Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Upon their inception a little more than a decade ago, the social networks were nothing more than a place to share photos and keep in touch with friends and loved ones. It is impossible to tell if Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorcey had any idea that Facebook or Twitter would become the behemoths they are now and, along with Google, would be the pillars of digital promotion and advertising.
Facebook, for example, had 1.65 billion active users this April. Granted, the majority of them are probably there for the pictures of cats and babies and the inspirational quotes, but there are some who are using it for business and profit. This is why the forex brokers, like the majority of businesses in the “Western” world – big and small – are also present there and have their official pages.
The SMN staff had a look at the Facebook pages of some of the forex brokers who are often present on our website, to see which one has the most “likes”. Apparently and somewhat logically, it being a social trading broker, the “winner” is eToro with 1,196,957 likes, as of May 26. Poles apart is one of the largest publicly traded forex brokers – CMC Markets with barely 2749 likes. This can be attributed to the fact that its various branches across Europe have their own Facebook pages, but the numbers there are not very impressive either.
It is also obvious that the Japanese forex brokers, such as GMO Click Securities, Monex, Rakuten Securities and Money Partners Group, for example, do not use social networks and do not have pages neither in Facebook, nor in Twitter. Same goes for the most popular trading platforms MetaTrader 4 and 5.
So here is the list – by no means exhaustive:
eToro
Total Page Likes: 1,196,957
People talking about this: 2,959
Like a proper “social” company, eToro has the most facebook likes of all the brokers we looked at. Updates regularly and, considering the large following it has, it has lots of reactions, shares and comments. Or maybe it is because it shares various viral posts from across the web.
There are various complaints in the review section, mostly about the trading system crashing during high volatility, connection issues and users having hard time withdrawing their funds. An unhappy user from Canada complained he could not withdraw his profit because he is in Canada.
FxPro
Total Page Likes: 162,600
People talking about this: 451
Updates regularly with links to the FxPro blog – analysis, forecasts. Customer reviews are again mixed, but mostly positive. Most likes in May: 27 – on the announcement of the introduction of the MT4 account with market execution and lower spreads.
Saxo Bank
Total Page Likes: 155,792
People talking about this: 596
Updates on a regular basis, with content from its own website with news, analysis, expert opinions, promotional announcements. It seems that the analysis on the consequences of an eventual Brexit garner lots of interest from the people following the page – there are lots of reactions, shares and comments. But the most reactions in May, 231, were gathered by an article by Saxo Bank’s trader Michael McKenna, entitled ‘Central banks can do nothing’: Jakobsen.
Plus500
Total Page Likes: 98,919
People talking about this: 4,532
Posts regularly – tips, inspirational quotes, video ads. Most likes: 98 on a video about Atletico Madrid (sponsored by the broker) on reaching the final of the Champions League. Unlike many other brokers, Plus500 has someone who replies to customer queries about opening accounts, deposits, etc.
Trading 212
Total Page Likes: 92,658
People talking about this: 224
Does not update very regularly. Posts mostly promotional materials, but does reply to customer comments.
IG Group
Total Page Likes: 73,048
People talking about this: 236
Posts videos, economic analysis and forecasts and educational articles. Most likes for May: 6 on a market insight video on risks for banks outside the UK and the US. Users are not very active in reviewing them. In 2015 there was one hate review on the handling of the Swiss frank situation. So far in 2016 there is one review – from March – of a happy customer.
FXCM
Total Page Likes: 45,211
People talking about this: 593
Updates regularly, with links to their news site dailyfx.com, mostly analysis, forecasts, charts and economic calendars. There is also some promotional information on types of accounts. Most likes in May: 101 on a weekly overview. Replies to visitor posts.
Interactive Brokers
Total Page Likes: 30,575
People talking about this: 716
Posts mostly promotional materials on its own activities, invites for webinars, educational videos, but there is not much reaction from the followers. The most likes in the past month were gathered by the monthly metrics report: 74.
Oanda
Total Page Likes: 27,057
People talking about this: 26
Updates regularly with inspirational quotes, promotional and educational materials. No visitor posts. The user reviews are mixed: there are both very happy and very unhappy customers.
Gain Capital (Forex.com)
Total Page Likes: 24,616
People talking about this: 77
Gain Capital is obviously not very active on Facebook, if at all. There are barely two posts since the start of the year – of trading charts.
Total Page Likes: 7,778
People talking about this: 32
Posts regularly content from its own website – analysis, economic news and charts. There is a link to an eBook app – Definitive Guide to Building a Winning Forex trading system. The page fans do not seem to be very active. The only reaction is for a video by Avi Trader’s Greg McKenna – a positive comment from a person who likes them a lot.
CMC Markets
Total Page Likes: 2,474
People talking about this: 44
Posts links to CMC video updates, economic calendars. Does not update very frequently. Most likes: 3, on one of the video updates. Spam comments about binary options trading are not removed.
