Cheapest way to buy Swiss stocks

What is the cheapest way to buy Swiss stocks? Which stock market or broker is cheapest?

Hi there,

You can use the interactive online broker comparison on moneyland.ch to compare the costs of Swiss online brokers.

The comparison automatically accounts for broker-specific costs including brokerage fees, custodial fees, account fees, flat-rate fees, stamp duties and many more. Select the "Swiss equities" under "Profile selection" to compare brokers based on their costs for Swiss stock transactions.

It is worth noting that some Swiss companies offer direct stock puchase programs or allow you to buy stocks through their transfer agents - eliminating the need for a broker. However, these are few and far between, and normally only apply to newly-issued shares.

Considering that many online brokers have very reasonable fees and allow you to trade from any Internet-enabled device, they generally provide the easiest and cheapest way for investors to buy stocks.

Best regards from Moneyguru

Hi,

It seems that stock savings plans like those offered in Germany are not available in Switzerland. Because of that, I want to ask if there is some way to replicate investing in these plans, using options available in Switzerland.

One idea I have is to set aside a few hundred francs per month to buy the corresponding stocks. The question is whether the brokerage fees would undermine the benefits of doing this. Maybe save up and then buy shares 2x per year?

What do you think?

It seems you already understand the problem pretty well.

Many brokers have a flat minimum brokerage fee per transaction (buy/sell). The smaller the amount of shares you buy, the higher the flat brokerage fee is in relation to the value of the shares. When you only buy a few hundred or even 1000+ francs worth of shares, the value of your shares would have to drastically increase to cover the brokerage fee and still make a profit on top.

Here is an example of brokerage fees for Swiss shares quoted on SIX:

Tradedirect: Minimum fee is 6.90 francs.
Swissquote: Fee is 9 to 500 francs per transaction depending on the transaction size.
Saxo: Minimum fee is 18 francs (or 11 francs for big customers).
Postfinance: Fee is 15 to 1000 francs per transaction depending on the transaction size.
Cornèrtrader: Minimum fee is 20 francs (18 francs for big customers).
Cash: Fee is 29 francs per transaction.
BKB EasyTrading: Fee is 30 francs per transaction.
UBS: Minimum fee is 40 francs per transaction.

Etc.