ACCICB told me about Etoro and I went to check it out as I was curious about it. eToro is a social network of sorts whereby you can copy traders/investors trades. It's like Seeking Alpha where crowd sourced is seen as being more accurate than individual analysis except that in eToro you get to make money if the traders/investors you follow are correct. I suspect that the traders/investors being followed are earning more $$$ from having their trades copied than the actual trading itself!

There have been some unhappiness in the past about eToro's fees and the way they manage complaints and grouses. I'm happy with the brokers I'm using so while I did signed up with eToro, I didn't fund my account nor did I follow anybody. I guess it's a matter of me wanting to own my skills rather than following somebody who has the skills.

It is based in Cyprus and currently allows trades in a few key markets such as NYSE, LSE etc so it's not as comprehensive as other brokers but the markets they offer have more than enough opportunities to keep you busy if you are just doing this on the side. The charges are kinda weird and I can't seem to figure if it's cheaper than IB but I think the draw here is that you can earn easy money if you follow the right trader/investor.

Some of the top ranked traders/investors have a day job so I'm impressed with what they have achieved so far given the demands of work, family etc. ACCICB was telling me how a lady spent 8 years learning how to trade while working in a day job at a FMCG company. When she finally cracked the code, she left her job behind. I applaud her for doing that and I think sometimes it's the push factors that compels you to leave your career behind as I think many people are very adept at resisting the pull factors.