PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |
About Plus500
Located in London, UK, Plus500 LTD operates its CFD (Contract for Difference) business through a group of subsidiaries. Its UK subsidiary, Plus500UK LTD, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Its Australian subsidiary is Plus500AU Pty LTD, which is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The last subsidiary is Plus500CY LTD, with that beimh regulated by both the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and the FCA. Plus500 is also traded on the London Stock Exchange. With all these regulations, you can be assured it is safe to deposit funds and to trade with Plus500, as the brand is one of the biggest names in the world of both forex trading and forex brokers.
PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |
Accounts
There are two account options at Plus500. There’s a demo account, which can be opened at no cost and with no time limit, and there’s a live account that requires a minimum deposit of £100. Customers can receive a £20 ‘Welcome Bonus’ on any account (including a demo account), as well as receiving generous bonuses of up to £7,000 for initial deposits. The maximum leverage for forex account is 1:100. Using margin to trade foreign exchange is considered to be a high-risk activity and therefore may not be suitable for certain investor types. Simply put, that while a useful Plus 500 tool, leverage can cause both positive and negative outcomes.
PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |
Bonuses and Promotions
A great incentive for new forex trading clients is a healthy looking bonus. There are several bonuses on offer at Plus500 and they will vary from time to time in order to keep things interesting for the trader. At the time of writing this review, Plus500 is offering two different bonuses. If you are a new customer and opening an account, you will receive a generous Plus500 Deposit Bonus. This bonus will depend on the amount of funds that have been deposited. For example, if you deposit £100, you will receive an additional £30, with matter escalating from there.
In addition to the bonuses above, there is also a Plus500 non-deposit bonus of £20. This is credited to a trader’s account when he or she first registers. This Plus500 non-deposit bonus is great for a trader who wants to take the Plus500 trading platform for a test run prior to deciding whether or not to fully commit.
PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |
Platform Features
Plus500 has a very high-quality trading platform for CFD trading. This has allowed thousands of traders around the world to trade CFDs on more than 2,000 instruments, including 50 pairs of Forex and ETFs, shares, commodities and indices, covering more than 20 global markets. Adding to that, risk management is important to a trader for peace of mind, and Plus500 offers various tools related to such for traders. You can manage your own leverage and can trade with high, low or no leverage, depending on your ‘Total Position Value’ and ‘Equity’, which is derived from depositing or withdrawing funds. These values can be viewed using the Account Snapshot page, which is accessed from the main trading window.
Another tool for traders is the ability to set ‘Close at Profit’ (Limit) and ‘Close at Loss’ (Stop loss) price levels for specific instruments. These can help to limit the trader’s overall risk. In addition to these, price alerts that notify the trader when the market reaches a specific buy or sell price can be used. Unlike using a stop, a position is kept open during a price alert; allowing the trader to decide what action should be taken as the market moves. This tool is found in the ‘Instrument List’ and ‘Instrument Details’ screen, and is depicted as a bell icon. By clicking this icon, you can open the ‘Price Alert’ screen.
A trailing stop is another tool offered at Plus500. This is similar to a price limit in that both are employed to protect profits. A trailing stop that is placed when a trade is opened is used to lock in profits by closing a position at the stop’s new level and not the level it was originally placed at. The result of this is that downside risk is limited without the need for having to monitor a position and adjust the stop price accordingly.
Plus500 was one of the first brokers to offer leveraged trading on bitcoins. These have been available to traders as CFDs since April 2013, and were broker-offered at 1:4 leverage at the time. Client demand caused Plus500 to increase the leverage to 1:10. These bitcoin CFDs expire monthly, and are treated the same way as other Plus500 CFDs.
PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |
Education
One of the areas that Plus500 seems to lack is in the trader education section. Despite giving a clear explanation of how to trade, there is no fundamental or technical analysis on offer, and no real trader education section at all. Although the charting package that is provided with the trading platform gives the novice trader enough help and guidance when it comes to both forex trading and CFD trading, if a trader wished to increase his/her knowledge of trading, it is advisable to look elsewhere for this information.
Even though it lacks forex trading education, there are many freely available guides and websites on the internet for the trader to increase their knowledge. Having a more extensive education section would definitely increase Plus500’s brand value, but it certainly doesn’t bring down the overall feel of this forex broker.
PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |
Deposits and Withdrawals
Depositing into an account at Plus500 can be done using a credit card (such as Visa or MasterCard), Skrill, or via a wire transfer. The quickest way to commence forex trading is by making a deposit through a Visa or MasterCard. In order to complete the deposit, the trader needs to click on ‘Funds Management’, then ‘Deposits’, and then follow the instructions accordingly. Using Skrill to make a deposit is just as easy. The trader just needs to go to the ‘Funds Management’ window in the forex trading platform, choose the Skrill option, and then enter a Skrill email address. When this is done, a new popup window will open and this is where the Skrill transfer can be confirmed. You’ll find that withdrawal matters related to both forex trading and CFD trading here are handled in surprisingly speedy fashion.
PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |
Customer Support
Customer support at Plus500 is offered through email and fax in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Online chat is in English and other supported languages are also offered. If the chat isn’t active at the moment you need it, Plus500 customer support can still be contacted using the ‘Contact Us’ form. Unfortunately, telephone support is not yet offered. However, that doesn’t really take away from the level of customer support offered up here.
PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |
Plus500 Final Thoughts
Plus500’s website is user-friendly and uncluttered, which makes for a pleasant trading experience for both the novice and expert trader. They have nearly 15 years of experience, and because of that it’s no surprise that Plus500 has expanded to become one of the top CFD trading and forex trading services (and forex brokers) on the market today.
PLUS500 | FREE £20 NO DEPOSIT BONUS |