eToro Review UAE 2026
eToro is licensed by the FSRA in Abu Dhabi (ADGM). A beginner-friendly platform with copy trading and real shares, including UAE-listed stocks. Currency conversion and withdrawal fees apply.
Giles Thomas
Live account testingDue diligenceUAE resident
Expertise & credentials
- Executive Director, FOE Global Family office and private equity advisory: due diligence, broker selection and investment strategy for family office and institutional clients across the GCC.
- Abu Dhabi Finance Week delegate, Presented by ADGM, 2023 and 2025 Full-week delegate across both years, with direct access to FSRA-licensed firms, regulators and international financial institutions on Al Maryah Island.
- Funded account testing Opens and funds live accounts in his own name, then trades and withdraws from them, so cost and timing claims come from the account rather than from a broker's published schedule.
- Founder, wholedigital.ae, AcquireConvert, Whole Design Studios A UAE digital marketing practice, an SEO and digital marketing publication, and a UAE design and branding studio.
About Giles Thomas
Giles Thomas is Executive Director at FOE Global (foe.global), a UAE-based family office and private equity advisory firm. His work focuses on financial services due diligence, broker selection, and investment strategy for family office and institutional clients across the GCC.
He has been a full-week delegate at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, presented by ADGM, in both 2023 and 2025, giving him direct access to FSRA-licensed firms, regulators and international financial institutions on Al Maryah Island.
Giles is a UAE resident and conducts all platform testing and broker research for OnlineBroker.ae under his own name, including funded account testing and regulatory verification. Where a review says an account was opened, funded and traded, that account was opened in his name and the captures are his.
Before entering financial services advisory, Giles built a career in digital marketing. He founded wholedigital.ae, a UAE-focused digital marketing practice, and is the founder of AcquireConvert, a digital marketing and SEO publication. He also operates Whole Design Studios, a UAE-based design and branding studio.
That marketing background informs how OnlineBroker.ae is built and written. The same principles that rank content in competitive niches apply to broker reviews, and Giles applies them with financial services expertise rather than generic SEO tactics.
“A broker review is only worth reading if someone actually opened the account. I test with my own money, in my own name, and publish what the registers and the contracts say rather than what the marketing does.”
What he tests, and how
The reviews on this site that carry a live-testing badge are his. That means an account opened as a UAE resident, funded in dirhams through a local rail, traded on, and withdrawn from, with every screen captured and dated.
The point of doing it that way is that most of what a reader wants to know cannot be answered from a broker's website. What a round turn actually costs, how long an application really takes, which legal entity the client agreement names, and whether the money is held by the firm you signed with are all questions that only an open account answers.
- Regulatory verification against the regulator's own public register, not the broker's summary of it.
- The client agreement read in full, including which entity contracts with a UAE resident and who holds client money.
- Funded account testing: deposit, trade and withdrawal, timed and captured.
- Total cost of trading measured on the account rather than quoted from a schedule.
Where he works
Giles speaks on family office and private capital panels through FOE Global, and attends Abu Dhabi Finance Week, which ADGM presents, as a full-week delegate. Both matter to this site for the same narrow reason: the firms and regulators he writes about are the ones he meets.
Neither is a regulatory credential and neither is presented as one. Attending an event does not license anyone to do anything, and the reviews on this site rest on registers, client agreements and funded accounts rather than on proximity.
The accounts he has opened
Eight brokers on this site carry a live-testing badge, and these are the accounts behind them. Dates and figures are the ones each review states, so where a review does not record something, neither does this table.
Two caveats the reviews make and this page repeats. The Interactive Brokers account is held with Interactive Brokers LLC in the United States, not the Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited DIFC branch that review covers, so its commission, conversion and withdrawal costs are the US company's numbers and nothing on it tests the branch. The AvaTrade account already existed and was first funded in 2024, so the opening and verification were never timed.
The eToro account is the deliberate omission. It was opened and funded as a UAE resident, but live spread measurement and a completed withdrawal are not claimed on it, so it carries no badge and it is not in the table.
| Broker | What was done on the account | When |
|---|---|---|
| Pepperstone | Opened as a UAE resident, funded twice, traded, and AED 398 withdrawn. | 20 to 27 August 2026 |
| Sarwa | Opened from scratch and ready for funding 36 minutes after the application, funded with AED 200, USD 25 of VOO bought and sold, and the USD 52.32 balance withdrawn. | 26 to 31 August 2026 |
| AvaTrade | AED 400 deposited, a 0.01-lot EUR/USD trade opened and closed, and the full USD 108.85 withdrawn. The account itself predates the review and its opening was not measured. | 26 to 28 August 2026 |
| Amana | Opened and identity-verified, funded from a UAE bank, USD 20 of Apple bought, then sold and the USD 25.20 balance withdrawn. | 27 August to 25 September 2026 |
| XM | Opened through the UAE sign-up page, an MT5 Ultra Low Standard account funded with USD 200 by card, seven EUR/USD and four gold spread readings taken, a 0.01-lot EUR/USD trade closed and the balance withdrawn, then a second round trip and withdrawal in the app. | 14 to 21 September 2026 |
| Capital.com | Opened and funded with AED 200, a 1,000-unit EUR/USD position and a one-share Apple CFD traded, and the USD 53.96 balance withdrawn. | 15 to 17 September 2026 |
| XTB | Opened in AED and activated, funded with AED 400, a 0.01-lot EUR/USD CFD traded, and AED 399.34 withdrawn. Gold and 0.01 of an Apple share were then traded in the app, with a second withdrawal taken there. | 15 to 24 September 2026 |
| Interactive Brokers | Opened, funded, traded and withdrawn from as a UAE resident. One Apple share bought, filling at 337.63. | Trade 24 September 2026; the review records no opening date |
Independence
OnlineBroker.ae takes no payment for placement or ranking. Where a link earns a commission it is disclosed, and commercial relationships do not decide what a review says. Giles has no commercial relationship with any broker covered on this site beyond ordinary affiliate arrangements disclosed sitewide.
How Giles Thomas contributes to our broker research
Giles conducts the first-hand testing behind OnlineBroker.ae's reviews: opening and funding live accounts, timing account opening, deposits and withdrawals, measuring spreads and costs on the account, and verifying regulatory claims against the relevant public register and the broker's own client agreement.
Broker & platform experience
Articles by Giles Thomas
Editorial standards & disclosure
OnlineBroker.ae content is created using structured broker data, public regulatory records, broker fee schedules, platform testing notes and editorial review. Authors do not provide personal financial advice. Broker rankings may include affiliate partners, but commercial relationships do not determine our methodology or ratings.
Giles does not provide personal financial advice. He may hold positions in assets discussed. Broker rankings may include affiliate partners, but commercial relationships do not determine ratings.
Learn more: Our methodology · How we make money · Why trust us
