How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro
Learn How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro and take the guesswork out of trading and investing while you learn.
Your capital is at risk. Other fees apply.
How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro
How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro
Learning How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro may be one of the smartest things you ever do as a trader and investor. One of the most common difficulties experienced by traders, especially new traders, is trying to identify which stocks or assets are the ones that they should be watching or investing in.
The thing that makes this task increasingly difficult is that while you are trying to learn what to trade as well as how to trade, the market conditions are constantly changing around you. This means that was was the case in Quarter 1 may no longer be the case in Quarter 2 of any given year. Enter Smart Portfolios.
Trading in Smart Portfolios is a foolproof way of being able to identify and invest in the widest range assets without needing to spend years learning how they are each interrelated and when they should be traded. This includes Stocks, Cryptocurrencies, Forex, Commodities, Indices and EFTs. It’s like walking around with your own personal hedge fund manager right in the palm of your hand.
We will explore the advantages of Smart Portfolios further down, however, for the moment we need to make sure we have covered the steps in How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro.
The first thing you need to do is to open an account on eToro.
How to Open an Account on Etoro
Step 1 – Open an Online Trading Account with eToro
You need to start by signing up for an account if you don’t have one yet. Once you visit eToro’s website, you will notice a button for registration. By clicking on it you open the registration window on which you must fill in your email, and account username, and create a password. Next, you need to visit your email to verify your eToro account by providing a link and continue the registration process.
To complete your account you need to provide such personal details as your name, surname, birth date, address, and phone number. After you fill in your phone number you will get a special code on it which you must use to undergo the phone number verification process. In the end, eToro will also ask you some questions about your capital, job, investment goals, etc.
Step 2 – Complete the Necessary Information and Verify Your Account
eToro is a highly regulated brokerage platform and according to these regulations, each account that wants to trade on the platform must be verified. Hence, after you complete the whole registration process you must go through the KYC process. There are 4 levels of verifications required by the broker.
- Verification by email.
- Verification by phone number.
- Proof of identity verification.
- Proof of address verification.
You automatically do the first two verifications when you register for an account, but after that, you must continue with the second two and provide the necessary documents to complete the verifications. Here are the documents you can provide to verify your identity.
- A copy of your passport.
- ID copy.
- A driver’s license.
As proof of your residential address, eToro accepts the following documents.
- Credit card/bank statement.
- A utility bill (gas, electricity, water, or internet).
- Social insurance statement.
- Government tax letter/council tax.
- Driver’s license, etc.
Once you provide the required documents correctly, eToro will verify your account in up to 3 business days about which you will be notified. You can easily check whether your profile is verified or not in the “Settings” section. Moreover, a green tick will appear next to your account name once it’s verified.
Step 3 – Fund Your Account
After you complete the registration and verification of your eToro account, you can eventually fund it to start buying stocks. Clicking on the “Deposit Funds” button a window will spring up where several payment options are listed including bank cards, wire transfer, online banking, rapid transfer, and e-wallets, such as Skrill and Neteller. You need to select one of them which is more appropriate for you and provide the necessary details about your payment methods.
Afterward, select the currency in the appropriate section and type the amount you want to deposit. Of note, eToro charges a conversion fee for non-USD contracts and a withdrawal fee of $5 but the US clients can enjoy free withdrawal and deposit options irrespective of the payment method. Also, keep in mind that there are speed differences between the payment methods: for example, bank card transactions are conducted faster than the wire transfer options which may take up to 7 business days.
Once you have completed these steps, you are ready to start looking at the Copy Trading options available on eToro.
Your capital is at risk. Other fees apply.
Start Trading Smart Portfolios on eToro
Learning How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro is easy when you have the steps to follow.
Once you have followed the above steps to open an account on eToro, the next step is to navigate your way to the Smart Portfolios for you to review. To do that start on your homepage also referred to as the dashboard.
Once you are there navigate to the left hand side of the page to the grey menu where you will see a menu option called, Discover. Click on it and go to the following page.
Once there, scroll down until you see the heading called Smart Portfolios. Once you see it, click the button to the right of the heading that reads, view all.
Once you have clicked view all this will take you to the summary page for Smart Portfolios. From here we can start to look at each of the Smart Portfolios that are available for you to trade and make some recommendations.
Summary of the Smart Portfolios on eToro
At the time of writing there are 70 Smart Portfolios available to trade on eToro. In addition, there are also some CopyTraders whose portfolios are included as being Smart Portfolios because the they have a centralised approach to trading such as being a Difi only portfolio.
As a result, for you to be able to make the best use of the variety of Smart Portfolios available it is essential that you filter the results. There are a variety of ways for you to do this such as by interest area.
Filter Smart Portfolios by Interest Area
Once you land on this page, you can scroll down until you see a section with a large green button that says filter by interest. Once you see it click it.
Once you have clicked this button a pop up will appear on your screen to ask you to filter the portfolios by interest area. The areas that you can filter by are Software, Tech, Financial Services, Crypto, Retail, Consumable Goods, Medical Tech, Durable Goods, Manufacturing, Transportation, ETF and Media Services.
Click the whichever area(s) that you are interested in trading. Once you have done this click the blue button below which will show the results.
Other Ways to Filter Smart Portfolios
In addition to filtering the Smart Portfolios by interest area you can also filter directly from the Smart Portfolio summary screen by the following areas:
- Most Popular
- Tech Based
- Crypto Focused
- Partner Portfolios
As with the previous screen when navigating to the Smart Portfolios page, to see more of the any particular option, simply click the View All button to the right hand side of the screen.
DefensiveTrading.com Preferred Method
At DefensiveTrading.com we actually prefer an alternative method to the above options for filtering the Smart Portfolio results on eToro, unless you are looking for an industry specific portfolio. This method is to simply scroll down the Smart Portfolios page until you reach the end where there is a button to View All portfolios.
If you click on this link it will take you to a page which does not exclude any of the portfolios so you are able to compare and contrast them equally and see portfolios that you might otherwise have filtered out unintentionally.
Now let’s take a detailed look at some of the various Smart Portfolios available on eToro. Afterall, no guide on How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro would be complete without a review of the Portfolios themselves.
Your capital is at risk. Other fees apply.
Smart Portfolios on eToro
With so many Smart Portfolios to choose from, we wouldn’t be able to provide an exhaustive list, however, we can definitely select some of our favourites so we can illustrate how the Smart Portfolios are compiled and thus why we love them so much.
Gold and Energy Smart Portfolio
This is one of our favourite Smart Portfolios on eToro at the moment. This is for two key reasons; returns and safety.
It has long been acknowledged that during times of economic uncertainty or downturn investors have historically flocked to ‘safe haven assets’. These include assets such as the USD, JPY and CHF currencies as well as Gold and other commodities, such as silver, copper, sugar, corn, and livestock.
Trading Tip: A Safe Haven Asset is believed to be a safe investment, especially in an unstable market and offers investors a reliable store of value which behaves like a hedge for an investors portfolio.
As the name would indicate, the Gold and Energy Smart Portfolio is a compilation of 14 assets including leading ETFs from the energy sector as wella s CFD stocks and commodities. Because the Gold and Energy Portfolio is completely managed by eToro, once you invest you can literally sit back and do nothing while your investment is working for you. This includes the annual ‘rebalancing’ that takes place every January.
During this rebalancing period, the involves the closure some of the positions within the Portfolio and reinvestment in new positions within the sector. As an investor you don’t need to do anything as all the day to day management is handled by eToro.
As you can see from the above image of the Gold and Energy Smart Portfolio, an investor who had invested in this portfolio 2 years ago would have a 37.46% ROI now.
Aussie Economy Smart Portfolio
Equal to our love Gold and Energy Smart Portfolio on eToro would have to be the Aussie Economy Smart Portfolio.
As we will explain, this is actually for very similar reasons. Australia is rich in agricultural land as well as being abundant in natural resources such as Gold, Iron Ore, Lithium as well as Liquified Natural Gas and Coal. In addition, Australia is a low-risk and stable country which has managed to flourish throughout the centuries.
This portfolio is comprised of 35 leading Australian companies from a variety of sectors including mining, oil and gas, banking, software, food, biotech and more.
Returns over the last 2 years have been 11.00% as can be seen in the accompanying image above.
Private Equity Smart Portfolio
The third Portfolio we have chosen to highlight is the Private Equity Portfolio for the reason that it is a great example of the power of Smart Portfolios.
In this instance, in contrast to the earlier two examples, the Smart Portfolio is not simply investing in a basket of assets grouped together by some commonality. In fact, the idea behind this portfolio is kind of genius.
Private equity is an alternative investment class which consists of investing in or acquiring private companies, or taking public companies private and restructuring them. Private equity is also a form of financing in which the acquired companies can raise capital to grow, make acquisitions, expand working capital or solidify a balance sheet.
Trading Tip: Private Equity refers to investment funds that engage in financial activities with private companies that are not publicly traded in a stock exchange. So essentially, this means that through the use of this Smart Portfolio, you are able to invest in the funds that invest in companies that aren't publicly traded and therefore beyond the reach of the everyday inventor. Furthermore, for you to be a direct investor in these funds it would usually take a initial capital investment of US$25 million and a minimum hold period of 10 years. However, luckily for us, eToro has reduced those barriers to entry by compiling this Smart Portfolio so that you can invest in the Private Equity field for just US$500.00. This portfolio offers a diversified selection of 16 global exchange-listed private equity firms and investment companies. The strategy includes indirectly investing in private equity funds, as the stock performances of the firms reflect their success in acquiring and managing privately held companies.
Would you like know more about Smart Portfolios? Please see our related articles How to Invest in the Warren Buffett Investment Portfolio on eToro, Renewable Energy Investment Portfolio, and 4 Inflation Hedge Investment Portfolios.
Your capital is at risk. Other fees apply.
The Pros and Cons of Trading Smart Portfolios on eToro
eToro Smart Portfolio Pros
✅ eToro supports thousands of stocks and ETFs listed on such stock exchanges as NASDAQ, NYSE, etc.
✅ Not only US companies but also companies based in Germany, France, the UK, Canada, Spain, and several other countries, are listed on eToro.
✅ The platform is extremely versatile and you can buy multiple other assets along with stocks, including cryptocurrencies, forex, commodities, and indices which are also available through contracts for differences.
✅ The broker offers a competitive pricing structure – you can buy stocks with zero commissions and spreads are below market rates.
✅ eToro supports a social trading platform where users can have discussions with other traders, ask questions to experts and follow the news.
✅ eToro offers other free social trading tools in addition to CopyTrader and CopyPortfolios which can be used to mirror the trades of any trader with a click of a button.
✅ The broker is very safe and uses top-notch safety mechanisms to protect your account from fraud and malicious logins.
✅ eToro is a highly regulated platform and is registered with such reputable institutions as ASIC in Australia, CySEC in Cyprus, FCA in the UK, and FinCEN in the United States.
✅ The platform is very beginner-friendly: it has a simple-to-use interface and educational content for newbies.
✅ eToro supports multiple payment methods – credit and debit cards, bank transfers, rapid transfers, Neteller, Skrill, etc.
eToro Smart Portfolio Cons
❌ The platform is not available in many US states.
❌ Customer service by the Copy Trader is not guaranteed.
❌ The broker does not impose minimum level requirements for CopyTraders.
❌ The charting software is limiting on the platform, however, this can be overcome by using the advanced charting options at Trading View.
Conclusion to How to Trade Smart Portfolios on eToro
Well if you aren’t convinced by now that trading Smart Portfolios on eToro is the easiest way to start investing like a pro then we don’t know what will. At Defensive Trading we place special focus on the successfulness of traders and that is why we are such big fans of these investment opportunities.
With 70 Smart portfolios on offer on the eToro platform there is literally something for every budget, interest area and trading and investment goal. No matter if you want short term results or to buy and hold for several years, the Smart Portfolios on eToro have you covered.
These investment opportunities take all the guess work out of investing and let you turn one idea into a million with the click of a button.
As we mentioned above, you are able to open and close all the investments in these Smart Portfolios with the click of a button (literally, one click!) and you are able to navigate the changing economic landscape like a one man, or woman, hedge fund.
Your capital is at risk. Other fees apply.
[…] here to read more about the SmartPortfolio’s on […]
[…] It might be electric vehicles, renewable energy, drone technology, cryptography, or cyber security. Smart Portfolios, which focus on similar themes as those stated above and many more, are a great resource for […]