Best brokers for beginners in Costa Rica in 2019

To find the best online brokers for beginners in Costa Rica, we went ahead and did the research for you. We made interviews with newbies, without any trading experience. We tested 56 brokers and 3 made it to the top. They confirmed these top 3. And now without further ado...

The best online brokers for beginners in Costa Rica are:

1. eToro is the winner. Free stock and ETF trading in the EU. Seamless account opening. Social trading experience.
2. Saxo Bank is the runner-up. Outstanding research. Great trading platform. Broad product portfolio.
3. Swissquote is placed number three. Extensive market and product access. High investor protection amount. Digital account opening.

All 3 brokers are considered safe. They are regulated by top-tier financial regulators.

What makes a good broker for beginners? Two things above all: keep it simple and guide the client. The trading platform needs to be clean, and understandable. Fair fees are also important (learn more about brokerage fee here). Have great educational tools, like a demo account, provide webinars or courses. It must be easy to open an account and deposit.

Easy to list, but hard to figure it out. We are testing brokers along with ~100 criteria with real accounts and real money. We know what's up.

Boring, but important stuff: some brokers offer CFD products. They are complex and very risky, thus not suitable for everyone. You can easily lose all of your invested money. If you don't have a clue what a CFD is, start with these CFD trading tips.

Not sure which broker? For a tailored recommendation, check out the broker finder tool. You can enter your country and it will show only the relevant brokers. Want more details? Compare brokers with this detailed comparison table.

And now, let's see the best online brokers for beginners in Costa Rica one by one. Starting with the winner, eToro.

#1 Best broker for beginners
eToro

Best social trading

eToro is a well-known fintech startup, an Israeli social trading broker established in 2007. eToro serves UK clients by an FCA regulated entity and Australians by an Australian entity. All other customers are served by a Cypriot entity. eToro is not listed on any exchange, does not disclose its annual report on its site and does not have a bank parent. It is also one of the 5 best trading platforms for Europeans.

eToro is considered safe because it's UK arm is regulated by a top tier regulator and it is a well-known fintech startup.

eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers primarily CFDs, but you can also invest in stocks and crypto assets. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 66% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Recommended for traders and those interested in social trading (copying other traders’ trades)

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Web trading platform 4 stars

eToro’s web trading platform is nice looking and easy-to-use. Getting your fee report is a bit of a pain.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Fees 4 stars

eToro offers free stock trading in Europe and has low fees for non-EU clients. On the negative side, the non-trading fees and financing rates are high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position sizes: $2k for stocks, and $20k for FX

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Education 3 stars

Education is not strong, there are medium quality videos about investing.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Account opening 5 stars

Account opening is enjoyable and super fast.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Deposit and withdrawal 4 stars

It is easy to deposit with a lot of options, including credit cards. However, there is a withdrawal fee, and only USD accounts are available.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Verdict

When looking back, eToro was a bit unreliable in 2017 because of the huge demand for cryptos. It had problems in customer support and the platform sometimes froze. In our latest test eToro improved.

On the plus side, eToro has zero-commission stock trading in Europe. The account opening is really fast and seamless. It has also a lot of innovative features, like social trading.

It has some drawbacks though. Customer service was a letdown, the platform did not work on multiple occasions. Also, it has a tight product range which includes stocks and CFDs. Non-trading fees are high.

To sum up, we recommend eToro for social trading and cheap stock trading.

Risk disclaimer

eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFD assets.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 66% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Cryptoassets are volatile instruments which can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading cryptoassets is unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 Best broker for beginners
Saxo Bank

Best trading platform

Saxo Bank is a Danish investment bank providing online trading and investments. It is a leading European retail brokerage innovator. Saxo is privately owned, established in 1992, and headquartered in Copenhagen.

Saxo is considered safe as it is regulated worldwide by more than 10 financial regulators, including top-tier regulators, like the UK FCA.

Recommended for investors and traders looking for a great trading platform and solid research

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#2 Saxo Bank
Web trading platform 5 stars

Saxo Bank's web trading platform is easy-to-use and well-designed. However, it doesn't provide a two-step login and the customizability is limited.

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#2 Saxo Bank
Fees 3 stars

Saxo Bank has average trading and non-trading fees.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position sizes: $2k for stocks, and $20k for FX

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#2 Saxo Bank
Education 5 stars

To improve your financial knowledge, Saxo Bank has a lot to offer. You can use a demo account, attend webinars, or watch educational videos.

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#2 Saxo Bank
Account opening 3 stars

Account opening is available for residents of almost every country and is fully digital.

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#2 Saxo Bank
Deposit and withdrawal 5 stars

Saxo provides multiple deposit and withdrawal options free of charge on a user-friendly interface.

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#2 Saxo Bank
Verdict

Saxo Bank is a great broker, providing a complex and good service.

It has the best trading platforms backed by great research. The product portfolio is covering all important international markets and asset classes.

It has some drawbacks though. The fees for forex, bond, options, and futures are high. The account opening can take long and the live chat is missing.

In general, Saxo Bank is one of the best online brokerage companies you can choose. By opening an account, you end up with a broad, well-developed service.

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#3 Best broker for beginners
Swissquote

Best for funds

Swissquote is a Swiss investment bank, established in 1996. It has two main arms: 

The Swiss arm for stocks, funds, options, and futures

The UK arm for CFDs, and FX

Formally, Swissquote Bank Ltd is based in Switzerland and regulated by FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator. This one offers stocks, funds, bonds, futures and options. The other, Swissquote Ltd is UK based, regulated by the FCA, the UK financial regulator, and offers CFDs and FX.

Swissquote is considered safe because Swissquote Bank Ltd has a banking license, it is listed on the Swiss stock exchange, and discloses detailed financials regularly.  

For clarity, we will call the Switzerland Swissquote for stocks "Swissquote (CH)", and the UK Swissquote for CFDs and FX "SwissquoteForex (UK)".

Recommended for affluent investors valuing safety and being ok with higher fees

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#3 Swissquote
Web trading platform 3 stars

The Swissquote (CH) platform has a lot of functions, even too many. It can get complicated. SwissquoteForex (UK)' MetaTrader 4 is a well thought out platform.

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#3 Swissquote
Fees 2 stars

Swissquote has high trading fees and average non-trading fees. As a plus, there is no inactivity fee.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position sizes: $2k for stocks, and $20k for FX

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#3 Swissquote
Education 5 stars

Swissquote provides understandable and professional educational videos, webinars, and seminars.

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#3 Swissquote
Account opening 5 stars

Swissquote offers a fast, easy, and fully digital account opening. Also, there is no minimum account balance requirement for Swissquote (CH).

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#3 Swissquote
Deposit and withdrawal 4 stars

The depsoit is fast and user-friendly. On the flip side, you can only withdraw by bank transfer.

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#3 Swissquote
Verdict

Swissquote has a rock solid background. It is Swiss, it is listed, it is a bank. It has two entities, one in the UK and one in Switzerland. If you open an account at the London-based entity, you can trade with forex and CFDs, while the Swiss entity gives you access to a wide range of asset classes from stocks to options.

Swissquote has an easy and fast account opening. We really liked its market and product coverage. There are lot of stocks, mutual funds, and a lot of different type of products from bonds to cryptos.

However, nothing comes for free. The trading fees are relatively high. 

All in all, Swissquote is a great provider. As there is no minimum deposit requirements and no inactivity fee, feel free to try it out.

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Best brokers for beginners
What makes a great broker for beginners

Now you know the best best brokers for beginners. Curious how we came up with this list? Let's go through two points. Are they safe? How did we compile the list?

Are these brokers safe?

Yes, they are considered safe. You can be sure none of them is a scam. They are regulated by top-tier regulators. Some of them are also listed on an exchange, and some have a banking background.

However, also brokerage companies can go down. Remember Lehman Brothers? In these cases, it is important to know what happens with your securities and cash. These are usually held in segregated accounts, so even in case of a broker bankruptcy, you are safe.

If everything goes very bad and for example, the broker steals your assets, then you have a last resort, the compensation fund of the country where the broker is regulated.

How did Brokerchooser pick the best brokers for beginners?

At Brokerchooser we test online brokers along ~100 criteria, with a real account and real money. Not to overwhelm you we list the five most important criteria for brokers for beginners:

Best brokers for beginners
Start your learning

When you are a beginner the best way to start your journey is to learn.

Find below some very useful learning materials to start with.

If you are considering starting. Check our learning page, a lot of great materials. You can learn about the pros and cons of investing your money on your own or the difference between trading vs investing. Also go to the learn section if you want to figure out whether you can open a foreign account.

For beginner buy and hold investors we recommend to read the how to buy shares. Have a six-step approach on how to buy shares online.

For beginners who want to learn to trade, we can provide even more. Robert, a professional trader, wrote on how to become a trader. Most of the beginner traders start with forex. If you don't anything about this topic, start with the forex 101. The CFDs also have become very popular. They are very risky. Start learning about CFDs with this CFD greenhorn and continue with the pros and cons of CFD trading.

Cryptos were among the hottest topics in 2017. Also super risky. Tibor dug in into it and found out the safest ways to invest in Bitcoin. A very interesting read, highly recommended if you are considering cryptos.

When more experienced and starting to explore futures options, you should definitely check out Gery's article on the topic.

Best brokers for beginners
Bottom line

You saw the details, now let's zoom out. Here are the best brokers for beginners in Costa Rica:

eToro is our winner, the best broker for beginners in Costa Rica. Free stock and ETF trading in the EU. Seamless account opening. Social trading experience

All are considered safe, and a great choice. Pick the winner, or any runner-up and take the next step in your investment journey. Let us know what you think in the comment section.

Still unsure? Use the broker finder and find the best broker for you.

AUTHOR

Dan Sallai

CMO

My goal is to help people find our resourceful content when they need the most. I combine my 10+ years online marketing experience with the team's finance knowledge to reach that every day. On the side I'm paying bowling, tennis and enjoy spending great time with my children.

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