Probably a life hack, but could you use Transferwise as an intermediate to get better exchange rates?

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was referring to fx rates applied on securities transactions (i.e. if you buy Apple or an EUR denominated ETF from your CHF Swissquote account you pay an 0.5 - 1% fx conversion fee which is implicit in the rate the apply). With IB they basically apply the market rate

IB costs you 0.01% (spread+comm) or so to convert currency, Transferwise - a whopping 0.5%. How is that better??

Yes, only swiss brokers must charge swiss stamp duty, that's the law. But beware there may be stamp duty levied by other countries, e.g. for buying individual stocks (but not etfs) on UK exchanges

Its a shame that the minimum to open an account is 10k... that so far is the only downside that I saw on IB so far... and maybe the User Interface which is a little bit confusing for those that dont use all the options

don't know what you talking about, mobile app is one of the best i've seen from brokers and web UI is pretty good and simple. IB TWS can be intimidating, but you don't have to use it

IB if you don't generate enough commission from trading every month you will need to pay around 30usd for the data. Or you will have to trade then unsubscribe from all data which will give you 15min delayed data only which is a pain.

You don't need to buy and use their data subscription to trade. That's an extra more for day traders than occasional investors. Use some other realtime data source and/or simply place limit orders. Realtime quotes from US exchanges are widely available online for free. Quotes from international exchanges are of course harder to find, but I know swissquote gives them out for free, just don't keep any stocks with them for which they do charge

isn't it also free if you have over a certain amount with them? (100k/150k?)

could be attractive for those who buy and hold a large amount, but don't trade regularly.

Sure you can!

if you are ok opening multiple applications to save a few bucks.

Or you open an account with a broker that has the data included in the commission like TD Ameritrade. by the way if you open a chat with them. They will give you a discount.
If you have $$, they will match the IB commission.

If you trade options, https://tastyworks.com/ has prob the best options trading platform.


QUOTE=ivank;2845317]You don't need to buy and use their data subscription to trade. That's an extra more for day traders than occasional investors. Use some other realtime data source and/or simply place limit orders. Realtime quotes from US exchanges are widely available online for free. Quotes from international exchanges are of course harder to find, but I know swissquote gives them out for free, just don't keep any stocks with them for which they do charge[/QUOTE]

ΙΒ ΤWS UI is actually simple but you need to spend a few weeks customizing it as it doesn't come ready to use it. Once you do that then it works fine for years.

I guess thats painful if you buy and sell stocks daily

If you have a long term portfolio its no problem at all

It was painful for 3-4 days. After that it is actually a very good and powerful platform.

Guys I am going through the application to open an account now with the US site... couple of questions:

1. Should I be using the UK site or is the US one fine?
2. Did you guys provide your Swiss tax number in the requested field or did you just say you didn't have one? Does not doing so mean you get any unwanted deductions?

Cheers,

Rich.

You don't actually have a choice, swiss residents are served by UK subsidiary

Surely you have one - AHV

It's not for deductions, but so that your account gets reported correctly to swiss tax authorities

Ok good to know.

I didn't say I didn't have one, obviously I do, I asked if you provided it or if you clicked the "I don't have a tax number" option.

This is the part I didn't know, if they themselves reported the account to the Swiss tax authorities.

If your W8 BEN form is not accepted there will huge withholding tax deductions on all sales regardless of profit or loss, plus a higher dividend withholding tax.

Tip. Don't mess with Uncle Sam.

Ok, thanks FMF. For the record I wasn't even remotely suggesting that I would not declare my holdings, I just didn't know if they played any part on their side or not.

Hi there!

I would like to have two quick question regarding funding my new IB account, which I'm going to use to buy explicitly US stocks:

- should I have CHF or USD as currency in my IB account?

- if I make a wire transfer from PostFinance, what will be my funding costs?

Thank you in advance!

Make sure you go to beta version of account management. There you will find the Swiss IBAN. So your costs will be zero. After your funds arrive, you will need to convert CHF to USD. This will cost just a few dollars.

That's a good question about base currency. I chose USD because that's what the ETF I hold is listed in. Don't know what are the implications, really.

Base currency doesn't matter, it's whatever currency you'd prefer the bottom line in your reports and statements to be denominated in

Ok, some fees (maintenance, currency conversion comm) would get charged to you in the base currency and if you have a non-margin account with not enough of your base currency you'll have a problem, but that's nothing serious