Hello hello!
Swissquote—does the name ring a bell?
If you follow my YouTube channel, you know I often talk about Swissquote when discussing financial investments to grow your wealth. And for good reason: it’s a bank that lets you manage your money via a web and mobile application. A renowned Swiss bank that’s rapidly expanding!
But Swissquote is much more than that. In this article, I’ll introduce you to the many services this platform offers.
3-2-1, here we gooooo!
Let’s start at the beginning: the 3rd pillar
If you’ve browsed my blog and channel, you know I emphasize building wealth to live comfortably throughout your life and ensure a peaceful retirement. Having an overview of your finances and a 3rd Pillar are, in my opinion, the first things a person should do to secure a good retirement, even before investing in stocks or other securities. But if you follow my blog or channel, you also know that I prefer 3rd Pillars invested in financial securities.
And that’s precisely what Swissquote offers with its new 3a Easy solution—a simple solution that delivers returns. If you choose the savings option, you’ll benefit from an interest rate of up to 1% with no fees. If you choose the investment option, you can select from three strategies carefully crafted by experts based on your risk profile: balanced with 50% in stocks, dynamic with 75% in stocks, and ambitious with 97% in stocks. By choosing these strategies, you’ll incur a fee of 0.6%, but these fees may decrease. The minimum deposit amount is 100 CHF, and the minimum amount to reinvest is also 100 CHF. You can calculate the potential returns directly on the Swissquote website and see different scenarios based on the strategy you choose, the amounts invested, and your personal information. To activate it, it’s simple: open a Swissquote account, add a new account, select 3a Easy, choose your strategy based on your goals and risk profile, and watch your wealth grow. Also, note that you can open multiple 3a Easy accounts.
Invest Easy solution to delegate everything
Une fois un 3e pilier ouvert, on va pouvoir s’attarder sur ses premiers investissements. Si j’aime pouvoir choisir et analyser les actions, ETFs et cryptos dans lesquels j’investis, c’est quelque chose qui prend du temps et c’est également quelque chose qui n’intéresse pas forcément tout le monde.
Et ça, Swissquote l’a bien compris.
Pour toutes les personnes qui aimeraient investir mais qui n’ont pas le temps ni l’envie d’y passer des heures, Swissquote offre le produit Invest Easy. Une solution d’investissement et d’épargne pour tous ceux qui recherchent l’investissement avec simplicité. Il te suffit de faire ton choix parmi des stratégies prédéfinies, selon ton degré de tolérance au risque. Le principal avantage est de pouvoir choisir entre 3 stratégies d’investissement prédéfinies par des professionnels, sans prise de tête et de bénéficier de rendements, donc voir à nouveau sa fortune grandir, au lieu de la voir se faire grignoter par l’inflation en la laissant dormir sur un compte bancaire standard. Avec la stratégie prudente, tu as 55% du montant investi en obligations, 30% en actions, 10% en immobilier et 5% en matières premières.
Avec la stratégie équilibrée, tu as 50% du montant investi en actions, 35% en obligations, 10% en immobilier et 5% en matières premières.
Avec la stratégie ambitieuse, tu as 75,3% du montant investi en actions, 13,7% en obligations, 5% en immobilier, 5% en matières premières et 1% en crypto. Une bonne façon d’avoir des investissements en crypto si tu as peur d’investir par toi-même.
Once you’ve opened a 3rd Pillar, you can focus on your first investments. While I enjoy selecting and analyzing the stocks, ETFs, and cryptos in which I invest, it’s time-consuming and not something everyone is interested in. Swissquote understands that.
For those who want to invest but don’t have the time or desire to spend hours on it, Swissquote offers the Invest Easy product. A simple investment and savings solution for those seeking hassle-free investing. Just choose from predefined strategies based on your risk tolerance. The main advantage is that you can choose from three professionally designed investment strategies without the headache and enjoy returns, seeing your wealth grow rather than being eaten away by inflation by leaving it in a standard bank account. The conservative strategy allocates 55% to bonds, 30% to stocks, 10% to real estate, and 5% to commodities. The balanced strategy allocates 50% to stocks, 35% to bonds, 10% to real estate, and 5% to commodities. The ambitious strategy allocates 75.3% to stocks, 13.7% to bonds, 5% to real estate, 5% to commodities, and 1% to crypto—a great way to have crypto investments if you’re hesitant to invest on your own.
The costs and fees are transparently explained on the Swissquote website. Another great move by Swissquote—you can make projections of the amount you could have in 10 years, depending on the chosen strategy, the amount of the initial deposit, and the amount of recurring transfers, since DCA is always the best strategy 😉 and based on the frequency of the recurring transfer, for example, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Debit card with cashback
Another new feature is the Swissquote debit card. I’m mentioning it because it’s quite a revolution.
While the physical Bright card has fees, the virtual card, called the Light card, does not. However, the physical card is free for the first six months. Depending on when you’re watching my video, my code MKT_MONEYMADAM might give you a year of free access to this card, so to find out, write to me under the video. Normally, after the first six free months, you’ll have to pay 6.90 CHF/month for the physical card.
These cards allow you to pay in 13 different currencies with no transaction fees. In addition to currencies, you can also use your cryptocurrencies for payments. Even though it’s not a solution I personally use—because I prefer to keep my cryptos and see their value grow rather than use them for purchases—it’s still good to know.
Additionally, both cards are compatible with digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, another advantage for those who prefer these payment methods. Both cards allow you to make free national payments, use E-Bill and Twint. However, only the physical card allows you to make free SEPA payments and withdraw cash for free at ATMs in Switzerland.
Among other benefits of these debit cards are the cashback in trading credit with each use, whether with the physical or virtual card. However, the physical card offers a higher cashback percentage than the virtual card. For payments in foreign currencies, you’ll get 0.5% cashback with the Bright card and 0.25% with the Light card. And if you pay in cryptocurrencies, you’ll get 1% with the Bright card and 0.5% with the Light card.
Note that Swissquote allows you to have shared accounts. At the time of writing this article, only one physical card is offered per account. So, if a couple shares an account, one person could use the physical card and the other the digital card, and thus problems would be resolved.
Now that the banking part is done, let me explain the benefits of Swissquote for investing.
Using my code MKT_MONEYMADAM when opening your account and making a first deposit of 1,000 CHF on the platform to invest, save, or spend with the Swissquote card, you’ll receive a trading credit of 200 CHF instead of 100 CHF.
Platform to invest in traditional assets
Investing to grow your money is great, but investing in companies aligned with your values is even better. You may want to invest in securities that meet ESG criteria—environmental, social, and governance. Instead of having to search and analyze each security on your own, Swissquote has done the work for us and offers investments that meet ESG criteria, which you can explore on the Inspiration page.
You can choose topics that interest you, such as gender equality, human rights, or any other theme that matches your investor profile. Note the sectors that don’t align with your principles, like fossil fuels, animal testing, weapons, alcohol, etc., to exclude them. Then, with the ESG filters, you can find ideas for responsible investments. Super convenient, right?
If you want to go beyond the Invest Easy solution and invest in securities, such as ETFs, here’s the process! Click on “Market & Quotes” at the top to access the trading platform. You’ll find ETFs under Markets – Products – ETF/ETP.
Alternatively, at the top right, there’s a search bar where you can look for your ETF or any other financial asset by name, symbol, or ISIN. For our example today, we’ll buy the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF. To avoid high conversion fees, we’ll first change our CHF to US dollars. For this, go to Markets, then Forex, and Converter. Select CHF at the top and the desired currency, in our case, USD. To exchange the currencies, just click on “trade.”
A little tip: exchange rates are generally more favorable on Fridays.
Once the money is converted, we can buy our ETFs. On our e-trading account, search for the ETF by its name, symbol, or ISIN number, which you can easily find on Google by typing Vanguard Total World Stock ISIN. A dropdown menu with a list of financial products will appear. Click on it. Then click on the orange “Trade” button.
In the trading mask, you’ll see a summary of the information with the symbol, name, daily variation percentage, ISIN code, exchange, last price, bid and ask price, with the best bid and ask volumes. You’ll also see the daily price variation.
Since we want to buy, under transaction, select the option “BUY.” We’ll start by buying one unit, so under quantity, insert 1. If you want to buy a financial security only once or manage your orders after conducting your own investment analysis, choose the “Limit” order. In essence, you know the price at which you want to buy your ETF, so you set a price lower than the current market price. Your order will be executed if the asset’s price drops to your desired price, so you’ll have to wait. If you choose the “Market” order, you’ll buy at the current price without waiting. The “Stop” and “Stop limit” orders are not, in my opinion, relevant for buying. However, the “Recurring” order type is an excellent option for purchasing an asset regularly, practicing what’s known as DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging), smoothing your entry price, and avoiding the question of “when should I buy?” You’ll need to choose the weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly frequency and the start date. That’s how you configure a recurring investment on Swissquote 😉
To continue with the Limit order, we’ll enter the price at which we want to buy. As long as the ETF remains above this price, we won’t purchase it. We’ll also enter the date until which we’re willing to wait for our order to be executed. Be aware that if we reach this date and the ETF’s price has never dropped to your desired level, the order will be canceled. So, if you really want the ETF regardless of the price, you can choose the Market order instead. Under “Account,” we’ll select the USD account since we will have made the currency exchange beforehand. At the bottom right, you’ll see the estimated amount. Note that when you place a market order on the Swissquote platform, there’s a 10% margin to prevent the price from spiking up or down depending on the direction of your transaction.
We click on “Prepare order.” To place the order, you just need to click on “Submit order.” We’ll get a summary of what we’ve just placed on the market.
You can find this order in the “Orders” section of your account. As long as the status hasn’t been executed, you can cancel the order. Once the status is “Executed,” it means you’ll own the financial asset in question—in our example, the Vanguard ETF. It’s the same process for buying stocks. I actually explained the process of buying stocks in this YouTube video where I introduced Swissquote, which I highly recommend you watch.
To invest in cryptocurrencies
Now, here’s how to buy cryptocurrencies on Swissquote. First, you’ll need to go to your eTrading account. You can access it by clicking on Markets & Quotes in the top menu. Then, at the top right, click on cryptoassets, and you’ll be redirected to the cryptocurrency trading platform on Swissquote.
You’ll arrive on a page displaying your balance, where you can see your crypto positions if you’ve already bought any, or an empty section if you haven’t purchased your first cryptocurrencies yet.
Below that, you’ll see your open orders, meaning purchase orders you’ve placed that haven’t been executed yet.
At the top, you’ll have a balance tab to check your cryptocurrency balance at any time, a market tab to view the cryptocurrency market, an earn tab if you’re interested in staking, order history, transactions, and a help page.
So, to see how to buy a crypto asset, like a cryptocurrency, we’re going to click on the market tab at the top right. You’ll see all the available pairs, like BTC/USD, BTC/EUR. You can filter them by characteristics, such as cryptocurrencies in the metaverse sector, smart contracts, etc.
Here, we’re going to see how to buy Bitcoin. We take the first Bitcoin USD pair and click on Trade. A digital assets contract will appear. I highly recommend you read this document before proceeding. You can save and print this document if you wish, by clicking on Print at the bottom left. If you agree with everything, click on “you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted each of the conditions presented above.”
The trading mask will then appear, displaying financial information on Bitcoin’s price at the top, such as the buying and selling volume, bid and ask prices, the 24-hour low and high prices. You’ll see a chart where you can perform technical analysis if you wish, such as displaying RSI, MACD, moving averages, etc. You can choose to save this type of analysis for your future investments by clicking save at the top right of the chart. On the right, you’ll have the New Order section to buy or sell your cryptocurrency. Your purchasing power, meaning your available liquidity on the platform, the order type, such as limit if you want to buy at a maximum price because you think the price will drop in the next few days and you want to gain a few hundred or thousand francs, market order to buy at the market price without hassle, or stop limit order, where you’ll need to set the trigger price, which is the price at which the limit order will be executed, and define the limit price, which is the highest price you’re willing to pay for Bitcoin, slightly above the trigger price you’ve chosen. Personally, I use the limit order type, which is more than sufficient.
At the bottom, you can choose the amount you want to buy, either in Bitcoin, for example, 0.1 Bitcoin, or in dollars, for example, 1,000 CHF worth of Bitcoin. To illustrate how a purchase works, I’ll buy $50 worth of Bitcoin with a limit order. So I select the limit order type, insert the price at which I want to buy. In the short term, I think Bitcoin will drop, so I’ll enter a price below the current price. Then I click on USD and insert 50 to buy $50 worth of Bitcoin. At the bottom, I’ll see the estimated amount of Bitcoin I will own, including fees. Then I click on “Place a New Buy Order.” A summary of the order will appear, and if I’m okay with it, all I have to do is click “Place Order.” Below, I can find the order and its status, which will be pending until it’s executed. Once it’s executed, you can find it under the balance tab at the top right, under positions.
If you need help placing an order, you can always call Swissquote’s customer service. They are very responsive and can assist you.
If you now want to sell your cryptocurrencies, instead of selecting “buy,” you’ll need to select the “sell” tab on the trading mask. You’ll see the amount of cryptocurrency you own, available for sale. Again, you can choose between limit, market, or stop limit regarding the order type. If you select the limit order, you’ll need to select the minimum price you want to sell at. For example, if the price is $65,000 and you want to sell at $74,000, you enter the amount of $74,000. If you select market, you’ll simply sell at the market price without any hassle. If you choose the stop limit order type, you’ll need to select the trigger price, which is the price at which the limit order will be executed, and the limit price, for which it’s recommended to choose a price slightly lower than the trigger price. Finally, you’ll just need to enter the amount in Bitcoin or dollars you want to sell, then click on “Place a New Sell Order” and “Place Order.”
If you want to do staking, which means earning interest on your locked-in cryptocurrency amounts, simply go to the “Earn” section at the top right, and click on the orange “Stake” button. For each crypto available for staking, you’ll see the estimated rewards per year, such as 4% on ETH, 6.24% on Solana, etc. You’ll be able to see the reward issuance, so how often you receive a percentage, the total rewards earned, and pending rewards. For example, if you want to stake your ETH, you’ll click on the “Stake” button. Like me, you’ll have a document to read, accept the conditions, and click on “I Agree.” Then, you’ll need to select the amount in ETH you want to stake. Note that the minimum possible is 0.001 ETH. You’ll be able to see the entry lock period, here 7 days for ETH, as well as the approximate rewards you’ll earn. Then, all that’s left is to click on “Place Asset in Staking.” You can also unstake your cryptocurrencies if you suddenly want to sell. But be careful, some cryptocurrencies will only be available several days after being unstaked, like DOT, which requires a 29-day wait. For long-term investors, staking is, in my opinion, an excellent solution. But it also has its drawbacks.
Since the crypto market is very volatile, setting up recurring orders on your crypto assets can help you.
By placing a recurring order, you can not only reduce the volatility of the asset you’re buying but also strengthen your portfolio. To set up a recurring investment in the cryptocurrencies of your choice, you need to go a different route than the Crypto-Asset tab. But don’t worry, it’s super simple. By going to the “Market & Quotes” tab, then on the left to crypto assets, you’ll see the listed cryptocurrencies. If you want to buy a cryptocurrency on a recurring basis, just click on trade next to the desired crypto, in our example the Bitcoin/USD pair, then choose the transaction “buy,” choose the amount in shares for example 0.01 bitcoin or the amount in dollars you want to invest on a recurring basis, select the recurring order type, choose the frequency daily, weekly, every 2 weeks or monthly and choose the start date. It should be noted that only the “Buy” option is available for recurring orders. You’ll see the estimated total amount, including the order fees, which are 1%. Then, all you have to do is press “prepare order.” And there you have it, all you have to do is chill, and come back once a month to see how your investments are doing. In my opinion, recurring investment is a wonderful solution for dollar-cost averaging, an investment technique that has proven itself with many investors and is one of the most profitable techniques. You distance yourself from emotions, you no longer ask yourself “Is this the right time to buy?” Because the best time to buy was yesterday.
Note that you can set up as many orders as you like, as well as modify and delete them at your convenience.
What about fees?
Regarding investment fees, you’ll have up to 1% fees on cryptocurrencies, 9 CHF fees for leading ETFs, and from 5 CHF for stocks. For invested 3rd pillars, 0.6% fees, and up to 0.81% for invest easy solutions. If you use the light cards, it will be free, and if you choose the bright card option, 6.90 CHF/month after the first 6 months free. If you add it all up, it’s much cheaper than other traditional banks, for services that are really top-notch. You might be able to pay less with other banks and neo-banks, but you might be penalized in terms of the number of services, the quality of services, for example, Swissquote’s customer service is reachable by phone, can help you place orders, and is super responsive. Or you might get lower returns due to hidden fees. In short, you know I optimize everything, so if I chose this bank for my personal investments, it’s not for nothing.
So now if I’ve convinced you, I remind you that by using my code MKT_MONEYMADAM when opening your account and with a first deposit of 1,000 CHF on the platform, to invest, save, or spend with the Swissquote card, you’ll receive a trading credit of 200 CHF instead of 100 CHF.
Have a great day and… to your investments!
