US-ETFs (VT for instance) not available anymore in Switzerland?

Investing / Brokers
164

Me too, bought 13 VT yesterday.

165

Hello all (and thanks for the welcomes!),

Reporting back that I filled a number of trades for US-domiciled ETFs today. The issue was my lack of familiarity with IB’s handling of currency conversion.

I held off buying USD.CHF a few days - it had been at a near high and dropped substantially over yesterday and today (from 1.00015 to .98638 when I converted). Once that was done my trades filled without issue. Incidentally I did not receive any forex challenge and converted 100,000 CHF in one buy.

Thanks again for the very helpful steer and sorry to have raised a false alarm
although the response I got from Anais last week about EEA regulations did give me a scare.

Dave

2 Likes
166

Hi guys

How does it really look now?

Is it safe to still buy US ETFs on IB like VOO or VT with their low TERs?

Or would you recommend moving to UCITS ETFs?

Best,

cyberhigh

167

Why would it not be safe even if the stupid law passes?

168

Even if you couldn’t buy it anymore, you would still be able to reduce your position.

Also, it’s merely two weeks until 2020 - which should provide some answers (if concerned).

1 Like
169

Anais from above should be a couple of weeks in her Probezeit at the customer service desk now, so why don’t you ask her again?

170

OMG. People should try to understand the rules before posting about them


It’s always safe. The issue would be for brokers, not for you.

The law isn’t that stupid. There are unscrupulous brokers out there. It has some annoying side effects, but the principle is good.

2020 isn’t when the BIB rules start applying.

1 Like
171

It’s been 3 days into 2020. Can someone confirm or deny that we still have access to US domiciled ETFs?

172

I successfully bought VT at IB yesterday.

2 Likes
173

The title of this thread should probably have a question mark rather than the exclamation one at the end :slight_smile:

1 Like
174

Any update on this?

If one can still buy US ETFs at IB I’m going to open an account.

175

A couple of days ago it was still possible. However, I can not guarantee the same for new accounts

Apparently it won’t be possible anymore in the future but the jury is still out on that, I believe.

176

I bought yesterday, 3min prior market closing.

1 Like
177

When will it start applying?

178

Hello all. Thanks for the informative discussion on this topic- made an account to join in haha

Quick questions to make sure I’m understanding:

  1. We don’t seem to be aligned on whether these rules are 2020 or 2022, correct?
  2. IB was allowing purchases of US funds as of January, so it seems to still be possible.
  3. IF 2020: Infraction of regulations (whenever they do apply) is the broker’s error, not the investor’s? (Of course provided you are honest with the broker about your citizenship/domicile)

Thank you!

179

Some people have the opinion that the rules don’t force brokers to forbid their clients not to trade those (that’s my opinion).

Note that some major swiss brokers, with likely a fairly large legal department still let people trade VT (postfinance).

AFAIK it’s a regulation for financial actors, as an investor this shouldn’t be your problem (they just want to protect you :slight_smile:)

1 Like
180

Quite new article from @thepoorswiss:

Are there any news/experiences/infos from you guys? Buying US etf via options is still plan B? :smiley:

2 Likes
181

Anyone planning buying call options and exercising the right immediately? Does this work on IBKR?

182

Yes it works. That’s how lots of EU investors buy US-listed ETFs nowadays.

2 Likes
183

But 1 option has a contract size of 100? So if I buy a VTI call option, I’ll need to buy 17k? xD