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People, for their nature, are in a constant quest for finding ways for making money or profiting from their capital. Due to the recent events though, this attitude has begun to be predominant for those restricted at home, and that’s how online stock trading began its unstoppable rise.

Between the many broker firms you can find online, there are some which may be considered more trustworthy than others. Traders tend to make a difference between regulated brokers and non-regulated ones, and for a good reason: brokerage services which are not regulated by a regulator lead often to scams and money-losses.

That’s why today our focus will be addressed towards one of the most famous regulated brokers available online: eToro.

In this eToro review we’ll discuss main features related to the eToro trading platform, regulation, fees and everything you need to know before start trading with it.

eToro: Why It’s Safe

Born in 2007 as “Retail FX” in Tel Aviv, this brokering service has now reached and surpassed $800 million in value and it’s used by +10 millions people across the world.

This achievement has been reached for many reasons, and one of these is surely being a very well-regulated broker. In fact, eToro has a presence worldwide with many offices across the world and different entities for different regions, and each one of those are regulated from local and internationally recognized top-tier regulators such as CySEC, ASIC, FCA and FinCEN.

Additionally, this broker offers high protection standards for its client’s funds. We’re speaking in regards to two measures enacted by eToro: negative balance protection and segregated accounts.

While negative balance protection consists in an automatic block of the trader’s balance before it goes in red, segregated accounts are an extra-precautionary measure useful in the unlikely case of the broker’s bankruptcy. With segregated accounts, traders’ money cannot be touched by liquidators or anyone else outside of the one who made the deposit, because they’re the only one allowed to access the bank account.

eToro: Why It’s Famous

eToro has become an international phenomena for plenty of reasons, but one of the strongest has always been related to that revolutionary idea called Social Trading.

This brokerage service has implemented autonomously a proprietary trading platform which has integrated many features inspired by main social media. Once you’ve opened eToro, you’ll find that assets are treated like Facebook’s posts or tweets, with other traders discussing and arguing on the last news regarding it.

Furthermore, what really made eToro’s fortune has been the most iconic feature of all: the Copy Trading.

This innovative feature made it possible, even to the less experienced trader, to copy other traders and their portfolio in an automated way. In fact, once enabled this feature opens any position opened in the selected portfolio, and so it will be for any future position.

Those targeted by this feature are usually a part of what we’d call “Influcencers” if we were on a social platform, but here they are called Top Investors. These kinds of traders are a sort of peculiar asset and you can invest in them depending on their risk level and your profit aims.

If you are a new trader though, we strongly suggest you to pick a Top investor with a low risk ratio.

eToro: Before You Start

If you want to start trading by opening an account with eToro, you can do it by doing a minimum deposit of only $50 if you’re a US resident. If you don’t want to commit and invest money straight away, this is not the only way to start.

As a matter of fact, eToro allows you to open a free demo account. By using this form of trading, you’ll be able to practice how much you want, without fearing making mistakes that will lead you to lose money.

If you’re a movie buff and coincidentally enjoy watching the markets as well, it’s likely you’ve seen the movie Wall Street. The villain, Gordon Gekko, is a fictional stock broker who, while being exceptionally greedy, had a knack for managing investments. Albeit fictional, he became a huge symbol for all the negative aspects of a stock broker.

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, even labeled the perpetrators of the 2008 financial crisis as “Children of Gordon Gekko”. The character is said to be loosely based on a collection of stock broker personalities including Michael Robert Milken who was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud back in the late 80s.

Obviously, this is not how the majority of stock brokers behave, so don’t let this movie skew your perception of the career. Rather, learn the true nature of the profession and gain insights from some of the most successful brokers and hedge fund managers who intend on building positive legacies for themselves. Here are four notable individuals who fit that description:

Chris Gardner

Well known for the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness”, Chris Gardner worked hard at Dean Witter Reynolds as an unpaid intern while homeless and caring for his only son in 1981. They would sleep in bathrooms and church shelters and he would be the first one in and last one out of the office aggressively calling potential clients. He eventually was able to pass the licensing exam necessary to becoming a stock broker. He later left Dean Witter Reynolds to work for Bear Stearns and became one of the top earners of the company. He now owns his own company Gardner Rich & Co LLC and has a net worth of about $60 million.

Ray Dalio

Born in Queens, New York, when he was 12 he bought $300 worth of shares in Northeast Airlines and ended up tripling his investment after the company merged. He earned his BA from Long Island University and his MBA from Harvard. Ray began his career in finance investing in commodity futures on the New York Stock Exchange. He also worked as a futures trader and a broker at Shearson Hayden Stone. He now has a net worth of about $12.5 billion and runs the largest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates. You can find an informative animated video titled “How The Economic Machine Works” on YouTube where he shares his extensive experience of the investment world.

David Tepper

He has been listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the 25 Highest-Earning hedge fund managers in 2013 and earned a whopping 61% return focusing on distressed bonds in 2001. He began his career in finance in the treasury department of Republic Steel in Ohio and later became a credit analyst at Goldman Sachs. The hedge fund firm he leads is Appaloosa Management and has earn substantial returns over the course of its history. In 2012, the firm earned a 30% return because of pinpoint exchanges on certain securities. He has a net worth of about $7 billion and engages in various philanthropic activities mainly in education and hunger. In 2003, he made a considerable $55,000,000 donation to Carnegie Mellon University’s business school. He’s leaving quite a legacy.

Bruce Kovner

This hedge fund manager has been around the block a few times, literally. He became a taxi cab driver at age 31 after quitting his Harvard PhD studies because of writers block. It was then when he decided to engage in derivatives by investing $3,000 from his MasterCard into soybean futures contracts. He didn’t accurately assess the risk of the investment when it grew to $45,000 because he waited till the price dropped to $23,000 before selling. He cites that experience as an important lesson in risk management. He eventually became a trader at Commodities Corporation which is now connected to Goldman Sachs. Currently he’s the chairman of Juilliard where he learned how to play the harpsichord. His net worth is $4.3 billion.

If interested in learning more about a career as a stock broker, visit http://www.stockbrokersalary.biz to read up on informative articles related to the profession. Also, find out how to market yourself as a stock broker to increase your client base.