The game of investing vs. serious trading
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Barbara Friedberg is a veteran investment portfolio manager, fintech consultant, and expert investor. She is a published author of several books.
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Updated July 17, 2024
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Webull and eToro both have origins outside of the United States. eToro was launched in 2007 in Israel and began operating in the U.S. in 2018 as a crypto platform, with expanded assets added in January 2022. Not your typical investing app, eToro has similarities with a social media platform with the social trading aspect of the platform known as CopyTrader. CopyTrader users copy popular traders and interact with others on the home page “social feed.” With limited stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies, eToro is a bit short of a comprehensive trading platform.
In contrast, Chinese-owned Webull offers a more comprehensive investment and trading platform than eToro. Launched in 2017, Webull offers access to nearly the entire stock and ETF universe, options, margin investing, and now futures, making it a fit for beginner investors to intermediate traders. Webull offers a comprehensive trading platform, with features for both fundamental and technical traders. We should note the company has recently split off its cryptocurrency arm into a different entity, Webull Pay, so it no longer has those assets on the platform. There are no trading commissions at Webull, adding to the allure of this snappy investing platform. We’ll delve into the features, similarities, and differences between eToro and Webull to help you decide which investment platform is best for your needs.
Warning
Don’t invest in cryptocurrency unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.Take two minutes to learn more.
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- Account Minimum: $100 for stocks and ETFs, $200 for CopyTrader
- Fees: 1% crypto trading fee; no-fee stock, ETF, and options trading
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/WebullLogo-0728cf59141c4d76aa3c3e3ae1945d40.jpg "eToro vs. Webull (4)")
- Account Minimum: $0
- Fees: $0 commissions for stock, ETF, and options
Usability
On the surface, both eToro and Webull offer clean, slick interfaces with good user experience on each platform (web-based and app). The eToro website focuses first on the social aspect of the platform, with the user news feed on the home page. The eToro website and app are similar, with your portfolio and access to all assets via the “Discover” tab on the home screen. The eToro platform is more limited, with less research, fewer tradable assets, and a less sophisticated platform than Webull.
The strong social aspect is reflected in the user experience. eToro’s unique social features, CopyTrader for cryptocurrencies and the Popular Investor Program, distinguish it from Webull. These features make it easy to follow the trades of other investors and add to the social aspect of the app. This can be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending upon the profitability of the expert trades and your interest in this modernized version of coattail investing.
Webull offers web-based and downloadable trading platforms and a mobile app, which approximates the features of the computer-based experience. Webull surprises on the upside with excellent usability for such a feature-rich platform. The menu items connect to customizable quotes, stock and ETF detail pages, a customizable trading screen, and a comprehensive account tab.
Usability Verdict: Webull
While we enjoyed the social experience of eToro, Webull takes the edge in usability by having surprisingly intuitive and feature-rich platforms.
Trade Experience
Desktop Experience
Investors can trade from several screens in eToro, including the Trade, Watchlist, and Discover tabs. The eToro platform offers real-time quotes, along with ETF, stock, and cryptocurrency investing. The distinctive CopyTrader and Popular Investor Program features, in addition to the social news feed, create a game-like environment and might minimize the importance of investment research and the risk inherent in the financial markets. The Popular Investor Program facilitates the sharing of trading insights and knowledge and provides compensation to popular investors with more followers. The custom watchlists are synced across desktop and mobile platforms and can be customized with volatility alerts as well. eToro’s research and screeners are barebones, with minimal features and customization.
It’s also important to note that when markets decline, no shorting is allowed. This takes a tool designed for declining markets out of the hands of the expert traders and their followers, limiting their ability to adapt to market conditions. Moreover, eToro’s lack of proper volume indicators reduces the accuracy of any volume-related investment strategies.
Webull’s web-based and downloadable trading tools and features are more comprehensive than those at eToro. The updated Webull 8.0 adds greater customization and additional features to the trading experience. The platform provides templates for stock, ETF, and options trading. In line with more established and larger investment brokers, the features include additional technical indicators, deeper market news, additional tools for technical and fundamental analysis, and advanced customizable charting. The research continues to impress with probability and testing capabilities not often found in a streamlined investment app like Webull.
Desktop Experience Verdict: Webull
All in all, eToro leans towards confusing investing with social interaction, while Webull is a better fit for new to intermediate investors and traders looking for a feature-rich trading platform.
Mobile Experience
The mobile experience is comparable to the desktop versions at eToro and Webull. The eToro mobile app is unique within the investment app arena in that it has a social feed. This facilitates interaction with other investors and offers easy access to popular investor profiles. Beginners may like the familiar social media-like feel, while experienced investors looking to trade may be put off by the app's creative user experience.
The Webull 8.0 app’s features strengthen the mobile experience as well. Like the desktop version, the app has customizable charting, alerts, options trading, and financial reporting. Advanced traders can access smart trading tools, including 50 technical indicators, 15 charting tools, and the ability to place orders directly from the chart. The updated mobile app is designed for excellent performance on a small screen.
Mobile Experience Verdict: Webull
The mobile app at Webull is best for serious beginners to advanced investors and traders looking to research investments and trade stocks, ETFs, and options. Beginners might like eToro, but should be mindful about copying others without a basic understanding of investment principles and markets.
New & Notable
On March 11, 2024, Webull announced its plans to expand into commodities and futures trading, ahead of a planned listing later in the year. The new offerings will focus on highly liquid futures markets with features including market, limit, stop market, and stop-limit orders. Webull said customers will also gain exposure to underlying asset classes such as commodities, currencies, and indexes.
Range of Offerings
Both eToro and Webull offer stock, ETF, futures, and options, but that’s where the similarities end. Webull users can access roughly all of the 10,000 U.S. traded stocks and ETFs and can trade long and short. eToro offers a crypto wallet to support its cryptocurrency trading capabilities, while in 2023, Webull moved crypto trading into a separate business that customers now access through the new Webull Pay app.
eToro users can trade 3,250 stocks, 270 ETFs, futures, and 24 cryptocurrencies. This range of crypto landed eToro our best pick for crypto in the 2024 broker review, but we should note a cryptocurrency exchange obviously has a lot more. Neither platform offers bonds, mutual funds, or other asset classes, but Webull indicates fixed income is coming.
Range of Offerings Verdict: Webull
eToro clearly has the edge in crypto, but we found Webull had a deeper pool of stocks and ETFs available. The most commonly traded assets are available at both brokers, but Webull simply offers more of them.
Compare Range of Offerings
| eToro | Webull | |
|---|---|---|
| Short Sales | No | Yes |
| Number of No-Load Mutual Funds | N/A | N/A |
| Assets Available to Trade on Website | Stocks, ETFs, futures, options, currencies, cryptocurrencies (asset only) | Stocks, ETFs, options, futures, commodities |
| Max Number of Options Legs | 2 | 4 |
| Robo Advisory | No | Yes |
| Number of International Exchanges | 19 | N/A |
| Fractional Share Trading | Yes | Yes |
| Fractional Dividend Reinvestments | Yes | Yes |
Order Types
eToro enables simple orders like market, limit, and stop loss, but lacks more complex order types. At Webull, users will find all the typical orders as well as specialty conditional orders like one-cancels-the-other (OCO), one-triggers-an-OCO (OTOCO), and one-triggers-the-other (OTO), giving it the edge in this category.
Order Types Verdict: Webull
It is important to note that larger brokers have an even wider selection of order types. That said, Webull offers basic and complex orders that will meet the needs of the majority of traders.
Trading Technology
Both platforms offer virtual paper trading accounts, which is helpful for those practicing investment strategies before deploying real money. Other similarities between eToro and Webull include payment for order flow (PFOF) and availability of fractional shares. For example, Webull’s payment for order flow averaged $0.01088, which was definitely on the high end of the brokers we evaluated.
The broker acknowledges that PFOF is the only reason it can offer a robust trading platform commission-free. Webull is attentive to best execution practices and monitors the platform's metrics monthly, reporting price improvement of $0.0019 on average for the time period evaluated. eToro is vague regarding its actual execution speeds and order routing, reporting a modest $0.00028 in PFOF for the period.
eToro attempts to provide traders with the best execution prices and results as is reasonably possible, according to the company. No specific data is offered to substantiate the results of the trading execution claims. The platform leans towards a social, copycat, and momentum model. The social news feed works similarly to the X (formerly Twitter) or Facebook feed, with top movers and CopyTrader portfolios highlighted while typical individual investment research and selection are minimized.
Webull emphasizes transparency and achieving the best execution speeds and prices. Trades are routed based on quality of execution, not on payment for order flow. In the most recent data, orders of 100 to 499 shares are executed in 0.096 seconds, with a price improvement per share of $0.0050. The percentage of shares executed at or better than National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) is 98.61%.
Trading Technology Verdict: Webull
Overall, we found that Webull’s trading technology is better than eToro’s, and the trading features are more consistent with a serious investment brokerage platform.
Costs
Neither eToro nor Webull charges commissions to trade stocks, ETFs, or options, while eToro levies a 1% fee to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Margin fees are competitive at Webull at 9.74% for up to $25,000 and down in steps from there to 5.74% on amounts over $3 million. eToro doesn't advertise the use of margin trading very much and restricts its use.
Costs Verdict: Tie
Both are essentially no-cost brokers, but it is worth remembering that Webull offers a greater number of assets.
Compare Costs
| eToro | Webull | |
|---|---|---|
| Option for No Base Commission for Trading Penny Stocks | Yes | Yes |
| Option for No Base Commission for Stocks and ETFs | Yes | Yes |
| Number of No-Load Mutual Funds Without Transaction Fees | N/A | N/A |
| Recurring Investment Fees | N/A | No |
| Base Commission for Options | No | No |
| Cost Per Stock Trade | $0 | $0 |
| Cost Per Options Contract | $0 | $0 |
| Cost Per Futures Contract | N/A | N/A |
| Broker-Assisted Trade Fee | $0 | $0 |
| Volume-Based Options Discounts (Upon Meeting a Threshold) | N/A | N/A |
| Options Price Cap (Upon Meeting a Threshold) | N/A | N/A |
| Inactivity Fees | Yes | No |
| Account Closure Fees | No | Yes |
Account and Research Amenities
The research capabilities at eToro are light in contrast with other investment apps. Users can access a basic detailed quote including fundamental data and lists of advancing and declining assets. The basic customizable charting includes tools and studies for those interested in technical indicators. There are no traditional screeners and limited information about individual assets. The eToro Club, which offers additional features to users with higher assets under management, offers a few financial media subscriptions for those with more than $50,000, but no actual research reports.
At Webull, the research amenities include detailed quotes, screeners, tools, and calculators. The charting features are vast, and the platform offers data for both fundamental and technical investors. With the addition of Webull 8.0, the tools for intermediate and even advanced traders are on the rise and include advanced customizable charting.
Account and Research Amenities Verdict: Webull
Hands down, the research features are superior at Webull in contrast with eToro.
Compare Account and Research Amenities
| eToro | Webull | |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio Margin Available | Yes | No |
| Ability to Choose and Offer Shares Held Long to a Loan Program | No | Users can offer shares but cannot choose the stocks to loan |
| Interest Earned on Uninvested Cash | Currently 4.9% | Currently 5% |
| Uninvested Cash Automatically Swept into a Money Market Fund | No | No |
| Screeners Offered | ESG/SRI, stocks, ETFs, crypto assets | Stocks, options |
| Ability to Build Custom Screen | Yes | Yes |
| Ability to Screen Based on Technical Indicators | No | Yes |
| Ability to Save Custom Screens | Yes | Yes |
| Access to Proprietary Research | Yes, at no additional cost | Yes, at no additional cost |
| Access to Third-Party Research | Yes, at no additional cost | Yes—for an additional cost |
| Ability to Turn Screen Results Into a Watchlist | Yes | Yes |
| Trading Idea Generator Offered | No | Yes |
| Daily Market Research Reports Offered | Yes | No |
Portfolio Analysis
Neither platform wins any portfolio analysis awards. Each platform lacks linking of external accounts or in-depth asset allocation or backtesting strategies. Users can view basic account information and quotes, including price charts. The portfolio analysis at eToro lags that of most competitor investment apps. Webull narrowly improves upon eToro and offers account performance, realized and unrealized gains and losses, internal rate of return, and margin data.
Portfolio Analysis Verdict: Tie
These two platforms are essentially tied in this category as they both lack portfolio analysis tools provided by other brokers.
Education
Neither of these two brokers is exceptional when it comes to education. The eToro Trading Academy delivers educational training in video and written formats. The content is divided between beginner and advanced. That said, advanced investors are unlikely to find the breadth of investments or research that they need at eToro.
The educational topics are not comprehensive. Investing subjects largely cover crypto, options, trading, and how to use the platform. Webull’s investor education is satisfactory with short courses and articles. The topics span stocks, ETFs, trading, and options. Users will also find several videos about how to navigate the Webull platform on the Learn menu.
Education Verdict: Tie
This category is a tie as well. Investors will find more extensive educational offerings on the major investment brokerage platforms.
Customer Service
eToro lacks phone customer service and relies on digital help tickets and the FAQ/help section for user questions. Platform usage help can be obtained via videos and articles at eToro as well. Webull provides phone service with live agents during business hours. Webull also offers email support and FAQs along with platform video and article guidance.
Customer Service Verdict: Webull
Webull ekes out a lead in the customer service category, although wait times for phone contact can be long.
Security
Both platforms offer two-factor authentication and biometric logins as well as Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) insurance. eToro also offers a digital wallet in which to store cryptocurrency. For additional security, Webull offers an extra passcode for trading access. Webull has excess SIPC insurance for larger account sizes.
Security Verdict: Webull
Both platforms are secure, but Webull wins the category with additional SIPC insurance and trading security. It is important to remember that no insurance protects account holders from changes in asset values. Instead, SIPC policies protect against the failure of the brokerage holding your assets and cash.
Account Types
eToro only offers individual taxable cash accounts and options accounts, while Webull offers individual taxable cash and a margin account for those with more than $2,000 in assets.
Webull users also have access to the standard retirement accounts:
- Traditional individual retirement account (IRA)
- Roth IRA
- Rollover IRA
Webull and eToro both lack the breadth of available accounts found at major brokerage firms like Fidelity, Interactive Brokers, E*TRADE, or Charles Schwab.
Account Types Verdict: Webull
Between eToro and Webull, Webull clearly prevails with margin, taxable, and retirement accounts. A joint brokerage account would elevate Webull’s standing even more among the popular investment apps.
The Bottom Line
Webull and eToro are vastly different platforms, suitable for distinct investors. If you want to take a small amount of money to invest, follow other traders, and play at investing, then eToro works. Due to eToro’s emphasis on how other investors are trading, its opinions on various assets, the focus on momentum investing, and the minimal research information, we wouldn’t recommend eToro as your only investment app. New investors will not get a well-rounded, research-based investment education at eToro—nor will you get that at Webull, for that matter. Choosing stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto is a risk-return tradeoff and the social aspect at eToro may add to that risk by playing to the crowd-following impulses we all share.
Webull is a better alternative for investors who want access to stocks, ETFs, and options. You’ll still need to look elsewhere for basic investment education, but its fundamental and technical trading features are quite good, and even rival some of the more well-known investment platforms. Most technical traders will find what they need at Webull because the overall platform user interface and charting capabilities are excellent. Webull stands out in the investment app arena by demonstrating an ongoing commitment to improving the platform. If you are looking for a streamlined investment experience, Webull is a nice balance of keeping to its investment app roots while embracing some of the best features of its larger competitors.
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Webull. "What Do I Need to Know About the Transition to Webull Pay?"
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Webull. "Level-up Your Trading & Investing."
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Webull. "Support."
eToro. "All in One."
eToro. "Best Execution and Order Handling Policy."
Webull. "Webull's Commitment to Execution Quality."
Webull. "Webull Financial Fee Schedule."
eToro. "eToro Club."
eToro. "How Do I Earn Interest on My eToro Options Cash Balance?"
Webull. "Earn 5.00% APY on Your Idle Cash."
eToro. "SIPC Information and Account Protection."
Webull. "How Do I Trade on Margin?"
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