Swissquote Review
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Fees & Commissions
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Safety of Funds
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Offer of Instruments
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Customer Service
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Educational Materials
Summary
Swissquote is unquestionably a trustworthy and a safe choice for forex traders, it offers a good choice of trading instruments, access to deep liquidity pools and fast execution which would make it a great fit for a majority of traders. But is Swissquote Bank a suitable forex broker for you? Read our detailed review to make learn more!
Pros
- FCA Regulated
- Offers E.U. Deposit Insurance
- Has Own Trading Platforms
- Quick Account Opening and Approval
Cons
- High Trading Fees
- Own Platform is not easy to use
- High Minimum Deposit
About Swissquote
Swissquote Bank Ltd. is a part of the Swissquote Group Holding Ltd., which is one of Switzerland’s leading providers of online financial and trading services. Since late May of the year 2000 the Group has been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and currently consists of almost 700 staff members. The Group itself currently has its headquarters in Gland – Switzerland and offices in Zürich, Bern, Dubai, Malta, Hong Kong, and London.
Swissquote Bank Ltd. is regulated in the U.K. by the FCA – regulation can be validated via regulation reference number 562170. Other than a Forex regulation, Swissquote is also licensed in Dubai by Dubai Financial Services Authority, The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority in Switzerland, and SFC – the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
Swissquote can accommodate forex traders from most parts of the world, with few exceptions. Swissquote is unable to offer their Forex Trading services in Algeria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Iran, Iraq, Japan, North Korea, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Turkey, USA, Zimbabwe, and Hong-Kong. Residents of all the other countries should have no issues gaining access to Swissquote Forex trading facilities and most of the available tools.
Regulation And Safety Of Funds
Swissquote has Forex licenses in 3 separate jurisdictions – UK, Hong-Kong, and Switzerland making it a very safe choice for the traders because the company has to follow a very strict set of rules and guidelines enforced by three different jurisdictions which follow very strict business practices.
Swissquote Group is a publicly traded company; therefore, the corporate structure of the whole group and financial reports are available to the public. General information about Swissquote Group and all of its subsidiaries is available on Swissquote’s official site by following this link: https://en.swissquote.com/company/about-us/group
Swissquote Group Consists Of 5 Separate Entities
- Swissquote Financial Services Limited (Malta)
- Swissquote Bank Ltd (Gland, Switzerland)
- Swissquote Ltd (London, UK)
- Swissquote Asia Ltd (Hong Kong, China)
- Swissquote MEA Ltd (Dubai, UAE)
Detailed organizational structure and information about shareholders of each entity are available here: https://resources.swissquote.com/sites/default/files/2019-03/annual_report_2018-9eh0b0_129-132.pdf
Trading With Swissquote
Trading conditions offered by Swissquote are relatively competitive, the company offers a little over 100 instruments to trade, with very reasonable fees. Traders have a choice of over 80 currency pairs, precious metals such as Gold, Silver, Platinum, and Palladium, and dozens of ‘Spot,’ ‘Synthetic’ and ‘Forward’ CFDs.
One of the notable qualities of Swissquote is transparency. Similarly, regulated Forex Brokers are rarely as transparent and thoughtful of their clients as Swissquote.
Symbol | Standard 1k+ USD | Premium 10k+ USD | Prime 50k+ USD |
EURUSD | 1.7 | 1.4 | 1.1 |
USDJPY | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
GBPUSD | 2.0 | 1.7 | 1.4 |
USDCHF | 2.0 | 1.8 | 1.6 |
EURCHF | 2.4 | 2.2 | 1.9 |
Swissquote has all of the relevant materials available for clients to download at any time; furthermore, all the materials are kept up to date and are always revised in a timely manner, whenever needed and are easily accessible.
Brief Overview Of Average Spreads
Detailed information about trading instruments, applicable fees, trading times, etc., is available by following this link: https://en.swissquote.com/forex/markets/forex/currency-trading
Swissquote offers leverage ranging from 1:30, and all the way to 1:400, the standard leverage is always set to 1:100, but it may vary based on trader’s residence, deposit size, trading style, trading instruments, and trader’s risk appetite.
The absolute minimum required deposit is 1,000 USD – which is only available for ‘Standard’ account type, ‘Premium’ and ‘Prime’ account types require higher deposits – 10,000 USD and also offers a ‘Professional’ account type, which has custom spreads, smaller pricing, and Volume-based deposit.
Swissquote Trading Platforms
Swissquote offers 4 trading platforms – ‘MetaTrader 4′, ‘MetaTrader 5’, ‘MetaTrader Master Edition’, and ‘Advanced Trader’ – Swissquote’s own trading platform. The company is no stranger to companies and traders with their own trading platforms, fast-paced and high-volume trading, which is why Swissquote provides a FIX API connection for anyone with a minimum deposit of $50,000.
MetaTrader 4 And MetaTrader 5
MetaTrader is one of the most popular Retail Forex Trading platforms in the world; it was developed by MetaQuotes Software and is currently available with several hundred different brokers across the globe. Its popularity can be explained by simple and very easy to use interface, very high customizability, and, most importantly – the ability to create new tools. MetaTrader allows traders to create fully automated systems, robots, scripts, and various tools to automate and improve the trading experience. Custom tools for MetaTrader can be created with MetaQuotes Language, which is a high-level object-oriented language based on C++.
MetaTrader is used by both novice and experienced traders, the interface by default is very clean and intuitive, but it can easily be customized to suit even the most demanding trader. MetaTrader has a huge community and following, the best part about using MetaTrader is that the internet is filled with thousands of free indicators, scripts, robots, and libraries. One of the most beloved perks of MetaTrader is the abundance of MetaTrader programmers, who are able to code even the most complicated systems for traders for a very reasonable fee. Many trading systems can be often automated for as little as a couple of hundred dollars.
MetaTrader is available on desktop (Windows and Linux), web and mobile (iOS / iPadOS / Android). The availability of a Web-Based platform depends on the broker, and not many brokers are willing to employ MetaTrader Web because it is an additional monthly expense for the broker.
Pending issue on the 1st of December 2019: MetaTrader is not available on for Apple computers and laptops since the release of MacOS Catalina, due to internal restrictions.
Difference Between MetaTrader 4 And MetaTrader 5
MetaTrader 5 has all the same functionality as MetaTrader 4 with some additions, below are the additional key features of MetaTrader 5.
- MetaTrader 5 has many more technical indicators, scripts, and charting objects, and even E.A.s preinstalled than MetaTrader 4.
- MetaTrader 4 has 9 charting timeframes toward with, though MetaTrader 5 has a staggering 21 different timeframes.
- MetaTrader 5 has Economic Calendar as one of the default features, whereas MetaTrader 4 required an additional calendar to be installed in the form of an Indicator.
- One of the most prominent features is that MetaTrader 5 can display the depth of market, allowing clients to view where bids and offers are priced across markets; this feature has to be enabled by the broker, though.
- MetaTrader 5 is faster and more efficient than its predecessor, because it has a 64-bit multi-threaded architecture, whilst MetaTrader 4 has a 32-bit architecture.
The key difference, which was a common denominator in decision making process of switching from MetaTrader 4 to MetaTrader 5 was the MQL – MetaQuotes Language. MQL5 is a more efficient version of programming language, and as claimed by MetaQuotes is an easier programming language to use. But the differences are quite notable, to the point that most of the customer made tools written in MQL4 will not function on MetaTrader 5. Furthermore, if the trader has no source code for MetaTrader 4 tool, it cannot be migrated to MetaTrader 5, and if its logic was unknown to the trader, the tool will never be usable with latest MetaTrader.
- Full overview of MetaTrader 5: https://www.metatrader5.com/en/trading-platform
- Full overview of MetaTrader 5: https://www.metatrader4.com/en/trading-platform
MetaTrader Master Edition
For the last few years, many brokers started releasing ‘custom’ versions of MetaTrader Terminals for their clients; Swissquote is no exception to this trend. Swissquote is offering a MetaTrader Master Edition for all their clients. MasterEdition is simply a pack of different add-ons for MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, nothing more than that. The pack offers 12 advanced tools and 15 additional indicators for Swissquote clients to use, in order to help with their trading.
Unlike in case with other brokers, Swissquote actually developed a very decent set of additional tools and indicators for their clients, furthermore, every tool and indicator has a comprehensive manual, whilst most prominent tools even have video tutorials and
Video reviews of tools are available on Swissquote’s official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGwEJ8PVe9VfZDdbUCzqKpPVVG6XzDYkc
Manuals for indicators and tools are available on the official site of Swissquote: https://en.swissquote.eu/forex/forex-trading-platforms/metatrader-master-edition
Advanced Trader
Advanced Trader platform is a Java Application, which is available on all desktop platforms – Linux, Windows, and MacOS, the platform is a bit sluggish and has a relatively outdated interface. On the bright side, Advanced Trader comes as a mobile version as well, which is available for Android and iOS devices.
In terms of usability, Advanced Trader lives up to its name; it is an Advanced Trading platform, it has 27 indicators, dozens of overlays, such as Ichimoku. Bollinger Bands, PSAR, etc. One of the best features of Advanced Trader is the automatic pattern recognition. The platform is capable of recognizing 17 of the most common chart patterns. Once the platform detects a pattern, the trader will also be advised o the strength of it and the usual outcome of the pattern.
Advanced Trader allows a couple of more order types than MetaTrader platforms, Advanced Trader is the only platform that offers OCO orders – (one cancels others) order comprises two elements: limit and stop orders – execution of one of the orders will cancel the other one. While shorting, OCO orders allow additional protection from a potential price decline (the stop order). When going long, OCO order makes it possible to buy during the downturn or when a certain threshold is exceeded.
Last but not least is the Economic Calendar, which is built into the platform. The calendar is nothing special; as a matter of fact – it is implemented pretty poorly. However, it is still present and will save traders the hassle of checking Economic Calendar elsewhere, if all one needs is to know when the news occurs.
Swissquote Education
Swissquote offers quite a decent amount of educational opportunities. Anyone can get a comprehensive introduction to Technical and Fundamental Analysis, learn how to use different trading platforms, manage risks, read the chart, and anticipate price movements based on chart patterns.
Swissquote even has an ebook for traders; frankly, the book is not what many people would expect – it is a 4-page brochure with very basic information.
In addition to basic educational materials, Swissquote offers a variety of webinars for their clients. Swissquote webinars usually take place on a weekly basis and are available in 4 languages – English, French, German and Arabic. Webinars cover a wide variety of topics, starting with basics of working with Swissquote and using their products, going as deep as to Advanced Stock Market trading and diversification of your trading and investment portfolio.
In order to take part in one of Swissquote’s webinars, it is necessary to submit a brief application at the webinar section: https://en.swissquote.com/webinars and wait for an email with an invitation.
Swissquote Account Types
Swissquote offers 5 account types to choose from. A 30-day Demo Accounts for clients who wish to evaluate Swissquote platforms and get acquainted with available tools, as well as 4 types of live accounts: Premium, Prime, Elite, and Professional.
Live accounts are available in 15 different base currencies, no other retail Forex broker is currently offering anywhere near this amount of base currencies for trading accounts, but since Swissquote is a bank, it is understandable how they can do that. Funds segregation with Swissquote is happening on a different level too, each client has their own IBAN number, which contains an account within it, this allows for much better monitoring of your funds’ movement. Of course, this does not mean that each client gets an actual bank account with Swissquote Bank, IBANs are virtual, but they are linked only to your personal account, under your name, allowing you to fund it even through other brokers.
All trading accounts have the same liquidity pool, servers, access to the same tools is provided, and trading conditions are all the same with only one exception – trading fees. The higher the initial deposit is, the smaller will be the trading fees.
Professional Account, on the other hand, allows for customizable fee structure, traders can choose whether to have lower spreads and some commission or high commission fees, but raw spreads. Professional accounts are available only for high-net-worth clients and high-frequency traders, who can generate a certain amount of volume for the broker. Professional accounts can also have higher leverage than the others, as long as it will not go against any regulation, of course.
Swissquote Account Opening Process
In order to open a Private Account, a trader has to submit identification documents as well as proof of address, as well as confirm whether the applicant is a Politically Exposed Person or a U.S. citizen. Confirmation of address should not be older than three months from the date of issue and should have the applicant’s full name, residential address, and the date of issue.
Prior to submitting the documents, the client has to fill out a registration form, which is nothing unusual and does not require anything unorthodox. Traders are required to provide details about themselves, as well as about their trading experience and competences.
Following submission of the form, Swissquote will email or text an applicant’s password, but will display the automatically-generated username, which will be used to sign in to the client area
The last step of the verification process is identification. This is when applicants can choose how to proceed with identity validation, either online, via Video, or by posting the documents to Swissquote.
It is advisable to proceed with a video validation since it will be the quickest option to validate the account and start trading. If an applicant does not have a web camera, there’s always an option to proceed with a smartphone validation, as long as it has a camera.
Swissquote staff are pretty quick when it comes to processing times during validation; however, validation of residency will take about 6 hours on average, as long as the documents are submitted within regular working hours of Swissquote support.
Swissquote Deposits And Withdrawals
Swissquote accepts card deposits and bank wires. Traders can use Visa and Master Card to funds their accounts via Paysafe (Skrill and Neteller group) payment service provider or a direct bank wire into Swissquote Bank in Switzerland.
Swissquote is advertising their card deposit method having low transaction fees; however, with fees of 2.2% for CHF, EUR, GBP, and 2.5% for USD, some people might disagree.
Bank deposits require clients to enable eBanking service in their back-office and only then transfer the funds. The eBanking activation process is very simple and straightforward, however, should anyone have any issues with it, Swissquote has made a step-by-step video tutorial for its clients available here: https://en.swissquote.com/promotion/ebanking-activate
Withdrawals, on the other hand, are only made via bank transfer – the trader has to fill out a ‘Funds Withdrawal Request Form,’ which has to be signed and dated as well. Should the Swissquote receive Withdrawal form more than three days after the date on the form, Swissquote will likely request you to resubmit the form.
Additional Features Of Swissquote
Besides trading their own Forex account, Swissquote offers 3 more ways to generate additional revenue for its clients.
Refer A Friend
This is one of the easiest and quickest ways to get paid by Swissquote. The trader has to become a sponsor and refer a friend, once the friend signups with Swissquote and starts trading, the trader gets remunerated.
The best part about this option is that if your referral forgot to use your referrer I.D. during registration, it can always be done later here: https://en.swissquote.com/forex/clients/forex-friend-referral
How To Be A Swissquote Sponsor
Rewards For Friend Referrals
After the referred friend funds their account, the ‘sponsor’ and his friend will be getting their remuneration into their trading accounts.
Swissquote Introducing Broker Program
For those who have a big following or have a good base of potential clients, Swissquote is offering a lucrative option of becoming an Introducing Broker, basically – in other words, one can send Swissquote quality convertible traffic and get paid for all the conversions.
In order to become a Swissquote Introducing broker, it is necessary to fill out the application form on the Swissquote site and have a chat with the Partnership Department about your partnership.
Swissquote IB application form is available here: https://en.swissquote.com/forex/clients/partnerships/introducing-brokers
Money Managers (PAMM Accounts)
For Fund Managers and skilled traders, Swissquote is offering a Money Manager program with multiple trade allocation tools, as well as deep liquidity and precise execution. Swissquote is also allowing full hedging capabilities on their PAMM accounts, which is not available with all the other brokers.
As well as with Introducing Broker Program, Swissquote requires potential fund managers to submit an application and then go through an interview with one of the Partnership Department’s representatives.
Swissquote Reviews
Swissquote has pretty diverse reviews on the internet; many negative reviews are related to customer service, which is something we have noticed ourselves. The chat representatives were unavailable during their working hours, however when we got hold of an agent the next day we were unable to receive a simple answer about differences in account types; instead, we were asked to provide an email and wait for an email and haven’t heard back for 3 days.
The rest of negative reviews are related to trading fees, as we have mentioned earlier in this article – Swissquote is far from being a cheap broker, but they are transparent with all their fees and can’t force anyone to become their client.
Taking over 11,000 reviews into account, Swissquote can be rated 6,8 out of 10.
Conclusions For Swissquote
Swissquote is definitely a safe broker, and nobody can undermine the safety of funds when it comes to Swissquote, all of this thanks to being a part of a huge Swissquote Group, being listed on ‘SIX Swiss Exchange,’ as well as having a full banking license.
Swissquote is certainly not the cheapest broker out there and could even be easily considered as one of the more expensive brokers one the Market, but at the same time – can you really put a price on your security?
The choice of trading instrument is sufficient, and offered instruments are enough for 99% of Forex traders. Swissquote also gets an extra star for having its own platform, even though it looks old and might be sluggish at times, it is still a good platform which currently works on MacOS, unlike MetaTrader.
In our opinion, Swissquote is a good choice for most traders, as long as traders can meet Swissquote’s minimal deposit requirement of 1,000 USD.