O.K, so, when you sign up to Etoro - when you make a public profile, one thing they
give you - Etoro always gives everyone, is something called a virtual portfolio.
O.K, so - if you don't know what a portfolio is, a portfolio is like the name given to
all of the things you're trading.
It's like a big book (but it's not, it's on the actual website) and it sort of lists all
of the things that you're currently trading whether it's stocks or shares or commodities or forex
or whatever, you'll be able to find them in your portfolio.
So the virtual portfolio is like a normal portfolio - it means you can use the site,
learn how to use the buttons, learn how to use everything about it - all of its features,
but you're not risking real money.
What they do is they give you a $100,000 of fake money, basically.
It's just numbers in a database, but it looks the same as if you're trading with the real thing.
So if you look at here - 'My Portfolio', these are things I have in my portfolio at the moment,
and down here you can see I've got $84.96 available - $1282 equity - this sort of shows
the money which is tied up, and which is not.
If I go here - here says 'Real', do you see that?
If I just click that button, I can go to my 'virtual portfolio' "Switch to Virtual Portfolio.
You're about to switch to your virtual portfolio.
Here you can practise your trading skills without any risk of loss."
I mean that's really what's important ... They give you a virtual portfolio - really it's
a marketing tool for them.
What they're doing is saying "Here, have a look at our system, learn to use it - learn
to trade, learn to open trades, close trades, see what sort of things you can trade...
Learn to copy people, and you can do it all with this fake money - we'll give you 100,000
fake money - here practise and use it."
And what they're banking on is that their system is, kind of, really so good that if
you use it for a while, you'll think "Alright, I'm ready to have a go." and you'll upload
real money and then that's good for them as well.
So that's what they're doing with the virtual portfolio.
So everyone can get one - it's non-binding.
So when they give you a virtual portfolio, you could trade with the virtual portfolio
for, you know, years - it doesn't mean you ever have to upload any money or anything.
It's not a binding thing having a virtual portfolio.
So I click that and I go to my virtual portfolio and in here you can see, I have an available
balance of, which is really ... I have an available balance of $94,000...
$94,000!
Total allocated, that much.
I've been using this virtual portfolio for about, I don't know...
Well since I started really.
And so these have been going on for quite a while.
But look, there's a lot of money in there...
Now none of this money is real.
It's all virtual money which means it's just entries in a database.
If I make profit, here, which I have - I've made $1000 profit in my virtual portfolio.
Do I have $1000?
No.
Can I withdraw that money?
No.
But...
If that said I'd made $10,000 loss, would I owe them money?
No.
It's not real money.
Everything that happens in the virtual portfolio - it's just virtual.
If I make a million profit, I don't have a cent.
If I lose a million, I don't owe anyone a cent.
It's not real.
Very useful, because it lets you use their system and work out the buttons and what all
this stuff on the left means, you know, how do I trade markets?
And how do I copy people? and stuff...
Without having the risk involved, and that's really useful, you know.
I think one of the things coming into trading is that it's terrifying.
I remember you know, it's something I've always known about - trading and stock markets and
stuff, but it was always sort of - it was just high "Oh my God that's a bit scary."
I'd see people in the braces and with the phones and you know, I grew up in the 80's...
And I had this image of people who really knew what they were doing - that's obviously not me...
And also, it's all about maths and it's all about numbers and you have to understand the
markets...
It can be a very daunting thing, a very frightening thing.
So what they've tried to do here is to give people an introduction to it, they've made
a website which is so easy - it's so simple and user friendly that they're banking on the
fact that you'll use it and go "Alright, I understand a bit about what's going on now,
and I'm ready to sort of try and invest my own money."
So... some things which are different - always make sure by the way - I'm going to do some
videos after this about how to start a new trade and, you know, how to trade this, and that.
Just - if you, when you're in your virtual portfolio, always make sure when you log on
- if you want to use the virtual portfolio, that this is ticked on 'Virtual'.
O.K, so I can go back to 'Real' by clicking that - 'Go back to real portfolio' - simple.
Now I'm in the real one - I'm trading with my real money.
O.K?
You always ... You can always have two - my virtual portfolio didn't disappear when I
actually put money in, it's just I have to switch between the two, you see, using this
little button here.
In future, when you're watching this video, that may have changed - the way of getting
there may have changed - I can't speak for that, but the principles are still going to be the same.
So, I go back to my virtual portfolio here...
One thing - when you're trading, especially when you're copytrading, you often look at
people's statistics.
So if you go onto a person's page - 'copy people' ... - let's say I choose here "MrThor7734", and
I can see on his feed or his stats page - here are his statistics, you see?
These statistics show, you know, how much did he make in 2016, in 2017, month by month.
And it shows his average risk score, how many copiers he's got, how many trades he's got,
what percentage is profitable out of all of those trades...
What sort of things he trades - stocks, commodities, cryptos.
There's a lot of stuff on the statistics page for each trader, you know, frequently traded
things, how often he holds ... how many times he trades per week.
Blah Blah Blah - lot of stuff in statistics...
Now, your statistics on your profile page are formed from your real trading account
- where you're actually trading with your own money.
They're not formed from your virtual portfolio.
So that's quite useful, because in your virtual portfolio you can lose a million and you can,
you know, whatever - you can practise, you can make mistakes, you can ... Some of the
buttons can be a bit fiddley if you don't know what they are, you know.
When you, sort of... for instance - I go to my portfolio and let's have a look at a trade.
Tesla, alright, so here's an old Tesla trade I did.
If I press that, I might think I'll get rid of it, I might press it by accident and it
will close the trade and "Oh no, I didn't mean to, it's ..." So you have to get used
to these buttons.
You have to get used to them and whilst you're getting used to them, you might make a few
mistakes, and you ... - those mistakes would then show up in your statistics.
But, if you're in your virtual portfolio, no matter what you do, it's not going to show
up in your statistics, they're completely hidden.
The only statistics people will ever see about you is what you do with your real money.
So, hopefully you've kind of practised enough in the virtual portfolio to actually not make
so many mistakes when you go into it.
When I first started with Etoro, I did use the virtual portfolio, but not long enough
- I thought, "No I'm clever!
I can probably trade myself, I'm going to have a go at this..."
And proceeded to lose, you know, here if you look at it - my ... my...
there ... here, Booom - 38%...
I lost 38% in the second month that I was trading because, literally, I just thought
"Well...
I can probably have a go at this, I'm pretty smart." and I didn't use the virtual portfolio
enough.
And I think it would be useful.
I mean all the stuff's available in the virtual portfolio, so if I go to 'Trade Markets' and
I go to 'Stocks' and I choose - let's go to Apple because everyone knows that one.
Apple, you know, all the stuff's still available.
I can still see information about Apple, I can still read more about it and find out
about the company in the stats page.
I can go to the charts and get familiar with how these charts work.
And, I mean most of it is just getting familiar with how stocks move and how things move.
You'll see the patterns of things.
So I can, you know, zoom in and zoom out and I can maximise it, I can change the time frame...
I can set it up how I want - do I want it in bars?
Do I want it in candles?
Do I want it in lines?
So you can get used to this sort of stuff in the virtual portfolio without any risk.
And that's very useful...
You can have a look at the research thing and find out about that.
So there's various things you can do in the virtual portfolio.
So I think some of the next videos I'll make are about things that I would recommend you
do in a virtual portfolio before trying to do them in the real... in real life.
Just so that - because my experience is - you have to get used to the buttons, you have
to get used to how it works, so open a trade, close a trade, set a trade with 5 times leverage,
set a trade with 2 times leverage, open a copy, learn how to copy someone - 'Copy People',
learn how you actually do that, how you research people to copy, how you find one...
When you find a copy person, what does this mean?
What's a copy stop loss?
Once you have copied someone, where do they appear?
In your portfolio... you know...
How do you add funds to them?
"Add Funds" How do you remove funds from that copy?
How do you pause it?
Things like that ... There's a few things which I'd say ... And I'll make videos about
'What would I try and learn in the virtual portfolio and just get used to doing physically
before trading with real money?'
Again though, you could run a virtual portfolio for years and never have to pay Etoro a thing.
That's quite great - it's a very useful learning tool...
And it's also - because it's tied in to the real live markets - all the markets are real,
all the systems are real, everything is real...
All the assets you're trading are real - you're just doing it with virtual money.
Fantastic.