Actually most people need someone to hold their hand. The internet is full of morons saying they're profitable traders. 99% of them are liars. Next.

damn another customer who wants to save costs...

what will happen to Swiss banking at this rate?

So economisto, you are a pro and you trade with Swissquote huh ?
Funny I also met independent managers who traded with CS and UBS and so on and they paid through the nose, well their end-clients that is.
Someone mentioned firms where serious investors do business, and it's not a case of you get what you pay for. You look for professionalism and if you are active you look for a professional platform with rates for professionals and that means rock bottom, that's it .

That said Swissquote appears to be OK for folks who manage a simple portfolio and never trade . I think they are good if you are a bond investor. For stocks, I wasn't sure if they offered a ticket fee or if it was a percentage of the trade value , percentage commissions are ripoffs. I just checked and it's a tier system and it's still extremely expensive. You just can't trade with that price structure or you are giving away money to the broker. I wouldn' t recommend IB to regular investor. But Boursorama is worth checking out as well for those.

Buoursama does not offer its services to clients in Switzerland (as in, in CHF). Is that true? I could not find a corresponding website.

Regards,
-Ip

My first choice is Interactivebrokers. you can trade in up to 20 or more currencies around the globe with just one account. Easy to use, still you can do all kind of strategies, have special traders for forex and options, etc.
And the best: It's much cheaper than the others (Tradejet or Swissquote)

Hi,

About IB, is this easy to use ? Seems to have a very confusing interface with flashing black/red colors. I did manage to find my way around it, but it would be not easy to get used to.

I am considering them. Are you happy with your account ?

Regards,
-I

Can a non-US resident open an account with IB?

Having just seen their commission charges as compared with SwissQuote, then so am I!

If you can open an account for free, then I suggest you open one and find out for yourself.

i tried to sign up with UBS (since i bank with them) but couldn't find a share trading service.

i remembered swissquote and applied online. got the application the next day.

the application was just posted.

whoever designed the application pack should be given an award. amazingly simple and easy - in fact, the best example of 'good service' i've seen in switzerland.

contrast to my postfinance application that i'm still sitting on after several months because i can't be arsed to muster the mental energy to tackle the application.

Hi all

Does anyone knows about Swissquote? or an experienced with Trading?

Thanks

Swissquote (online broker) - any good?

I use it and there probs the best you will get in Switzerland.

the only annoying thing is trying to get through to them...

you have to wait quite a while till someone on the trading floor pics up..

I guess it may depend when you call, but I normally call during working hours and they normally pick up straight up away (i.e. after one ring)...

Why should one want to phone them??

The point of online trading is that you don't phone them. I have traded with Swissquote and never had to phone them, even during setting up the account...

In general you are correct, but it does slightly depend on exactly what you want to trade... Some of the more complex securities are much better done over the phone with one of their traders.

I guess it depends on how you want to trade, either frequently/daily and therefore benefit from a monthly rate or low rate per trade. If you hold on a long term basis you might benefit from a higher trade cost but low management/maintenance cost. From personal experience I think that swissquote is ok, the usability isn't the best I've seen..but I've heard they have bank guarantee up to 100.000CHF.

I don't want to abuse the forum for publicity, but as this is directly related to why I moved to Switzerland, can I just add here that there is a new alternative to Swissquote now. We opened the Swiss office of Keytrade Bank (Crédit Agricole) about a year ago to provide more attractive conditions in the Swiss online brokerage market. The market had been very much dominated by one player here for a long time.

Best regards

Patrick

Patrick,

I'm not sure the moderators will necessarily agree with me, but I would certainly be happy for you to give us a quick summary of the differences between Swissquote and Keytrade.

Cheers,
GenevaSculler

Please tell us about Keytrade and why it's good.

I am currently looking for an online trading platfrom that will allow me to trade Euro Corporate Bonds. Swissquote allows this, but I was unimpressed with the service I received in the Zurich Lounge. I have used IB extensively in the past, but their platform (although the cheapest by far) does not offer Euro bonds. Further research led me to Saxobank (http://www.saxobank.com/) and Keytrade Bank (http://www.keytradebank.ch/). My only concern is price and fees. I can check the prices against Bloomberg, so I know how much slippage (or theft) is occuring from the banks. My research shows me that Custody Fees are: Saxobank .03%/ann, Keytrade .08%/ann. Bond Commission: Saxobank .08%, Keytrade .20%. Custody fees are a joke in general, and are not charged by eother Swissquote, nor IB...(whatever happened to the days when the bank paid YOU to take your money, instead of charging to hold your securities and grab fees on both sides of the trade).

I am undecided yet on which way to go, but would appreciate ANY other suggestions for online/low fee eurobond platforms.