Swissquote is an online brokerage company which was established in 1999 with its head office in Switzerland. Swissquote trades as Swissquote Ltd which is a subsidiary of London-based Swissquote Bank which provides online forex, stock indices, and commodities trading services for traders based in European Union. Swissquote Bank limited is the leading online financial service provider in Switzerland. It is also the leading online forex brokerage with more than 200,000 traders around the globe. Swissquote Bank Ltd is among the few holding a bank license from Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). It is not easy to get this license as the applicant company should comply with a complex requirement such as to at least have a capital of CHF 20 million. It is a requirement by law that all forex brokers have to comply with it as well as signing the Swiss Bank and Securities agreement which safeguards all investor deposits to a maximum of CHF 100,000.
Swissquote has offices in Bern, Malta, Hong Kong, Zurich, and London with employment of over 550 staff. It also operates in UAE through its subsidiary Swissquote MEA Ltd, but clients funds are kept in Switzerland.
Finical Conduct Authority regulates Swissquote in the UK. Swissquote puts all clients funds in a segregated trust account and uses a tier-1 bank for this. It is also listed on SIX Swiss Exchange. For swissquote to be authorized and regulated by FCA, it means that the forex broker holds high security, ethical and transparency standards. To get a license from this FCA, UK-based brokerages, one must prove their financial stability by at least maintaining £730,000 net tangible assets and keep traders funds in a segregated bank account. Regulation by FCA guarantee clients funds and gives traders confidence in investing in this forex broker. In case of anything like the company going down Financial Service Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will cover to a maximum of £50,000 per person.
Swissquote provides online trading services, analysis tools, and innovative solutions to meet a wide range of investors demands as well as online trading services and user-friendly platforms, also provides solutions for e-Private banking, Flexible saving accounts, eForex, and e-Mortgage. It also offers over two million products from CFDs to Forex, wealth advisory services, exchange-traded securities, cryptocurrencies and many more.
Trading platforms
Swissquote offers its traders with three platforms to choose from, namely Advanced Trader, Meta Trader 4 and Meta Trader 5.
MT4 is more popular and widely adopted because of its trading capabilities. MT4 comes with numerous trading tool such as advanced charting package, automated trading through the use of scripts called Expert Advisors.
MT5 is a newer version of the powerful MT4 platform. Apart from all the features available in MT4, MT5 allows the trader to create their technical indicators and customize chats with 21 different timeframes. It also allows you to do copy trading. Trader still prefers the old MT4 platform because MT5 does not support all MT4 indicators and Expert Advisors.
The Advanced Trader is an in-house developed platform to meet the needs of Swissquote Bank trading environment. The most important thing about this platform is that it comes with automated pattern detection. The platform also comes with integrated with 27 major technical indicators like Stochastic, RSI, and MACD. It also offers 17 different types of technical indicators which clients can cover onto their trading charts.
Trading Accounts
Swissquote offers a standard account, Premium account, and Prime account. Standard does not have any minimum deposit and can be opened with any amount. The premium account requires a minimum deposit of $25,000. Prime account needs $100,000. Swissquote offers Trading in over 70 currency pairs, bonds, stock indices, and commodities. There is a demo account for people who want to try them out for 30 days before committing themselves.
Micro lots are also available for trade with the forex broker. There are no Islamic services available to Muslim clients or a managed account service.
Deposits and Withdraws
Swissquote Europe provides its clients with bank wire and credit card, Master Card and Visa. Swissquote, however, does not support its traders with e-wallets such as Neteller, Paypal, and Skill. Transaction fees for a credit card are from 1.7% to 2%.
Spreads Leverage and Commission
Swissquote provides spreads with an average 0.9 pips on EUR/USD. The broker does not charge any commission fees. Instead, clients have to pay small spreads on traders that they make. The spreads are competitive and differ in the type of trading account the client is trading from.
Swissquote offers its clients with a maximum leverage of 1:100 which low ratio for the market. The broker advice the beginners to use leverage which is smaller as the lower the margin, the lower the risk of loss.
If you need higher leverage, many other brokers offer up to 1:500.
Advantages of Swissquote
- Swissquote is well regulated with a reputable regulatory called FCA
- The broker offers a broad variety trade platform.
- Meta Trader 4 is available with is popular among traders.
- No minimum deposit requirement
Disadvantages of Swissquote
- It offers low leverage level.
Conclusion
Swissquote has a solid license. It is well regulated by a reputable watchdog with this every investor will feel safe investing with them because they can be sure that any funds invested there are secure.