Swiss CFD Broker Comparison 2024

CFDs (contracts for difference) are leveraged derivatives which track the performance of underlying assets – such as stocks, stock market indexes, commodities, forex and cryptocurrencies. You do not own the stocks or other underlying assets. A CFD is simply a contract between you and a broker.

CFDs let you speculate on increases in the value of underlying assets (go long) or on decreases in value (go short).

Because you can open short positions, CFDs provide a tool for hedging long stock and index investments over short periods of market volatility.

You can find more information about CFDs here.

You can compare the most important costs of online trading platforms from Swiss stock brokers using the unbiased online trading comparison. Open free demo accounts to view available CFDs and spreads, and to test CFD trading.

moneyland.ch offers two different CFD calculators which help you trade CFDs smartly.

• CFD calculator: The general CFD calculator from moneyland.ch makes it easy to calculate your capital gains or capital losses based on changes in the value of underlying assets, with or without accounting for interest charged on financing (overnight fees). Results can include the effective leverage ratio required and margin use required (as a percentage). The calculator can be used for both short and long CFD positions.
• Stop loss & take profit: The stop loss & take profit calculator helps you calculate the optimal stop loss and take profit thresholds for CFD positions.
  Maximum acceptable loss: You can specify the maximum amount of money you can afford to lose.
  Minimum capital gain: You can specify the minimum capital gain you want to realise.

The following factors determine the cost of CFD trading:

• Spread costs: Brokers add markups or markdowns to market rates of underlying assets. These spreads are the biggest cost-factor in CFD trading, and they differ broadly between CFD brokers and between underlying asset types. A CFD position only becomes profitable if the price of the underlying asset increases or decreases enough to compensate for the spread. In other words, the markup or markdown is deducted from your capital gains. The bigger the spreads which apply to a CFD, the smaller your capital gains will be and the bigger your capital losses will be.
• Financing costs: When you hold a long CFD position overnight (past applicable trading hours), you are charged interest. When you hold short positions, you may earn interest. Brokers add an “overnight fee” to market interest rates as a markup on top of interest charged for long positions and as a markdown for interest earned for short positions. The higher the overnight fee, the more you pay to hold CFD positions overnight. With many brokers, the overnight fee for short positions is higher than interest earned, which means you pay interest for these as well.
• Brokerage fees: Some brokers charge brokerage fees in addition to spreads when you open and close certain kinds of CFDs. Brokerage fees typically apply to stock positions and/or forex CFD positions, but you may also pay some form of brokerage fees for commodity and index CFDs as well.
• Minimum fees: Some brokers have minimum brokerage fees per position (for stock CFDs, for example), or charge a fee when you open positions below a minimum size threshold (for forex CFDs, for example). For example, you may be charged a fee of 10 francs if you open a forex position which is smaller than 50,000 or 100,000 currency units. These fees can add a significant cost, particularly in the case of smaller positions. Make sure to account for these fees when deciding on the type and size of CFD positions.
• Other fees: Additional costs may apply when you make use of specialized services like market data streams or stop loss order hedging.

You can find more information about the costs of CFD trading here.

Use the broker which has the smallest spreads and the lowest overnight fees for the kinds of CFDs you want to use.

You can find more information about the costs of CFD trading here.

Swiss brokers typically offer CFDs which use stocks, stock indexes (like the SMI, NASDAQ or DAX), commodities (like gold or crude oil) or currency pairs (forex) as their underlying assets. There are also CFD brokers which offer CFDs based on cryptocurrencies.

Some brokers offer CFD options which are based on CFDs rather than actual assets like stocks or futures. A possible advantage of CFD options over standard options is that they can be used for positions smaller than the minimum size required by options exchanges.

CFDs are a contract between you and a broker. You do not own or hold any claim to the underlying assets. For this reason, it is very important to use reputable brokers. Many foreign CFD brokers which advertise to residents of Switzerland are not fully-licensed banks and have questionable depositor protection. To find all Swiss CFD brokers which are licensed, FINMA-regulated Swiss banks, just select the CFD filter in the online trading comparison.

Yes. Many brokers offer free demo accounts which let you simulate CFD trading using real market data but simulated money. Using free demo accounts before opening real trading accounts is recommended. Using these helps you understand what CFDs, CFD derivatives and trading orders are offered. It also allows you to compare costs and familiarize yourself with the risks of CFD trading.