https://plaininvestor.com/Plain-English guides to markets, independent broker reviews and golden visa programmes compared.en https://plaininvestor.com/article/trading-212-vs-etoro/https://plaininvestor.com/article/trading-212-vs-etoro/Fri, 25 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Trading 212 and eToro both sell low-cost investing apps, but one is built around owning shares and the other around copy trading and CFDs. Here is how fees, ISAs and investor protection compare. https://plaininvestor.com/article/ucits-etfs-explained/https://plaininvestor.com/article/ucits-etfs-explained/Thu, 24 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Why most European brokers won’t sell you a US-listed ETF, what the UCITS label on the alternative does and doesn’t protect you from, why so many are Irish, and what the UK’s April 2026 reform actually changed. https://plaininvestor.com/article/portugal-golden-visa/https://plaininvestor.com/article/portugal-golden-visa/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000About a week a year on the ground, permanent residence at five years, and a regulated fund instead of an overpriced flat — Portugal's programme outlasted its rivals for reasons worth understanding. https://plaininvestor.com/article/greece-golden-visa/https://plaininvestor.com/article/greece-golden-visa/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Greece replaced its flat €250,000 property threshold with tiers set by location, added a minimum flat size, and banned short-term letting. The citizenship question is where expectations most often break. https://plaininvestor.com/article/italy-investor-visa/https://plaininvestor.com/article/italy-investor-visa/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Italy's scheme starts at €250,000 and, unusually, does not ask for the money until the state has already approved the application — a structure worth understanding before comparing headline prices. https://plaininvestor.com/article/malta-residency-programmes/https://plaininvestor.com/article/malta-residency-programmes/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Malta still sells permanent residence through the MPRP, but the EU’s top court ended the passport scheme in 2025 — and the reasoning reaches far beyond Malta. https://plaininvestor.com/article/hungary-guest-investor-programme/https://plaininvestor.com/article/hungary-guest-investor-programme/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Hungary reopened for investor residence in 2024 with a ten-year permit and no stay requirement — but one of its three advertised routes was abolished before it ever opened. https://plaininvestor.com/article/spain-golden-visa-ended/https://plaininvestor.com/article/spain-golden-visa-ended/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Spain abolished its investor residence permit on 3 April 2025 via a clause buried in a justice-reform law. What remains are two visas that are not investment routes at all. https://plaininvestor.com/article/uae-golden-visa/https://plaininvestor.com/article/uae-golden-visa/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000The UAE’s ten-year Golden Visa is a renewable residence permit with real advantages — but it is not, and does not become, Emirati citizenship. https://plaininvestor.com/article/us-eb5-visa/https://plaininvestor.com/article/us-eb5-visa/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000The US EB-5 programme offers a green card for an $800,000 investment that creates ten jobs — provided the capital is genuinely at risk and the queue moves. https://plaininvestor.com/article/caribbean-citizenship-programmes/https://plaininvestor.com/article/caribbean-citizenship-programmes/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Five Caribbean states now sell citizenship from a common US$200,000 floor — fast, with no residence requirement, and under the heaviest external pressure in the programmes’ history. https://plaininvestor.com/article/turkey-citizenship-by-investment/https://plaininvestor.com/article/turkey-citizenship-by-investment/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Turkey sells citizenship outright rather than residence, and does it in months rather than years — which is exactly why the price you pay for the qualifying property matters so much. https://plaininvestor.com/article/singapore-global-investor-programme/https://plaininvestor.com/article/singapore-global-investor-programme/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Singapore grants permanent residence directly rather than a temporary permit, but the price rose sharply in 2023 and the obligations that follow approval run deeper than the headline number suggests. https://plaininvestor.com/article/switzerland-residence-by-investment/https://plaininvestor.com/article/switzerland-residence-by-investment/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Switzerland does not sell residence for a capital sum. What it offers instead is a negotiated annual tax bill, a cantonal decision that may go either way, and no right to work. https://plaininvestor.com/article/what-is-a-golden-visa/https://plaininvestor.com/article/what-is-a-golden-visa/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000The phrase covers two very different things — a renewable residence permit and an outright passport — and treating them as interchangeable is the most expensive mistake in this market. https://plaininvestor.com/article/golden-visa-risks-and-due-diligence/https://plaininvestor.com/article/golden-visa-risks-and-due-diligence/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Programmes close, thresholds jump, funds fall in value, and the people arranging the deal are often paid by the seller — a sober inventory of what can go wrong. https://plaininvestor.com/article/golden-visa-tax-considerations/https://plaininvestor.com/article/golden-visa-tax-considerations/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000An immigration permit and tax residence are separate legal concepts under separate rules, and acquiring one does not automatically create — or end — the other. https://plaininvestor.com/article/plus500-review/https://plaininvestor.com/article/plus500-review/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Plus500 is a CFD-only broker with a simple proprietary platform and a spread-based fee model — a straightforward but leveraged way to speculate on price moves, not to own assets. https://plaininvestor.com/article/pepperstone-review/https://plaininvestor.com/article/pepperstone-review/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Founded in Australia in 2010, Pepperstone built its reputation on tight raw spreads and a wide choice of platforms — a strong pick for active forex and CFD traders, not for anyone looking to own assets outright. https://plaininvestor.com/article/capital-com-review/https://plaininvestor.com/article/capital-com-review/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Capital.com pairs a spread-based, commission-light CFD platform with an AI-driven insights feature and a companion education app — but it's CFDs only, not real ownership. https://plaininvestor.com/article/saxo-bank-review/https://plaininvestor.com/article/saxo-bank-review/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000A fully licensed Danish bank since 1992, Saxo offers an unusually wide range of directly owned global assets — at a premium price that only makes sense if you'll use the depth. https://plaininvestor.com/article/ig-review/https://plaininvestor.com/article/ig-review/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000One of the oldest names in retail trading, IG pairs a vast CFD and spread betting offering with genuine UK share dealing and ISA accounts — the trick is knowing which is which. https://plaininvestor.com/article/webull-review/https://plaininvestor.com/article/webull-review/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Webull built its name on free, professional-grade charting and paper trading, but its founding ties to a Chinese fintech company have drawn political scrutiny worth understanding before you sign up. https://plaininvestor.com/article/public-com-review/https://plaininvestor.com/article/public-com-review/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Public.com built its reputation by dropping payment for order flow in favor of optional tipping and a social investing feed — here's what that actually means for costs and asset choice. https://plaininvestor.com/article/revolut-review/https://plaininvestor.com/article/revolut-review/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Revolut is primarily a banking and currency app, with stock and crypto trading bolted on — useful if you're already a customer, but availability and regulation shift by country. https://plaininvestor.com/article/ai-impact-on-trading/https://plaininvestor.com/article/ai-impact-on-trading/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Computers have been trading markets for decades. Here's what's genuinely new about AI in finance, what isn't, and why it matters less than you'd think for a long-term investor. https://plaininvestor.com/article/ai-investing-exposure-without-stock-picking/https://plaininvestor.com/article/ai-investing-exposure-without-stock-picking/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Betting on which individual AI company wins is genuinely difficult. Here's how broad fund categories let investors gain exposure to the trend without picking a single winner. https://plaininvestor.com/article/ai-concentration-risk-index-funds/https://plaininvestor.com/article/ai-concentration-risk-index-funds/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000A handful of large technology companies now account for an unusually large share of major market indexes. Here's what that means if you think of yourself as broadly diversified. https://plaininvestor.com/article/is-ai-a-bubble/https://plaininvestor.com/article/is-ai-a-bubble/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Separating whether AI is a genuinely transformative technology from whether today's prices for it are sustainable is the real question — and history offers a useful, if imperfect, guide. https://plaininvestor.com/article/how-quant-funds-use-ai/https://plaininvestor.com/article/how-quant-funds-use-ai/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000Machine learning has given quantitative funds new tools for finding patterns in data, but the core lesson for long-term individual investors — don't try to compete with this — hasn't changed.