Thinking about investing ? Get started with our ranking of the best stock market investment platforms.
For the past two years, individuals and companies have been investing in the stock market. Their interest has prompted online investment platforms to offer their services. However, all sites offer different earning opportunities and services. IT’s therefore a good idea to do some research and comparisons to find out which are the best brokers on the web.
According to the AMF, more than 150,000 people are registered on financial platforms. To meet the needs of new investors, we have prepared a list of the most reputable brokers with the best user reviews, in which we also take a look at the earning potential they offer.
With millions of customers worldwide, eToro is one of the largest online trading platforms. Founded in 2007, it enables direct investments among more than 2,000 assets, including physical stocks and cryptocurrencies. You can also invest in CFDs indexed to stocks, crypto-currencies, ETF indices, commodities and currency pairs. The main advantage of CFDs is that they provide leverage, so you can multiply your trading gains. The platform also offers CopyPortfolio, thematic investment portfolios that group together assets or traders with a common interest.
EToro is favored by investors because of its high level of security. The platform is regulated by :
Etoro is also approved by the ACPR (Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution) in France. Currently, more than 20 million traders use this platform in over 140 countries. Users' funds are stored in a separate account from the platform to provide better security. In addition, traders benefit from free insurance that covers up to €1 million of funds. The platform currently has a market capitalization of over €800 million.
eToro is known for its pioneering role in social trading.
Social trading works like social networks. Users can post, share and even chat. In addition, comprehensive guides, webinars, videos and many other resources are available to learn how to trade.
This system makes it easy for beginner investors to learn financial assets and trading basics. Social trading is one of the basic features of the platform. Its existence allows everyone to find investment tips and strategies at the community level.
In addition, beginners also benefit from a continuous stream of trading news. The latter allows you to follow trader profiles and financial instruments, so you can easily identify new investment opportunities and strategies of other traders.
On eToro, beginner investors benefit from a free feature called Copy Trading. This allows them to automatically copy trades made by the most seasoned and successful traders. In addition, the site allows you to track up to 100 investor profiles. Their performance is visible, along with risk scores, success rates and many other indicators.
By signing up with eToro, you obtain a free demo account to test trading strategies with a virtual fund of $100,000. This allows you to expose yourself to market trends without the risk of losing money. This account is unlimited as long as virtual funds remain. However, you to make an initial deposit of $50 to start making profits.
At eToro, all trades on stocks and ETFs are free. Deposits and withdrawals are also free. This is because the platform earns its fees mainly from spreads, i.e the difference between the buying and selling price of a financial instrument. However, as eToro only supports the US dollar, deposits and withdrawals in any other currency are subject to a 0.5% commission.
In addition, while there is no fee for maintaining accounts, there is an inactivity fee of $10 after the 12th month with no transactions. There may also be a fee for holding assets beyond the maturity of a market.
The eToro platform is available in both web and mobile versions. It allows you to invest in both long and short term assets. Stocks are available directly, but also in the form of CFDs. This doubles the possibilities. In particular, you can invest in the most important stock markets, such as:
The stocks available are of high quality and include those of major companies, such as Google, BNP Paribas, Amazon, Bouygues, EDF, Netflix, FDJ and many others.
Furthermore, eToro also offers the possibility to invest in the Forex, or foreign exchange, market. The latter is notably the most active sector of the stock market, with a trading volume exceeding 5 trillion USD per day. To satisfy traders, the platform offers many currency pairs, including EUR/USD and EUR/GBP.
Crypto-investors are not left out at eToro. The site allows you to trade 26 of the major cryptocurrencies. In particular, you can benefit from the incredible performance of Bitcoin, whose price is currently over €52,000. The platform includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, IOTA, Dash, Tron, Stellar, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Ripple, Litecoin and many more in its list.
13 stock market indices or ETFs are also available for investment at the leading online trading company. These assets are interesting because they are indexed to the performance of the largest companies and the most profitable business sectors. For example, you can invest in CAC 40 stocks. This is an index of the top 40 French companies, such as Airbus, Alstom, Axa, BNP Paribas, Bouygues Telecom, Carrefour, Hermes, Legrand, L'Oreal, Michelin, Kering, LVMH, Orange, Renault and many others. At eToro, you can also invest in listed commodities such as oil, gas, silver and copper.
This wide choice of assets is more than favorable to the diversification of the asset portfolio, in order to limit the risks due to market movements and economic cycles.
eToro's customer support is available 24 hours a day via chat, email and social networks, excluding weekends. In addition, the average response time is no more than 24 hours. Although the platform doesn't offer phone support, traders have a comprehensive FAQ and can also seek help from the social community. However, a special customer service is available for investors who have made a deposit of $5000. In addition, traders who have a balance of more than $25,000 also receive priority support.
XTB is an online trading platform created in 2010. It is accessible in 17 countries in Europe, South America and Asia. The company is also present in France.
It offers a web interface and a mobile application to facilitate the monitoring of investments. The broker is particularly popular with both aspiring and seasoned traders due to the lack of a minimum deposit limit. Moreover, there is no commission on stock and ETF transactions for volumes below €100,000. Beyond that, 0.2% fees are charged.
XTB is a secure broker regulated by bodies such as the FCA, ACPR (Autorité de Contrôle Prudentielle et de Résolution) and AMF. In addition, investors' funds are held in a separate account managed by BNP. The assets are also secured by a guarantee set at €20,100 with the National Depository for Securities compensation scheme. This means, among other things, that traders' funds are 100% covered up to €3,000, and then 90% covered at every €19,000 level. There is also a 0.5% foreign exchange fee if you wish to make a withdrawal in a currency other than the account currency. An inactivity fee of €10/month is also charged from the 12th month of no transactions.
This broker allows you to invest in a wide range of financial assets. In addition, it offers two types of accounts :
In particular, CFDs allow you to activate a leverage effect to multiply your profits. In addition, this type of financial instrument is subject to reduced fees and spreads at this broker. At XTB, 57 currency pairs are available for investing in Forex. Traders can also take advantage of 26 cryptocurrencies. In total, more than 5200 financial assets are available at this broker to diversify your portfolio.
In addition, XTB aims to make trading accessible to as many people as possible. To do this, it offers a simple and intuitive user interface, as well as numerous charting tools. In addition, the site offers a complete training program that includes numerous training videos. In addition, the site offers a news feed that can be sorted by stock, as well as market sentiment indicators. One of the great advantages offered by this broker is also the quality of its customer service which is available in several languages. The technical support is available by phone, online chat and email.
It is one of the oldest online trading platforms. Indeed, it was created in 1997 by the Indication Investments Ltd group. This broker is regulated by CySEC and offers high security of use. It is also a member of the ICF, which allows investors to benefit from compensation funds in case of bankruptcy of the broker. In such a case, each trader will benefit from a compensation of €20,000. Currently, the platform is accessible from more than 120 countries around the world and has almost 2.2 million users.
The group offers two platforms, including Libertex, which is the main interface where traders can invest directly from the web or from their mobiles. It also offers a MetaTrade platform that is available in two versions, MetaTrade 4 and MetaTrade 5, which enable investing in various financial instruments on other stock exchange platforms.
Libertex offers access to 250 financial instruments, including equities, currency pairs, options, CFDs, ETF tracker indices, crypto-currencies and commodities, such as oil, gold and cocoa.
With 12 years of experience, AvaTrade has been operating in France since 2009. It is approved by CySEC, FCA and ASIC and complies with the latest ESMA and MIFID II regulations. This Irish broker is present in over 40 countries and physically present in many cities around the world. Headquartered in Dublin, it currently has nearly 200,000 users worldwide.
AvaTrade is particularly popular because of the ease of investing in CFDs, which allows you to take advantage of leverage to multiply your gains. Many types of assets such as stocks, crypto-currencies, stock indices, options, currency pairs and commodities are available in CFD form. AvaTrade also specializes in cryptocurrency trading. In total, investors benefit from nearly 600 choices of financial assets.
AvaTrade is particularly appreciated for its almost free services. Indeed, it is currently one of the most affordable platforms for online trading, as its commissions are limited to spreads. Moreover, the platform is available in web and mobile versions to guarantee a better ease of use. It also offers the possibility of using a demo account, to allow beginners to assimilate the features and fundamentals of trading. Thanks to the fictitious money that is used on this demo account to invest in the real markets, users are protected from any risk of loss. Many educational resources are also available on this trading platform.
For users who want to take advantage of advanced analysis features, AvaTrade is also offered in the form of the Metatrader 4 (MT 4) platform. The Metatrader 5 (MT 5) version is also available for users who want to develop custom indicators with MQL4 and MQL5 languages.
Created in 2009, BforBank is a subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole Group. This online stock market platform has nearly 230,000 users. It has been awarded for the quality of its services for three years in a row, from 2014 to 2016. In particular, it offers a bank guarantee to cover traders' assets up to €100,000.
BforBank offers ease of investment with the free version of ProRealTime. This interface is equipped with a wide range of tools that facilitate the analysis and monitoring of financial instruments. Traders can perform Kepler Cheuvreux-style fundamental analysis and use Trading Central's technical strategy features. Live Charts and Factset are also available to get recommendations and determine market sentiment.
This broker is particularly popular for its demo account, which enables users to familiarize themselves with the platform's tools and the specifics of the trading world. This allows users to bet virtual funds on trends to test strategies without the risk of losing real money.
At BforBank, opening securities accounts is free. There are no account maintenance fees and their other rates are particularly competitive.
