This review is a result of months spent with the brokerage firm, Swissquote. In its aim of rendering a pointed ans well-informed assessment of the firm’s over-all capabilities, the review team looked into the the following facets:
- The trading instruments that are given access to
- The trading platforms offered
- The trading accounts that are available
- The fee structures and the commissions
About Swissquote
While it was only publicly traded in 2000, the brokerage firm, Swissquote was established back in 1996. It is headquartered in Switzerland and is listed on the SIX Swiss stock exchange. As of writing, Swissquote had already taken over 400,000 client accounts across select European and Asian regions, gathering a total of 33.5 billion CHF in client revenue.
Its base of operations allows Swissquote clients to over two and a half million products, which includes Bonds, Forex, Funds, Futures, ETFs, Shares, Options, Warrants, and other Securities. On top of that, Swissquote also offers Wealth Management and financial consultations.
Within the United Kingdom, Swissquotes operates simply as Swissquote Ltd. while within its original bas in Switzerland, it is known as Swissquote Bank Ltd. These entities will be looked into further within the Trading Account segment of this review.
Swissquote is actually the first bank to include cryptocurrencies as its traded underlying assets. At present the firm allows the trading of the more exotic cryptos such as Augur, Chainlink, Stellar, Tezos, and 0x and the more known ones like EOS and Ethereum Classic.
Swissquote had found regulation through 4 tier-1 regulators, namely Securities Futures Commission (SFC), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Through these financial authorities, Swissquote clients are assured of the firm’s legitimacy and hence the safety of their hard-earned money.
Offers and Services
Accessible Trading Instruments
Swissquote offers Spot Trading for Forex, Forex trading with 78 currency pairs, 49 CFDs, Social Trading, and cryptocurrencies both as actual assets and as CFDs.
To the opinion of the review team, these already offer good trading opportunities to build strong investment portfolios.
Fee Structure and Commissions within the Available Trading Accounts
There is a difference in commissions and fees between the Swissquote entity in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. With he former, the costs are undoubtedly lower than the latter. These can be seen through the available trading accounts offered in each.
Swissquote Ltd. (United Kingdom)
Four types of accounts are available through Swissquote Ltd. These are as follows:
The Elite Account
This type of account can be opened through a deposit of at least $10,000. It is commission-based, has lower spreads and a charge of $5 per round-turn trade.
The Professional Account
The only difference that it bears against the former account is its lower threshold for a margin call stop-out.
The Standard Account Popular opinion concur that this type of account from Swissquote might not be the best choice. The Spreads on the EUR/USD start at 1.3 pips.
The Prime Account
This account has a spread that starts from 0.6 pips, which is not necessarily the average price, but only the minimum.
Swissquote Bank Ltd.
Within the Switzerland entity, three types of accounts are available to clients.
The eTrading Account
This type of account is seen as somewhat limited by the review team in that it does not offer Forex or CFDs.
The Standard Account
A total deposit of $1k is required to open this type of account. Through the Standard Account, the spreads for the EUR/USD pair starts at 1.7 pips.
The Premium Account
Requiring a deposit of $10k, the spreads for this type of account starts at 1.4 pips
The Prime Account
The amount required to open this account is at $50k. The spreads offered here start from 1.1 pips, relatively higher than what is considered industry standard. It must be noted however, these are negotiated based on volume.
Offered Trading Platforms
Swissquote offers two platforms:
MetaTrader Master Edition
The MetaTrader Master Edition enhances the default MetaTrader desktop platform through its provision of a suite of tools that had been developed by FX Blue LLP for the platform.
Advanced Trader
This platform is available through a desktop application and a web application. Using the latter is challenging given its requirement of Flash. The absence of this makes the platform unusable in major browsers. The review team suggest that the firm has it upgraded to operate through HTML 5.
The desktop application also needs a redesign in light of various window modules not hooked on auto-resize. However, the platform does include efficient charting, the capability of launching complex order types, and supporting Forex options.
Trade with Swissquote Today!
The points raised within this review paints Swissquote into a positive light. However, the review team would also want to raise that the service could be rendered more trader-friendly through better fee structures and spread and commission offerings and the upgrade of the desktop application for the Advanced Trader platform.