If we take a look at the development of eToro, both in terms of the eToro platform and the services it provides, its path in the forex industry very much resembles that of the forex trader. eToro started out with the stated purpose of introducing novice traders to the forex market and making their transition into forex trading as smooth as possible.

The platform accomplished these goals through the innovative use of trade visualizations which made the workings of the forex market visible to the trader in the shape of marathons, world trading centers and other graphic representations. By looking at how the market works, novice traders could grasp forex trading more quickly and easily. Of course no novice trader can understand the forex market just by looking at how his positions function in the market, so eToro also provided novices with plenty of guides, video tutorials, glossaries, community tools and practice opportunities.

The strategy paid off big time. Traders from all over the world flocked to eToro more than to any other platform because they could start trading with a small deposit and gradually pick the necessary skills to trade currencies. With the novice trader market covered, eToro started realizing that just as their traders were becoming more advanced with time, so do they have to start incorporating more advanced trading and analysis tools and appealing to a more advanced public of traders. To do this eToro created the eToro “expert mode” – an all in one advanced trading interface that incorporated advanced charting tools with user friendly interface design.

Here the most advanced traders could get all the forex data and technical charting info they could possibly want with the click of a button. The intuitiveness of the eToro interface made forex trading more comfortable than ever, so advanced traders had no qualms about leaving their old trading platforms to start trading in an environment where they could concentrate on market analysis rather than on the workings of the platform itself.

Now, with the addition of trading orders to the platform, eToro has fully transitioned into professional forex trader territory. The platform has also recently added commodity trading and a wider range of leverages to its already impressive selection of trading options, making it more appealing than ever for traders who seek variety and flexibility in their trading platform. Novice traders are still finding the platform as accommodating than ever, and eToro has also developed the Top Traders’ Insight tool to help them learn the ropes from the pros. The tool enables traders to see what currencies are being sold or bought by eToro’s top 100 profiting traders so that they can both emulate their trading decisions and analyze them as strategy guides.

Just as a forex trader must at some point take their trading to the next level, so did eToro take its trading capacities to the next level. There is a lesson to be learned from eToro’s overwhelming success – and that lesson is for forex providers to always evolve and seek to accommodate more kinds of traders. eToro has thrown down a massive challenge for other forex providers, and we shall have to look to the future to see if any of them manage to stand up to it.