I was literally just on the phone with SQ about this for a friend last night (!) as we were wondering why the fees in the lower right hand corner were so high. The service guy told us that the $9 would only show at a later point in time after completion of the transaction. (Which I thought was quite weird but what do I know…)
As I do not use SQ myself, I have never done a transaction so I can’t confirm but that was the official SQ answer.
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I checked again and it actually seems to consider the 9.- flat fee.
Say that you want to invest for 10kchf.
That accounts for approx. 15chf stamp fee, which is 0.15% for a non-CH domiciled ETF.
Add 9chf for Swissquote.
Then the SIX fee, which would be around 3chf.
The dialog says approx. 28chf and that is about right.
So how much is the fee now? 9 CHF for every US ETF?
There is a list of ETF traded at SIX.
iShares, UBS, Vanguard, etc. Xtrackers was there until about two months ago.
Many traditional index funds can be bought for 9.- flat as well.
As far as I understand, it’s 9 chf flat only for SIX market
If you want to buy from any US market:
They ask you to look at Stock market prices:
Seems a bit much.
I’m finally ready to start investing, after opening SQ account some time ago (had no time at all to think about it).
I think I did my homework and I read a lot on the topic on this forum, but still I would like to get some answers/example portfolios/strategies from people using SQ - keeping in mind:
- Lowering the costs as much as possible with SQ.
- Tax-efficiency.
- Simple strategy - 1 up to maximum 3 ETFs (probably something described in Investing / Brokers FAQ).
So, my questions to people using SQ are:
- Which ETFs do you invest in?
- How often (monthly/quarterly/etc.)?
- USD/EUR/CHF denominated? I guess the best would be CHF to avoid exchange costs, but I would like to know your opinion.
Thanks in advance for your hints!
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It is a very non-mustachian thing to use SQ. People here in the forum will commiserate you and say things behind your back.
Anyway, I buy SWDA and EIMI. If you want to overweight Switzerland and indulge in some home bias, and you want an accumulating fund, you might consider the SPI index fund (not an ETF) offered by CS, which can also be bought for 9.- and has a low issuing commission.
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Amazing… To me that is just another reason to avoid Swiss brokers (in this case SQ). Why choose a Swiss broker if not for the service - and then you get (seemingly) wrong answers by exactly that service. Great stuff.
(I know we are just talking about an isolated event and people might choose a Swiss broker for other reasons but something like this simply ticks me off.)
Wanna hear something funnier? I remember when I went at UBS several years ago and one of their consultant wanted to photocopy a document I had in my hand. What was that? It was their price list. Apparnetly it was hard to find, even for them.
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Well, I just instructed one of the major Swiss banks (let’s not make any names) to transfer one of my 3a cash accounts to VIAC. Now that prices are low, good opportunity. I wrote them the precise IBAN number.
And guess what?
They were about to transfer another account!
“Oh we thought you wanted to transfer the other account”.
Read. Don’t think!
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You should never overestimate the amount of time some lowly clerk will be spending on your documents.
Also, you should never underestimate people’s capability of overlooking and misreading details.
Proactively anticipating things, I always try to make it as clear as and idiot-proof as possible by telling them outright and using formatting liberally.
And today, they’ve sent me all the forms again.
They got the right 3a account now.
But the recipient bank is wrong! 
Be prepared to wait ~4 weeks until the money actually hits your Viac account. At least that how long it took for my transfer.
Was pleasantly surprised, for me took like a couple of days (was a transfer from credit mutuel iirc).
I think the forum needs some more options than only the “like”. I’d have clicked a “facepalm” one
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That took me like 2 days, just a bit slower as a normal banking transaction…
I’m still trying to figure out the best set of ETFs on Swissquote (I prefer to buy ones in CHF). I’ll probably go for VWRL, but if anyone can suggest equivalent of VTI, VEA, VWO available on that platform and quoted in CHF, I would be grateful :).
If staying with Vanguard:
VTI → VUSA IE00B3XXRP09 or VNRT (includes CA) IE00BKX55R35
VEA → (no equivalent ex-US fund)
VWO → VFEM IE00B3VVMM84
Currency in which they are quoted does not make any difference whatsoever.
Besides (possibly) cost of acquisition - though for a long-term investor even these won’t matter much.
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Exactly. This is often a source of confusion.
If you speak German, you can read up on this topic on Gerd Kommer’s blog, in particular the section " Das Konzept der “Berichtswährung”.
VEA is Developed World excluding US
VEVE is Developed World including US
There is no alternative VEA
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