I am looking up the costs at different brokers, and I really get the impression they want to make it difficult to compare.

When I look at PostFinance, they mention brokerage fee, Swiss Fed. Stamp Duty and Separate Execution Fee. I suppose you have to add the three?

At SwissQuote, Keytrade and Saxo, I do not see the two latter items mentioned. Does that mean they have to be added or are they included?

Hope someone can enlighten me.

Some guys suggested americatrade and thinkorswim, however from what I read:
Electronic funding transactions must come from a U.S. bank account in U.S. funds.
So tough luck for many of us.

I am not impressed from SQ's interface, seems too outdated, the infos about american products are not as in other platforms and Keytrade seems not to be competitive for Options for example.

Any third reasonable and local option?

I have been using Swissquote for quite a while. They have a good range of products but their platform is not yet completely mature and customer service seems completely disorganised.

Recently I executed an order and the price of the transaction was indicated as CHF30. After executing the trade I realised I had been charged CHF45. When I phoned they explained that a bug in their system meant the wrong price was displayed. Despite many calls and email exchanges they insist that I should have known that the wrong price was displayed and refuse to refund the difference. (They say they are covered for such risks by the terms and conditions that I signed)

It's a small amount that I lost but this experience is indicative of the problems that can occur using startup companies. Be weary of entrusting too much of your savings with such services!

Several letter and email exchanges later and Swissquote have finally refunded the CHF15. It's a shame that they did not do it automatically at the start when I raised the error. I would have been very concerned if it had not been such a trivial amount.
In the end they Swissquote have done the right thing - let's hope this problem was a one off and that customer service will improve.

Swissquote mentions it (http://www.swissquote.ch/sqweb/tradi..._clients.jsp):

• The fees, commissions and other charges mentioned do not include any Swiss or foreign taxes or duties applicable (e.g., VAT, Swiss or foreign stamp duty) nor do they include any third-party costs incurred (e.g., by brokers).

I don't think there's any way around paying those duties.... all brokers will have them.

Personally, I'm leaning towards using postfinance, as they have no holding fees.