Offering of investments
Swissquote was the first bank in the world to offer the ability to trade underlying cryptocurrencies (non-CFDs). A total of 23 cryptocurrencies are available, including Dogecoin, Polkadot, Cardano, Uniswap and other popular crypto assets. Swissquote is also preparing to launch crypto staking and lending.
eTrading vs eForex accounts: With the Swissquote eTrading account offering, clients can trade cryptocurrencies alongside a seemingly endless variety of products across 60 global market exchanges. However, traders who want to trade forex and CFDs alongside forwards and options must use Swissquote’s eForex account, which offers only 292 tradeable symbols. This is a relatively narrow selection compared to Saxo Bank and CMC Markets, which both offer over 10,000 CFDs – including forex.
| Feature |  |
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 466 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 78 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes |
| Int’l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (CFD) | No |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker’s U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
Commissions and fees
The primary benefit of using Swissquote is the appeal of holding an account with a Swiss banking conglomerate – and that comes at a slight premium. As such, trading costs are not Swissquote’s best feature, and can’t compete with what’s offered by the lowest-cost forex brokers.
The commissions and spreads from Swissquote’s U.K. entity, Swissquote Ltd, differ from its Switzerland entity (Swissquote Bank Ltd) and Luxembourg branch (Swissquote Bank Europe SA). Between the three, the U.K.-based accounts have lower costs and lighter deposit requirements, though they feature a narrower product offering.
Swissquote U.K.: There are four accounts available at Swissquote’s U.K. entity. If you are an active trader and deposit at least $10,000, the commission-based Elite account’s lower spreads (and $5 charge per round-turn trade) make it the best option. Swissquote’s Professional account is nearly identical, except that the threshold for a margin call stop-out is lower.
Less attractive is Swissquote’s Standard account option, with spreads on the EUR/USD starting at 1.3 pips, while the Prime account has a spread from 0.6 pips (though it’s important to note that this is a minimum spread – not an average price).
Swissquote Luxembourg: Swissquote’s Luxembourg entity also offers three account types, each with its own minimum deposit requirement: the Standard account ($1,000 minimum), Premium account ($5,000), and Prime account ($50,000). Minimum spreads range from 0.8 pips for Prime account holders to as much as 1.5 pips for Standard account holders, making the pricing similar to Swissquote’s U.K. entity.
Swiss branch: Though Swissquote’s eTrading account doesn’t offer forex or CFDs, there are three primary account options available in Switzerland for Swissquote’s forex clients. The Standard account requires a $1,000 deposit and features spreads starting at 1.7 pips on the EUR/USD, while the Premium account’s spreads drop slightly to 1.4 pips, though that option requires a $10,000 deposit.
The Prime account requires a $50,000 deposit and offers spreads from 1.1 pips, which is slightly higher than the industry average. Custom pricing is available for active traders, but it is negotiated based on volume, as Swissquote does not list any related volume tiers and pricing.
Cryptocurrency trading fees: Fees for Swissquote’s eTrading account start at 1% of the cryptocurrency trade value, and drop to 0.75% for trades above CHF 10K, and then down to 0.5% for transactions worth more than CHF 50K. While there are no cryptocurrency custody fees, a $10 fee applies to deposits of less than $500.
| Feature | |
| Minimum Initial Deposit | $1000 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD – Standard | N/A |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD – Active | N/A |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes |
| Execution: Agency Broker | Yes |
| Execution: Market Maker | Yes |
Mobile trading apps
Swissquote’s Advanced Trader mobile app is easy to use and cleanly designed, with a decent number of research features and integrated educational content. However, charting is severely limited, leaving the MetaTrader suite as my recommended choice. Swissquote still needs to improve its flagship app if it wants to compete with mobile leaders Saxo Bank, CMC Markets, and TD Ameritrade (U.S. residents only).
Apps overview: For forex and CFD traders, Swissquote offers its proprietary Advanced Trader app, as well as the MetaTrader suite of mobile apps (MT4 and MT5). For stock and cryptocurrency trading, the Swissquote app is available for Android, iOS devices, and Huawei smartwatches.
As part of its partnership to power PostFinance (one of the largest financial institutions in Switzerland), Swissquote offers the YUH app, which is a passive investing app for stocks and crypto.
Ease of use: MetaTrader’s MT4 and MT5 mobile apps feature charts with 30 indicators and nine selectable time frames, along with smooth panning and zooming functions. In the Advanced Trader app, there are six chart types and 11 time-frames to choose from, but there are no available indicators. It’s worth noting that its charts do not support landscape mode or the ability to zoom in and out when viewing chart data.
Research: For both MetaTrader and Swissquote’s Advanced Trader mobile app, research is mostly limited to an economic calendar and headlines that stream from top-tier sources including Dow Jones Newswire. It’s worth noting that Advanced Trader does feature a selection (roughly 25) of integrated educational videos.
| Feature | |
| Android App | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts – Basic Fields | Yes |
| Watchlists – Total Fields | 7 |
| Watchlist Syncing | No |
| Charting – Indicators / Studies (Total) | 49 |
| Charting – Drawing Tools (Total) | 16 |
| Mobile Charting – Draw Trendlines | Yes |
| Charting – Multiple Time Frames | No |
| Forex Calendar | Yes |
Other trading platforms
Swissquote’s Advanced Trader platform suite, available for desktop and web, continues to evolve – yet not enough to match industry leaders like IG and CMC Markets. That said, the full MetaTrader suite is available as a reliable alternative.
Platforms overview: Swissquote’s flagship platform suite, Advanced Trader, is available for web and desktop across all major operating systems. The Swissquote website acts as the platform login for its eTrading account, but doesn’t support forex and CFDs (only crypto and shares).
Swissquote also provides access to the popular MetaTrader platform suites (MT4 and MT5) developed by MetaQuotes Software Corporation. To enhance the default MetaTrader desktop platform experience, Swissquote offers the MetaTrader Master Edition suite of tools, developed by FX Blue LLP, along with support for Trading Central and Autochartist plugins.
Charting: The web-based version of Advanced Trader was recently upgraded to HTML5, and now incorporates TradingView charts – features that are welcome enhancements to the platform. Charts in the desktop version of Advanced Trader are not as smooth as the web version, although they feature a respectable 49 indicators.
Trading tools: Advanced Trader’s desktop platform could use a design overhaul to give it a more modern touch, and bring it in line with well-designed platforms like Saxo Bank’s SaxoTraderPRO. For example, the lack of an automated resizing tool for Advanced Trader’s various window modules led to a very tedious manual process during my testing. Drawbacks aside, Advantage Trader does include robust charting and complex order types, and supports forex options-trading on 45 pairs – on a Request for Quote (RFQ) basis.
| Feature | |
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes |
| DupliTrade | No |
| ZuluTrade | No |
| Charting – Indicators / Studies (Total) | 49 |
| Charting – Drawing Tools (Total) | 16 |
| Charting – Trade From Chart | Yes |
| Watchlists – Total Fields | 7 |
Market research
Swissquote provides a good variety of research content, including streaming news headlines, economic calendars, blog commentary and webinars. Swissquote differentiates itself from its competitors with the quality of its research, which is above and beyond the industry average.
Research overview: Swissquote provides daily written articles via its Morning News series from the Newsroom section of its website, along with Themes Trading articles and a high-quality bimonthly magazine with nearly 80 pages of technology-rich content spanning global markets. Swissquote’s quantitative research team also helps structure some of its products, such as the exchange-traded certificate for crypto, with its latest one added in 2020.
Market news and analysis: Swissquote provides traders with access to Trading Central, which consists of automated chart pattern analysis and analyst commentary. AutoChartist, a similar service, is also available as a plugin for MetaTrader. Across all Swissquote platforms, headlines stream from Dow Jones Newswire and other top-tier providers, and traders receive free reports from Morningstar. Swissquote’s in-house Market Talk series includes daily videos and podcast recordings that cover fundamental and technical analysis.
Video format: Swissquote has a Daily Market Analysis series on its YouTube channel, available in multiple languages (including English), along with 60 archived webinars conveniently arranged as playlists.
| Feature | |
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes |
| Autochartist | Yes |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | Yes |
| Social Sentiment – Currency Pairs | No |
Swissquote Education
Swissquote’s strength in this category is its video content, with dozens of educational videos and webinars available on its YouTube channel. That said, its bare-bones written content and absence of interactive lesson programs make for an unremarkable educational experience that simply can’t compete with the best forex brokers for education.
Learning center: Swissquote’s learning center provides ten eBooks and 31 videos as part of its forex and CFD educational courses. I was glad to see that at least 15 instructional videos are also available within the Advanced Trader mobile app, along with a selection of platform tutorials.
Room for improvement: Expanding Swissquote’s educational content to include a greater variety of written articles, incorporating quizzes and progress tracking, and adding the ability to filter by experience level would help lift Swissquote’s ranking in this category.
| Feature | |
| Has Education – Forex or CFDs | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes |
| Videos – Beginner Trading Videos | Yes |
| Videos – Advanced Trading Videos | No |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes |
Final thoughts
Swissquote is a trusted global brand that finished among our Best in Class for Crypto Trading and Trust Score, and won our award for #1 Banking Services for 2022.
The best all-around forex trading experience at Swissquote can be found through the firm’s U.K. entity, by way of the MetaTrader platform.
The Swiss-based offering of forex and CFDs, on the other hand, is a bit of a mixed bag due to the absence of forex or CFD trading within its otherwise vast multi-asset offering.
About Swissquote
Swissquote (SIX: SQN) was founded in 1996 and was publicly listed in 2000 on the SIX Swiss stock exchange and has since grown to be an established banking group. As of its H1 2021 report, Swissquote has 410,000 client accounts, and CHF 50.2 billion across its subsidiaries that are regulated in Europe and Asia.
With its headquarters in Switzerland, Swissquote Bank offers traders access to over two and a half million products, including shares, ETFs, funds, bonds, warrants, futures, forex, options, and other securities. In addition, Swissquote offers comprehensive wealth management and advisory services. Read more on Wikipedia about Swissquote.
2022 Review Methodology
For our 2022 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 39 international forex brokers over a three-month time period resulting in over 50,000 words of published research.
Each broker was graded on 113 different variables, including our proprietary Trust Score algorithm. This innovative scoring system ranks the level of trustworthiness for each broker based on factors such as licenses, regulation and corporate structure. Read about Trust Score here.
As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy.
Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.
Forex Risk Disclaimer
There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Read more on forex trading risks.
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