Plus500 Scam?

All over, trading CFDs prove to be a complicated affair. The risks are always high. Losing money is always in the cards because of the leverage. But when trading CFDs with Plus500, the game changes. 

Working with this broker requires that one should have a deeper understanding of CFD trading. Those who go about it lightly would be quick to assume that this brokerage firm is the one responsible for all the losses that they might incur or have incurred. Hence, it’s easy for them to say that Plus500 is a scam”, treating it a mere fraud. The fact of the matter is, records speak that 76.4% of retail investors’ accounts have experienced losses for having to trade with Plus500.

What this Plus500 review aims at is delineating the capabilities of the broker, what it offers, and why it is a firm that may be one’s undoing or making.

It must be noted first that while a number of traders indeed trust the Plus500 trader in light of its intuitive platform, the research for it proves lacking, as well as its supposed trading and educational tools.

When one is to consult online resources, searching for good reviews for the firm would prove fruitful. 

Plus500 has been in the industry for 12 years. It is traded publicly on the London Stock Exchange (LSE” Plus) and is part of the FTSE 250 Index. 

The trust level through online polls illustrates Plus500, a safe broker to do business with. It is duly licensed and therefore regulated. It is low-risk. Its trust level is pegged at a high 99. While it doesn’t operate a bank, Plus500 is publicly traded. It goes by the rules of the following authorities:

• Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 509909)
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (Licence No. 250/14)
• ASIC (AFSL #417727), FMA in New Zealand (FSP No. 486026)
• FSCA in South Africa (Provider #47546)
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (License No. CMS100648-1)

Faring better than other Forex brokers, Plus500 has a total of 2033 CFDs. On top of that, The firm also trades 50 currency pairs. In addition, the firm permits the trading of cryptocurrency as a CFD. However, it is not treated as a genuine asset that comes with storage.

The minimum deposit isn’t bad, either. The Plus500 minimum deposit is at €100. Interesting to note, not even the regular traders and the VIP clients are given discounts of sorts. Plus500 even throws in highly competitive spreads for the currency pairs with the minor ones placed in a mixed bag. What this means is that the other pairs are relatively cost more. Records showed back in 2018, Plus500, the USD/CAD pair had received competitive pricing. The spread had been observed with 1.3 pips. The other pairs, on the other hand, namely the USD/CHF and NZD/USD got higher spreads as opposed to some competitors. 

On Plus500’s platform, the EUR/USD had been placed with a fixed value of 0.0000g or 0.6 pips.

The Platform

Casual investors are more than welcome to trade through PLus500. The firm had made sure to make its platform conducive across all digital devices. And while the more mainstream brokers offer compatibility with MetaTrader4, Plus500 doesn’t and only uses Webtrader as its browser-based platform. 

Also available is a Chrome app version of Plus500, making the platform available to a greater audience. The platform has advanced features such as trailing stops and Guaranteed Stop Loss Orders.

Another concern that traders usually have regarding trading platforms is the withdrawal conditions of a broker. With Plus500, a user is assured of reliable withdrawal fee conditions: 

• With Plus500 withdraw up to 5 times free of charge per month
• A charge of $10 is deducted from the account after the 5th time
• The broker will also charge $10 should a user withdraw less than $100, the platform’s minimum withdrawal amount. 
• For bank transfer withdrawals, $6 is fixed.

Notable Features for the Plus500 Trading Platform:

Throwing it in the bag, Plus500 also has features such as an economic calendar, web platform charts, WebTrader sentiment data, and educational video content. Indicative prices are also shown for the purpose of illustration. 

For its trading tools, the Plus500 mobile application offers users basic trading alerts that they themselves can set. 

The Takeaway

The facts stated place Plus500 in a positive light. Being declared as licensed and undergoing due regulation is already a win for the brokerage firm. The negative reviews that it potentially gets are all part of being active in the industry. 

It must be noted that when one gets bad publicity in the trading industry, it is only highly-likely because of some trading encounters that had gone awry, not necessarily an objective assessment of the firm’s full capacity. Also, as stated earlier, trading CFDs is not necessarily for the faint-hearted. Because of its complexities, incurring losses is more than commonplace in the CFD trading business. 
But of course, playing safe is always a wise move. It is recommended for a trader to keep reading reviews before.