eToro vs Revolut: Which Platform is Better for Trading Stocks?

Want to trade stocks but don’t know how? Robinhood or Webull is not an option if you are not a US citizen. Those two platforms are trendy in the US, and almost every finance influencer on YouTube uses Webull or Robinhood. Robinhood usage skyrocketed in 2020 and 2021 when everyone jumped on the Gamestop saga. However, you can still participate in the stock market. In this blog post, I will compare Revolut and eToro to see which is better for stock trading. eToro vs Revolut: let’s see who will win this comparison.

What is Revolut?

Revolut is a financial technology company. With the Revolut app, you can transfer money to your friends, manage your money, get some travel perks, and invest in stocks and crypto assets. You can also save money in a vault and earn 1.67% annual interest, paid daily. Revolut has a free plan (standard), and you only need to pay for a physical debit card. You can also create a virtual card in your account and a disposable virtual card for short-term use. With a paid plan (plus, premium, or metal), you get more perks, such as airport lounge passes, medical insurance, and lower fees. Paid plans also offer physical card customization, where you can pick designs, colors, and materials.

The interface is very straightforward, and you can have your account in multiple currencies, so you don’t have to worry about exchanging money elsewhere. This is very useful because you can use your card anywhere and immediately see your transactions in the app. With Revolut, you can easily top up your account with money – you can transfer it directly from your external bank, or you can even receive your salary or money from freelance gigs.

Revolut seems like a great option to use for online shopping. You can quickly see transactions, and if you see suspicious activity, you can block your card and request a new one. This process is much faster than ordering a card from your bank. I always use Revolut and only hold a certain amount of money in the account. That way, I don’t have to worry about significant financial losses or fraud, and I don’t have to use my local bank cards, which protect my bank account info.

How to Trade Stocks on Revolut?

Revolut made it easy for users to own and trade stocks. Investing is available in a second.

Before you can start trading, you have to open a trading account. You will have to read all disclosures and sign the agreement.

First, you need to transfer money to your trading account. If you hold some cash in your Revolut app, you need to click on transfer money to your trading account.           

Revolut now has more than 1000 assets available to invest and trade. You can easily search for stocks by typing the company name in the search bar. Or, if you are not sure which stock to invest in, Revolut offers popular stocks, top movers, and stocks sorted in collections (or industries).

Checking Financials

When you find the stock you like, you can click on the bell in the upper corner to get alerts about this stock; you can star it to show up in your favorites list. And then you can read the financials about the particular company. The financials include the income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet. But you won’t see financial ratios that are relevant for deciding whether to invest in the stock or not. You will also see recent news, your pending market orders, and past transactions.

The overview tab will show the current stock price and stock chart (you can switch between the candle chart and standard chart). The chart can switch from 1d, 1w, and 1m to 5 years.

Scrolling down in the overview tab, you will see stats – financial ratios that tell you more about company performance. If you are serious about stock research, then per-share data and ratios are worth reading and exploring.

You will see analyst ratings and price targets at the bottom of the overview tab. These can serve for your reference but should not be used as financial advice. These are just estimates, which change periodically depending on how the market moves and the company’s past performance. It’s always a good idea to get a sense of what is happening in the global market and be aware of current market conditions. You can read our article on how to prepare for a recession.

Decision Buttons

You have two options; you can buy or sell a stock. Sell only means that you can sell existing shares that you have in your account. This is not to be confused with short selling. You cannot short stocks on Revolut. Revolut is just for simple buying and selling. When you click on buy, you are offered three different order types. Market order; limit order; stop order.

You buy a stock at the current market price with a Market Order. A Limit Order is an order to buy or sell at the specified price or better. For example, if the current price is $100, you can set the app to buy the stock if the price falls to $95. A Stop Order is an order to buy or sell a stock once the price reaches a specified price, known as the stop price. When the stop price is reached, a stop order becomes a Market Order and is executed at the best available price.

A Market Order is the simplest form, and you will have your shares immediately in your trading account. Then you have to enter how many stocks you are buying and click on buy.

Dashboard Overview

Your main trading tab will give you an overview of how your investment is doing. You will see your profit or loss in relative terms and percentage points. All your investments will be listed, and by clicking on a particular asset, you can see how the particular stock is doing and whether you want to sell it or not.

If you want to sell your stock, click the sell button and type in the number of shares you wish to trade. You can sell all your shares or just a few shares or fractions.

If you prefer desktop trading over the app, you can connect your Revolut app with the Revolut desktop. You won’t get more options – the only difference is that you get a bigger screen.

Are you looking for a reliable and efficient way to manage your investments? You can read our TradingView Review – an online trading platform that provides comprehensive tools and insights for traders.

Revolut Pros

• Revolut makes it easy to access numerous stocks so that you can build your investment portfolio. You can access the market and even research companies and their financials in a few minutes.
• Fractional shares. With Revolut, it’s easy to purchase fractions of shares. Instead of buying one entire share, you can buy 0.2 of a share. Fractional stocks are great if you don’t have enough capital or if the stock is too expensive. For example, one share of Tesla (Ticker symbol: TSLA) is over $200. But if you buy half of Tesla stock, you will only pay $100.
• Getting statements is simple. Getting your monthly reports in a PDF format is simple and transparent. This is a huge plus compared to other apps because other apps hide this information (looking at eToro vs Revolut, Revolut wins this one). Statements are essential to file for taxes and capital gains/losses. Talk to your financial advisors or tax expert. You are obligated to file for taxes each year, no matter if you have gains or losses.
• Real-time updates. Revolut allows you to open a trading account in a few simple steps. There is no need for complicated onboarding and KYC check. You can top up your account quickly and start buying stocks. And every time you open your Revolut app, you can check your portfolio. You don’t have to log in separately to check your account.
• No withdrawal fees. You can transfer your money to your regular account with just one click, and there is no need to pay fees.

Revolut Cons

Brokerage and Fees

• Third-party handles your orders, not Revolut. Drive Wealth LLC is a third-party broker from the US that processes your stocks, which can be tricky. Revolut stated: “We will not execute your Orders ourselves, but rather will transmit them to the Third Party Broker, who will be responsible for execution. We cannot control the execution of your Orders once we transmit them to the Third Party Broker, and there is no guarantee that the Third Party Broker or we will accept your Order.”
• You cannot withdraw your funds immediately from your investing account. “However, you should be aware that, whilst your profits may be credited to your Revolut Electronic Money Account, you will not be able to withdraw those proceeds until such time the transaction arising as a result of your Order to sell the relevant Instruments has settled. In most underlying markets, settlement of the Instruments available via the Revolut App typically occurs within two trading days.”
• Big fees: fee for each trade + custody fee. Depending on which account you have with Revolut, fees can vary. With a standard account, you only get one free trade per month. Once you have passed your Limit, you will pay a variable fee on each Trade (0.25%). On top of that, Revolut also charges a custody fee in USD of 0.12% / 12 bps (annually) of the market value of your assets held by the Third-Party Broker in your account. When trading, always count on those fees and check if your gains cover that.

Rules and Transfer

• Revolut has a PDT rule or Pattern Day Trading rule. Day trading refers to buying and selling the same stock on the same day. Just buying, without selling later that same day, would not be considered a day trade. You engage in Pattern Day Trading if you make more than three trades over a period of five business days. When trading in the Revolut app, you can see how many days of trades you can still make without breaching the Pattern Day Trading rules. If you are here to buy and sell stocks more than once daily, Revolut is not for you.
• No transfer of stocks. Unfortunately, Revolut does not allow you to transfer your stocks to some other brokerage firm. Revolut stated: “No, we will not accept a transfer in of any of the Instruments that you may hold outside of those acquired via the Revolut App.”

Education and Support

• Minimal education. Your capital is at risk when trading and investing your money in stocks. Stocks go up and down in value, and you cannot predict what will happen. Thus, proper education is crucial. Even though Revolut gives you some information and financial statements, you must have the financial knowledge to properly research financials. The app is very limited in performing technical analysis and reading charts. You would have to use other tools to make the right decision.
• Poor customer service. Getting help, especially with stocks, is very difficult. You can only ask for assistance through the app, and the responses that you will get are very vague. Support representatives have limiting, scripted responses, and you are left alone. Google search would get you more answers.

What is eToro?

eToro is a multinational social trading and multi-asset investment company that provides financial and social trading services. A big part of the eToro business is that you can copy other traders and their trades. Many popular investors on eToro make good returns each month, and if you like their results and system, you can copy their trades.

You can start with $1000 or less, and your money will be invested into stocks that those traders invested in. Your portfolio will work in sync when they buy or sell a stock. That is why you don’t need to worry about doing your research when it comes to stocks. You need to research those traders that you want to copy. However, it’s always a good idea to research everything and create your opinion regarding investing and picking stocks. It’s your money at the table, and it’s your capital that is at risk.

eToro is a platform for trading stocks, ETFs, CFDs, and crypto. It’s not like Revolut, where you can send money to other people. You can only trade assets, but you can do this more sophisticatedly.

How to Trade Stocks on eToro?

Trading stocks on eToro is also straightforward. I will explain how you can trade on the desktop version. You can trade on the eToro app, but the desktop version is better for exploring all the features in depth.

Before you do anything, you need to open an account. You will have to provide your name, address, and phone number, submit proof of address (utility bill or similar), and you will have to answer a few finance questions. These questions test your understanding of how the market works and whether you agree with eToro disclosures.

You would have to add money to your trading account. You can connect your bank card with an eToro account or pay with PayPal, Skrill, or Neteller.

Once you create an account, you are presented with a home page. On the left, you have a stock market overview and the current value of your portfolio. There is also a news feed below the graph, and you join the discussion regarding your favorite stocks.

You can easily search for stocks by entering the company name or ticker symbol in the search bar at the top center.

Once you find your stock, you will get all the information you need to decide whether to invest. The stock price is at the top; there is also a percentage change from the previous day. You can easily add the stock to your watchlist by clicking on ‘add to watchlist. The overview tab helps you get a quick glimpse of the company’s performance, the latest news, and the community discussion.

Reviewing Financials

You get an overview of the company’s financials in the stats tab. In addition, you can read the income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet. The best part is that you can switch between quarterly and yearly results.

The chart tab gives you all the tools necessary to perform technical analysis. You can change between 1 min. 5 min, 10 min, 15min, 30 min, 1h, 4h, 1D, and 1W charts. And you can also choose whether you want a candle, bar, or line chart. By clicking on the pen, you can add indicators such as SMA, MACD, and RSI and set support and resistance. You can easily set the trend lines and calculate everything that would help you to decide to invest. If you are unfamiliar with these terms, don’t worry, you can read more on our blog about technical analysis.

Buy/Sell Buttons

You can sell or buy the stock by clicking on the Invest button. Selling means that you are working with CFD and shorting the stock. A contract for differences (CFD) is a financial contract that pays the differences in the settlement price between the open and closing trades. In this case, you are shorting the stock and betting that the price will fall in the future.

Buying stocks works simply. You are purchasing the underlying asset commission free. You can set the rate at what price you want to buy the stock or execute it at the market (once the market opens, your trade will be executed). Then you can toggle between amounts or units. You can also set stop loss (if the price decreases to a certain point, the app will automatically sell your stock).

You can set when to take profit and at which price. And you can decide whether you want to trade with leverage (X2 and X3). Again, this is not buying a stock; it’s buying a CFD contract: higher leverage, higher risk.

If you are a complete beginner, only trade shares, meaning you buy shares without leverage (X1).

Portfolio Overview

Once you buy the stock, it will show up in your portfolio.

In the left menu, you have a few tabs: portfolio is one of them. In your portfolio, you will see how many units of stocks you have, the average open price, how much you have invested, and what your profit or loss is for the particular stock. If you want to sell your stock, click on the sell button next to each stock. You can either sell all your stock or just fractions of shares.

Watchlist is also a helpful tab in the left menu. You can create multiple watchlists and see how your favorite stocks are doing. In addition, you can also discover people and smart portfolios. Yes, you can see what other traders are doing and copy their portfolios. That is the entire gist of eToro: social investing. You can follow the best traders on eToro and do precisely what they are doing.

The newest feature on eToro is smart portfolios. You can find your perfect portfolio by theme, type of asset, risk score, and more. These are portfolios made by eToro and are managed by experts. For example, if you want to invest in renewable energy, there is a smart portfolio called renewable energy. Investing in that portfolio is investing in different companies operating within the renewable energy space.

eToro Pros

Research

• Better research + more information. When researching a company, eToro gives you plenty of information and relevant news. You get real-time updates, and you can make an informative decision. News and updates, financial statements, ratios analysis, and analysts’ opinions are all available to you.
• Weekly webinars and educational videos. What eToro does well is proper education. You have daily, and weekly webinars where analysts give their opinion on the market and what they expect will happen in the future. Sam North hosts these eToro webinars, and he even offers mini-courses on how to perform technical analysis. You can check out webinars here: eToro webinars.

Design and Performance

• Simple design + ability to create multiple watchlists. eToro desktop platform is well designed, and you can easily find information there. Buying and selling are intuitive. Also, with eToro, you can create multiple watchlists and make your collections and ‘smart portfolios.’
• Draw on charts and perform the technical analysis. Technical analysis is critical if you are serious about short-term investing. eToro offers many indicators that can be included on the chart, and you can draw and perform technical analysis properly. You don’t have to look for other tools and use other sites. eToro gives you all in one place.

Community

• Engage with the community and ask questions. Social trading and investing are what make eToro unique. You can discuss with other traders and get more information about a particular company. You can even create your following and become a popular investor on eToro if you have a good trading track record. The best part of it is that eToro pays you for that.

Fees

• Lower fees. eToro charges zero commissions when you buy or sell a stock. However, that is only for stocks, not CFDs. If you are holding CFD, you will be charged an overnight fee. It is also called a rollover fee and refers to the payment for having a CFD position overnight.
• No PDT rule. eToro lets you trade as much as you like, and you can make as many trades per day. The platform is suitable for both short- and long-term investors.
• Free demo account $100k. eToro gives a free demo account, and you can have a budget of $100000. You can easily practice your trades and get confidence before you start investing real money.

eToro Cons

• Social trading is tempting and can’t lead to bad decisions. Yes, social trading has good and bad sides. Even though you can copy someone with just one click, it doesn’t mean that this person did a great job of picking good stocks. Also, stocks go up and down in value, and no one can predict what will happen tomorrow. You can quickly lose all your capital. That is why you always need to do your research and be aware of what you are investing in.
• Can’t access statements easily. Getting your monthly reports is critical to file for taxes at the end of the year. However, eToro somewhat hides this information, and you must dig deeper to access those statements.

Final verdict – eToro vs Revolut

eToro has more pros than Revolut and is a winner here. Revolut is more of a money management app that gives you an option to invest in stocks and crypto. However, eToro’s primary business is trading and thus gives you everything to succeed in the market and make a good investment portfolio. Clearly, eToro vs Revolut fight is pretty straightforward. However, both options are good, especially if you are not a US citizen and looking for a simple way to invest. Both apps are easy to navigate, and you won’t get lost in overcomplicated tasks.