Recurring Investments: A simpler way to help grow your portfolio

Ever wish you could automate your investments? eToro’s Recurring Investments feature lets you do just that. By automating your investing, you can work towards your long term goals, manage the impact of volatility, and stop worrying about timing the market.

Here’s everything you need to know about this powerful tool — including how to set it up, and why automation could be your secret weapon for working towards your long-term goals.

What is a recurring investment?

Recurring investment (RI), also known as recurring orders, allows you to set a fixed amount of money to invest monthly in your favourite assets. A recurring investment plan is:

• Easy to set up: Choose from thousands of stocks, ETFs, crypto, Pro investors, and Smart Portfolios for your recurring plans. You decide which amount and date work best for you each month.
• Cost-effective: Start investing from $25, plus enjoy reduced FX fees and lower commission on recurring investments of stocks and ETFs.
• Consistent: With an automated plan, you can stick to your strategy and invest with consistency, no matter how busy you are.
• Less stressful: Free yourself from timing the market and worrying about missing opportunities.
• Flexible: No lock-in period means you can modify your plan or stop anytime — it’s completely up to you.

Why consider recurring investments?

Build a long-term strategy with consistency. By continuously investing as part of your regular budget, your portfolio has potential to grow over time. Recurring investments also help you leverage the compounding effect, turning consistent small contributions into bigger results.

Stay disciplined, even when life gets busy. Automation ensures you’re always contributing to your portfolio, even during hectic periods. This consistency is a key strategy to reaching financial goals.

Reduce risk with dollar-cost averaging. Investing smaller fixed amounts regularly, regardless of market conditions, enables investors to gain exposure at an average of varying purchase prices — averaging out the cost over time and helping to manage volatility.

Timing the market vs. time in the market

Let’s take a closer look at what dollar-cost averaging can do.

Staying invested long term (known as “time in the market”) can often be more important than trying to predict the best times to buy or sell (“timing the market”). You can use “consistently investing a set amount each month” with a recurring investment plan as a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) trading strategy.

For example, the chart below illustrates how DCA outperformed timing the market on the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) ETF, an exchange-traded fund which tracks the S&P 500 Index.

Hypothetical $1000 investment in SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) ETF (2007-2024)

Data as of December 1, 2024. For illustrative purposes only. Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Source: Yahoo Finance, Galaxy Asset Management.

If an investment was made whenever the index dropped by more than 5% (“buying the dip”), this would have resulted in 16 investments, compared to 210 months of consistent DCA — with DCA performing 1.25x better.

DCA’s advantage can be even more pronounced with volatile assets such as cryptocurrencies.

The charts below illustrate how buying Bitcoin (BTC) using a DCA strategy performed better than a perfect market-timing strategy over the same time period, though outcomes may vary depending on market conditions, asset class, and investment horizon.

During the time frame from 2017 to 2024, DCA delivered 1.46x higher returns:

Hypothetical $1000 investment in Bitcoin (2017-2024)

Data as of December 1, 2024. For illustrative purposes only. Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Source: CCData, Galaxy Asset Management.

 

Be aware that in a rising market, DCA could possibly underperform investing a lump sum early. By spreading purchases over time, the investor who buys later at higher prices may end up with lower overall returns.

You can read more about dollar-cost averaging here.

 

Which assets can I invest in with recurring investments?

eToro offers a wide range of assets for recurring investments, allowing you to diversify and manage risks:

• Stocks: Invest in shares of your favourite companies with no commission fees.
• ETFs: Invest in diversified funds designed to track specific sectors or markets.
• Crypto: Take advantage of the potential of digital currencies.
• Pro Investors: Automatically copy the strategies of experienced traders
• Smart Portfolios: Gain exposure to professionally curated investment themes, combining multiple assets into a long-term diversified strategy.

By diversifying across these asset types, you can create a well-balanced portfolio that aligns with your financial goals.

How to set up recurring investments on eToro

1. Log in to your eToro account. (Don’t have an account yet? Get one here.)
2. Choose your asset. Head to the specific stock, ETF, crypto, Pro investors, and Smart Portfolios for which you want to set up an RI, or click here to discover top assets.
3. Click “Invest.”
4. Select “Recurring Investment” and enter the amount and date each month that works for you.
5. Confirm your settings. That’s it — your portfolio is set for recurring payments.

 

What to consider before starting recurring investments

Before setting up your RI, consider a few key factors:

• Your budget: Start with an amount that fits your financial comfort zone.
• Frequency: Decide when in the month you want to invest.
• Your goals: Do you have long term or short term goals? Are you experimenting with crypto? Your strategy will depend on your objectives.
• Market trends: While RI can help to mitigate market timing risks, you’ll want to stay informed about major market movements in order to make informed investment decisions.

Start building your future today

With Recurring Investments on eToro, you can create a disciplined, consistent strategy to help you stick to your goals while enjoying:

• Low commission fees on stocks and ETFs
• Low $25 minimum investment to get started on assets
• Complete flexibility with no lock-in periods

Whether you’re just starting out on your investment journey, or looking for a simple way to help grow your existing portfolio, Recurring Investments could be the solution you’ve been waiting for.

Set a Recurring Investment