eToro is a rapidly growing trading platform and app with a very friendly user interface.

It provides access to a large number of markets; including stocks, foreign exchange, commodities, and recently, cryptocurrencies – including Bitcoin and Ethereum – and is regularly updated with new features and in-demand assets.

The trading window is super easy to get used to – lacking the complexity of a lot of trading platforms out there. Not confident enough to trade real money? eToro gives you a $100,000 practice account to get used to things like leverage and proper risk management, or to practice your own trading technique. Alternatively, traders can sign up, hit ‘Trade Markets’, and jump right in – choosing from the huge range of assets that eToro offers.

“For more than a decade, eToro has been a leader in the global Fintech revolution. It is the world’s leading social trading network, with millions of registered users and an array of innovative trading and investment tools.“

Or just dive right in and let someone else work for you!

They were the first to implement so-called ‘Social Trading’, allowing its 5 million+ users to share trading knowledge and thoughts with each other, and copy other traders’ portfolios in a process known as Copy Trading.

If you don’t understand trading, or simply don’t want to put in the effort yourself, you can profit from someone who does. Simply find someone whose investments match what you’re looking for (market, risk, profits, etc.), assign the amount you want to invest, as well as your Copy Stop Loss (the amount you’re willing to lose whilst copying them before eToro automatically stops the copy), and you’re set to go. Now they’ll do the hard work for you, and you can sit back and enjoy the profits.

I recommend users Trex8u247 (24% in the last 12 months), and AlexPlesk (31% in the last 12 months). They regularly update their copiers on investment strategy, and have great risk management.

This is truly trading for the lazy, and here at My Idle Income, there’s nothing more attractive.

One of the more recent updates to the platform allowed users to purchase the underlying asset in the case of shares and cryptocurrencies. Previously, users would purchase what’s known as a Contract For Difference, or CFD, essentially betting on the direction an asset price will move. This new development not only makes eToro a “real” trading platform, but opens up the possibility for users to generate passive income through dividends.

A personal favourite is the DGRO – iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF, which invests in a selection of dividend-paying stocks to generate investors passive income over time.

For those with larger investment balances, there are the CopyFunds.

These funds, managed by the eToro team, have a minimum $5,000 investment, but there are some really interesting and effective funds on the platform. Outsmart NASDAQ, for example, combines machine learning and wisdom of the crowd in order to create a portfolio that’s intended to outperform the NASDAQ index of tech stocks. Again, once you allocate your money to the fund, you can sit back while eToro does all the work for you.