eToro vs. Stake: Comparing Online Investment Options

stake vs etoro

When eToro was founded back in 2006, it was focused mainly on Forex pairs trading. Today, eToro has over 10 million customers from all over the world who join to enjoy not only FX trading but also stocks, ETFs, commodities, indices and even cryptocurrencies. eToro today has offices in Australia, the United Kingdom and Cyprus and is also licensed by each country’s financial regulator. 

3 years later in 2009, an Australian working with a trading firm in the US came up with Stake. It was a response to the difficulty he had experienced while trying to buy stocks and ETFs based in the US. Thus, Stake was born to offer stocks and ETFs to Australian clients, but with time the company grew to other countries including New Zealand and the UK. It also has licenses from relevant financial regulators in these jurisdictions to ensure all regulatory requirements are met. 

Stake

Platform ease of use

This content is not intended for US users. eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs, only real Crypto assets available.

Because you will be interacting with the trading platform a lot, eToro has made a lot of efforts to ensure that it is user-friendly even to a new user. The main platform can be accessed from a web browser from which you can trade and invest in a myriad assets offered by the company. The platform also allows you to overlay technical tools and view breaking news as you trade to analyze the markets properly. On your phone or tablet, you can also download an app that lets you do all the above, except only on a smaller display. 

eToro

Stake has also managed to keep its trading platform easy to use because the company understands that all users must be accommodated regardless of expertise. Below is a snapshot of what the trading platform from Stake looks like. As you can see, the interface is easy to understand and use, meaning that you shouldn’t have a problem navigating through the platform. 

No clear winner in this category, so it’s a tie. 

Fees

Trading fees on eToro are calculated by use of a spread. This represents the difference between the bidding and asking prices of an asset, which causes a slight variation from the listed market price. For instance, if an asset is valued at $50.50 and the spread is 0.10, you would buy the asset at $50.55 and sell it at $50.45. In general, being charged by a spread is considered cheap because the broker takes only a small fee. eToro will also charge you $5 for every withdrawal while the deposits are free. eToro charges a fixed withdrawal fee of $5 USD, Additionally, a conversion fee may be applied as withdrawals and deposits are conducted in USD. Any other currency will have to be converted. 

With Stake, the trading fees are charged according to the package you choose. The lowest package is absolutely free but with limited trading tools and order types. The second and third packages are charged $9 and $19 every month respectively with the most expensive package having more features like priority customer support. When making deposits withdrawals, you will be charged USD0.70 for every AUD100 in conversion fees, 0.5% for express funding, 2% for credit card deposits and USD2 for bank withdrawals. 

Overall, the amount of fees is almost the same and this category is also tied with no clear winner. 

Deposit methods

eToro

  • Bank transfer
  • Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, Maestro),
  • PayPal 
  • Neteller
  • Skrill

Stake

  • Bank transfer
  • Credit card

Winner here is obviously eToro.

Available assets by Stake and eToro

eToro has many classes of assets ranging from stocks to Forex pairs, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, indices and commodities. Each category has numerous assets, so the total number of assets is not clear, but it is a lot and you can be sure not to miss any asset you were thinking about investing in. Moreover, eToro has offices in several major cities, meaning that its assets are sourced from different exchanges for a broader exposure. Stake may be in several cities too, but it only specialized in US stocks and ETFs. In total, Stake boasts of having over 3,500 assets to offer, but these are only limited to stocks and ETFs. 

Stake

For this reason, eToro wins because it offers a wider variety and thus better diversity and less exposure to risk. 

Special features from Stake and eToro

One of the most appealing features that has brought so many clients to eToro is its social trading feature. eToro allows all of its traders to share their trading information so that they can also share trading ideas and perhaps even copy each other’s trades. The feature is so popular that it has created the largest social trading community in the world. Stake, on the other hand, doesn’t really have an outstanding feature to boast about. Instead, the company banks on providing access to US markets to all its clients while maintaining a balance on all other features. 

Therefore, the winner here is clearly eToro.

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