Intro and winners
Find below the strengths of the best social trading platforms in the United States, updated for 2024:
- eToro is the best social trading platform in 2024 - Low stock and ETF fees. Seamless account opening. Social trading.
- tastytrade - Low trading fees. Great educational materials. Good research tools.
- Optimus Futures - Low trading fees and free ACH withdrawal. Great platform and research. Fast customer service.
- AMP Futures - Low trading fees. Great platform and research. High-quality education tools.
- TradeZero - Low stock and ETF fees. Quick and easy account opening. Excellent education and customer support.
- Interactive Brokers - Extremely low fees. Wide range of products. Many great research tools.
- Charles Schwab - Free stock and ETF trading. Outstanding research. Great customer service.
- Fidelity - Commission-free US stocks and ETFs. Great trading platforms and research. US and international stocks.
- Oanda - Great trading platforms. Outstanding research tools. Fast and user-friendly account opening.
- Merrill Edge - Low trading fees. Easy and seamless account opening. Strong parent company.
Overview of the best social trading platforms
While many brokers that provide social trading offer an excellent service, the ones in our toplist go the extra mile.
| Broker | Markets and products score | Minimum deposit |
|---|---|---|
| eToro | 3.8 /5 | $10 |
| tastytrade | 3.1 /5 | $0 |
| Optimus Futures | 2.1 /5 | $500 |
| AMP Futures | 1.7 /5 | $100 |
| TradeZero | 1.9 /5 | $250 |
| Interactive Brokers | 5.0 /5 | $0 |
| Charles Schwab | 3.7 /5 | $0 |
| Fidelity | 3.1 /5 | $0 |
| Oanda | 2.2 /5 | $0 |
| Merrill Edge | 2.1 /5 | $0 |
Popularity of the best social trading platforms
Interested in what others think? Here's how many people chose these brokers at BrokerChooser in the last 6 months.
Fee comparison at the best brokers for social trading
In most cases, the key broker selection criteria is how much you have to pay for a trade in spreads, commission and other trading costs, so we collected the fees for the most important assets in the table below to help with your calculations.
| Broker | US stock | EURUSD spread |
|---|---|---|
| eToro | $0.0 | 1.0 |
| tastytrade | $0.0 | - |
| Optimus Futures | - | - |
| AMP Futures | - | - |
| TradeZero | $1.0 | - |
| Interactive Brokers | $1.0 | 0.1 |
| Charles Schwab | $0.0 | 1.4 |
| Fidelity | $0.0 | - |
| Oanda | $0.0 | 1.0 |
| Merrill Edge | $0.0 | - |
If you are unsure how brokerage fees work, check out our article on the various fees, charges and costs.
Other fees at social trading platforms
Other fees consist of charges not directly related to a given trade and typically include the account maintenance fee, deposit/withdrawal fees, and the inactivity fee.
| Broker | Account fee | Inactivity fee |
|---|---|---|
| eToro | ||
| tastytrade | ||
| Optimus Futures | ||
| AMP Futures | ||
| TradeZero | ||
| Interactive Brokers | ||
| Charles Schwab | ||
| Fidelity | ||
| Oanda | ||
| Merrill Edge |
What is social trading?
Social trading lets online traders connect and share information and insights about market trends, trading opportunities and techniques. If you engage in social trading, you can follow and monitor the activities of more experienced or successful traders and see their trades, their performance, and their strategies.
Some social trading platforms allow users to automatically copy the trades of other traders they follow. When the followed trader opens a position, the same position is opened in the follower's account. This is called copy trading and is a related concept to social trading.
Social trading often includes features for communication and interaction among traders. Users can discuss trading ideas, share insights, and ask questions. This type of trading creates a sense of community among traders, where knowledge sharing and collaboration can occur.
Social trading can be seen as a way for less experienced traders to learn from more seasoned professionals and potentially achieve better trading results. However, it also comes with risks, as blindly copying another trader's actions without understanding the underlying strategies and market conditions can lead to losses.
How does social trading work?
Several online brokerages offer social trading, such as a community forum or a platform for their clients to interact with each other, share ideas and insights about trading and investment – pretty much like a social media platform.
These social trading platforms allow traders to set up profiles and connect with each other to discuss market conditions and trends, portfolio strategies, trading opportunities and trading signals, or comment on market news and events.
When you sign up for a social trading platform, you can see other traders’ profiles and key information about their trading activity, such as strategies and risk management tools used as well as their historical performance. You can choose to follow the traders you want to learn from and analyze their trades. This can be a way of improving your own trading performance. On a copy trading platform, you pick the trading positions of other traders you want to replicate in your trading account.
A word of warning, though. When you copy trade, or even if you just emulate certain aspects of other traders’ strategies, being mindful of your risk profile should always be your biggest priority. You should consider your risk tolerance level and never risk more than you are comfortable losing. Also, carefully look at the range of risk management tools applied by the traders you are following.
And now, let's see the top brokers for social trading for 2024 in detail one by one, starting with the winner, eToro.
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eToro USA LLC; Investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal
| eToro snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $10 |
| Markets and products score | 3.8 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer, Credit/debit cards, eToro Money, Neteller, Skrill, Trustly, iDEAL, Przelewy 24, RapidTransfer, Klarna, Giropay |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer, Credit/debit cards, eToro Money, Neteller, Skrill, Trustly, iDEAL, Przelewy 24, RapidTransfer, Klarna, Giropay |
| Withdrawal fee | $5 |
| Overall fee score | 4.0 stars |
| Inactivity fee | Yes |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of eToro services, check out our review for 2024 |
| tastytrade snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $0 |
| Markets and products score | 3.1 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal fee | $0 |
| Overall fee score | 4.1 stars |
| Inactivity fee | No |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of tastytrade services, check out our review for 2024 |
| Optimus Futures snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $500 |
| Markets and products score | 2.1 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal fee | $20 |
| Overall fee score | 4.7 stars |
| Inactivity fee | No |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of Optimus Futures services, check out our review for 2024 |
| AMP Futures snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $100 |
| Markets and products score | 1.7 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal fee | $30 |
| Overall fee score | 4.7 stars |
| Inactivity fee | No |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of AMP Futures services, check out our review for 2024 |
| TradeZero snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $250 |
| Markets and products score | 1.9 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal fee | $15 |
| Overall fee score | 4.1 stars |
| Inactivity fee | No |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of TradeZero services, check out our review for 2024 |
| Interactive Brokers snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $0 |
| Markets and products score | 5.0 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal fee | $0 |
| Overall fee score | 4.5 stars |
| Inactivity fee | No |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of Interactive Brokers services, check out our review for 2024 |
| Charles Schwab snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $0 |
| Markets and products score | 3.7 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal fee | $0 |
| Overall fee score | 3.8 stars |
| Inactivity fee | No |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of Charles Schwab services, check out our review for 2024 |
| Fidelity snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $0 |
| Markets and products score | 3.1 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay |
| Withdrawal fee | $0 |
| Overall fee score | 3.3 stars |
| Inactivity fee | No |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of Fidelity services, check out our review for 2024 |
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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money
| Oanda snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $0 |
| Markets and products score | 2.2 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer, Credit/debit cards, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer, Credit/debit cards, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller |
| Withdrawal fee | $0 |
| Overall fee score | 4.3 stars |
| Inactivity fee | Yes |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of Oanda services, check out our review for 2024 |
| Merrill Edge snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | $0 |
| Markets and products score | 2.1 stars |
| Deposit method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal method | Bank transfer |
| Withdrawal fee | $0 |
| Overall fee score | 4.3 stars |
| Inactivity fee | No |
| Read review | For a detailed analysis of Merrill Edge services, check out our review for 2024 |
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How did BrokerChooser select the best social trading platforms?
- We checked whether the broker is overseen by a trusted regulator,
- Compared fees (including spreads, withdrawal fee, commission),
- Ranked account opening factors (such as account opening time, minimum deposit),
- Checked the quality and user-friendliness of their social trading services,
- Opened an account and tested the platform (charting, features, usability) with real money.
Save hours of research!
Our expert team has done all the work for you, and reviewed brokers based on BrokerChooser's unique methodology.
BrokerChooser evaluates 9 key areas for all brokers including fees, safety, ease of account opening, education and trading platforms. We check more than 600 criteria for each broker and fine-tune our methodology every year based on our own and users' experiences. We have more than 100 brokers reviewed on our site and our team of analysts examines more than 60,000 data points overall.
FAQ
How to find the best social trading platform?
The key aspects to consider when choosing a broker for social trading is the availability of this feature. Regulation also plays a major role. Make sure you always select a broker that is licensed or overseen by a top-tier regulator, such as the SEC in the US, the FCA in the UK or BaFin in Germany. Check to see if the broker accepts clients from your country of residence and keep an eye on costs and charges.
What is a social trading platform?
Social trading is a form of investing whereby you copy the investment strategies of others using copy trading or mirror trading. It's suitable especially for people who don't want to spend too much time trying to find good trading opportunities or strategies. A social trading platform is a service that, in addition to normal trading, lets you copy other people's trades.
What is the difference between social trading and copy trading?
Social trading is being part of a trading community and connecting to other traders to share information, trading strategies and exchange ideas about investment and trading. The focus is on communicating with other traders with the aim of learning from them and speed up the learning process on your trading journey. The goal is to improve your skills as a trader and build your knowledge about financial markets, trading and investing.
Copy trading is a function offered by your broker on a specific platform where you either automatically or manually copy the trading positions of selected traders. This strategy requires little or no prior trading experience or knowledge about financial markets.
While social trading requires your time and effort to develop your trading skills, copy trading is a hands off strategy and saves you the time you would spend on analyzing markets and finding trading opportunities.
Is social trading legitimate?
Yes, social trading and copy trading are legal in most countries, but do your due diligence when choosing a broker to trade with. Make sure it’s authorized and regulated by an established regulatory body, such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the SEC in the US, ASIC in Australia, or BaFin in Germany. BrokerChooser’s top lists only feature regulated brokers.
Why do people use social trading?
Online traders often seek to become part of a trading community or network for traders to fast track their learning process in their trading or investing journey. They communicate with other traders to gain knowledge about trading strategies, spotting opportunities, risk management and events that shape financial markets. This way they will become seasoned traders themselves much faster.
Traders may also choose to open copy trading accounts, which is a form of social trading but without the need to have prior financial knowledge or experience. The goal is to automatically or manually copy other traders’ positions. This may be a short-cut to profit, but you are also replicating loss-making positions as part of this strategy. Be mindful of your own risk tolerance and only put at stake what you can afford to lose.
Is copy trading profitable?
Copy trading can be profitable, but you must be aware of the risks. There is no guarantee that the positions you are copying will be profitable. When you choose a trader to follow and copy, you are surely picking traders with a track record of successful trades. But past performance itself is never a sufficient indicator for future performance.
Want to understand social trading better?
Check out this article written by one of our broker and trading experts:
Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.
