is easy to access and easy to use. Everything has been labeled clearly in an inclusive screen, and it even has options to look at past trades and your current positions.
Users will find it extremely easy to navigate its software, as a navigation bar on the left side easily allows them to choose the kind of settings they want for their trades. In fact, CFD platforms are easily accessible on the sidebar, allowing traders to pick whether they want to do trades in forex, commodities, indices, or even shares. There’s even a timer option that allows them to show activities or a week, a day, four (4) hours, two (2) hours, one (1) hour, and even 30-minute, 15-minute, 5-minute, and 1-minute options.
You can use the platform both as a software you can download for your computer or laptop, or as a website you can view in a browser.
Plus 500: Are There Mobile Offerings?
For those interested as to just how expansive Plus 500 is as a trading platform, it’s actually one of the very few trading platforms that are offered in mobile devices. Plus 500 has both an iOS and Android version compatible with most smartphones that are iOS7.0 or higher for Apple’s flagship devices. It’s also one of the very few trading platforms available for Windows phones.
The application itself offers a simple-to-use and clean interface that can make it extremely convenient for users to make their trades. Its range of features make the trading platform very handy to use on the go as well.
In fact, it appears the application has stunned quite a lot of customers as well. It’s gained a four (4) out of five (5) star rating in the Apple Store, and it has a 4.2 rating out of 5.0 stars in the Google Play Store. Moreover, its Windows version also earned 3.8 out of 5.0 stars.
Plus 500: Free Trial Offerings
One of the most surprising features of Plus 500 is how you can open an account. Everyone is given an option to open a demo account that they can use to try the system to its fullest. Perhaps what’s most interesting about this feature is that each demo account is provided with $50,000 worth of virtual credits, all of which they can use to try and test the platform as they see fit. They can’t withdraw this in real money, of course, as this is virtual currency.
Plus 500: How Does It Fare With CFDs?
When it comes to its CFD offerings, Plus 500 actually has quite a number of options to offer. As said earlier, it has more than 2,000 instruments to choose from when it comes to CFD, ranging from commodities, to indices, forex, ETFs, and even shares. Before you begin trading, however, it’s important to remember that there’s always a risk of losing a lot of money due to various factors. In fact 74-percent to 89-percent of retail investor accounts did lose money when they trade CFDs, and as such it’s important to have a basic background on the matter in order to assure yourself that you know just where you can trade:
- Forex, also known as foreign exchange, is traded using a variety of pairs of currency. In Plus 500, forex is divided into four (4) major categories – there’s Major currencies, which include high combinations such as the Euro-Japanese Yen, and the British Pound-US Dollar; there’s the Majors II, which have other groups of major currency pairs such as the British Pound-New Zealand Dollar, and the Australian Dollar-Japanese Yen; the third group is called virtual currency, including cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; and the last group contains major-lesser currency pairs such as the US Dollar-Polish Zloty, and the US Dollar-Singaporean dollar.
- Commodities, where Plus 500 allows traders to participate in trades in commodities such as oil, gold, and even grain.
- Indices, where Plus 500 allows traders to cover indices from various countries in Europe, as well as Hong Kong and the United States.
- Shares, where CFDs such as those in Amazon, Tesla Motors, and Facebook can be traded as the users wish.
- Options, whereas a wealthy selection of options can be traded via the Plus 500 platform, such as the Deutsche Bank, Apple, and the UK 100.
- Exchange traded funds, or ETFs, where Plus 500 allows you to trade them across a wide variety of indices and commodities.
- Cryptocurrency, wherein the Plus 500 platform allows you to be able to trade in various kinds of cryptocurrencies such as IOTA, Ripple, Neo, Litecoin, Ethereum, and of course Bitcoin.
Plus 500: Keeping Yourself Safe
Interestingly, another useful feature Plus 500 has is its wide range of risk management tools. These allow you to be able to at least mitigate losses and manage the kinds of risks you’re taking with some automated tools that can be of assistance.
- Guaranteed stop makes sure your potential loss is capped at an absolute limit. These are reserved in cases wherein your position is immediately closed should it reach a preferred price, or if the market price suddenly gaps. These are available on certain instruments, which will be indicated upon selection.
- Stop limit, where profits gained from an instrument are protected once prices start moving up. The option makes sure your position is cleared when a particular stop limit is reached.
- Stop loss, which is a good way of mitigating your losses as it instructs Plus 500 to immediately close the position once prices start moving downwards from your specified value.
The Takeaway: Is The Plus 500 For You?
If there’s anything the above Plus 500 review might tell us, what you should know before trading lies not just in the kind of steps you need to do as a trader, but knowing the right platform for you to use. Just because a software touts itself as “the best platform,” or if you think a platform is impressive, means it’s automatically designed to help you become a smarter trader. Always remember that trading has a lot of complex dimensions, and having a tool that can make it much easier for you to have better and wiser decisions should be the platform of your choice. Remember to always choose wisely in order to get the best out of your equipment, tools, and software.
Michael Harris
Michael Harris is both an entrepreneur and business-oriented writer contributing his financial and business insights to sites such as TransFS. His passion for writing, combined with his business acumen, allows him to be able to write pieces that can not only help readers understand financial and business concepts, but also do so in a way that is both entertaining and enjoyable to read. He understands that finance can be a challenging subject to comprehend, and as such he makes sure he tailors his writing in order to be of use to his readers. He jogs during his free time.
