Hello everyone,

I am thinking of investing, but am total rookie. Have read through some of the threads on this forum about invesments in CH (thanks for the info.).

Has anyone used or heard of the online broker firm called Swissquote (www.swissquote.ch)? It's HQ is in Kanton VD and has an office in Zurich. Any information or advice on them or other online broker is much appreciated.

Cheers and have a great weekend!!!

Swissquote is reputable and good. I started using it after a lot of the guys at Credit Suisse told me they use it.

There's a pretty simple way to start up. If I remember, they send you some form in the post and pop over to the post office with some ID, and then you're good to go.

You pay something like 20 francs a year for the account, but it pays interest on your balance.

i recently joined them, my account was set as fast as the post was. they had to reply to the application the day they got it, as well the other (simple) paperwork. the 2 orders were executed within seconds. the fees are really low, better than anything i have found here. exept in some categories of orders, were postfinance was a little cheaper. the online tools that they provide you with are exellent!

EDIT: ah, and the best thing: when i opened an account, i recieved this fatboy worth of 180 bucks for free

Have you considered a search on EF for swissquote??

Have used in for a few years and happy with it.

I'm in the same boat...what confuses me is advantages of the portal like this swissquotes.ch and for example trading with UBS or PostFinance...what are the advantages or disadvantages of each?

1st. I had my stocks in Credit Suisse account and they were charging me hundreds CHf yearly for holding that account with only benefit of possibilty of consultation with them on stocks.
then changed to squote, and pay almost nothing.

I've been using Swissquote for about a year now. Very good service as far as I have seen, and the advantages are that the charges are much lower than trading via a traditional bank.

I've signed up and will give it a go..

how does one get a certified copy of a passport? needs to be returned with documents...

Wait until you receive some mail from Swissquote (should be very soon). There will be a voucher to be used at "Die Post" to get a certified copy of some ID for free. Everything is well explained - just wait.

I work with Swissquote on a professional basis and they're excellent.

Any further specifics can be found via PM

Just to confirm, I'm just signing my partner up for SwissQuote too and we received the info pack and contracts the next day - it does indeed have a form which you take with your passport/Permit to the Post and they will do a certified copy for free.

I signed-up on Sat and got my packet yesterday. Heading to the post office today to get the ball rolling.

Thanks for the info...what we need now are tips for cheap good stocks

What he said.

cheaper at www.interactivebrokers.com and www.thinkorswim.com

Hi

With my limited experience on trading stocks, I find Swissquote charges for trading on stocks outside Switzerland (like Germany, Euronext, ...) to be expensive.

My little experience shows boursorama.fr to be cheaper ... would appreciate feedback from EF members who had used this boursorama service.

There are cheaper services out there but I wouldn't say better. Critically in financial services, cost is but one factor I look at.

That's not true, cost is paramount. Only a banker says otherwise.
Of course, you want good execution but execution is not a function of cost. I have never used Swissquote I would say they seem pretty good but remain somewhat expensive in the world of online brokerage, very expensive for some products. I am not sure about the culture , looking at their marketing and having had contacts with them. They built great tools for their customers and that's a plus. All in all they are probably the better swiss broker , the best online brokers are US based and someone named two of them above, but they are geared toward more sophisticated and active investors .

You don't know what you're talking about. I'm not a banker, but the cheapest isn't always the best. However it's more the case that you get what you pay for, and even more the case that you and most people aren't qualified to judge price/quality.

Price is OBVIOUSLY the most important thing here. Why? Let's say you get into a trade, and things change, and you want to get out. Why should you pay $9.95 a trade or even more when you can pay $1 at Interactive Brokers?

You don't need to call in and get someone to hold your hand and teach you how to trade. The internet can do that easily for you.

IB will explain their platform easily. Even if it's in US dollars, European stocks on the NYSE trading as ETF's will already have the exchange rate factored into the prices anyways.

You can also pay a small subscription fee for eSignal, and that will hook into Interactive Brokers, and then you get awesome real time charting.

Oh ya, when some brokers say that they get better "fills" that's a load of hoopla. Just place a limit order. Something that's web based, and doesn't have an installable platform to trade with is an inexcusable joke, and goes to show why many brokers in Europe are 10 years behind. Don't pay more than $1 per trade or you're getting ripped off.