Step-by-Step Guide: How to buy an ETF with Swissquote in 2025

Swissquote interfaces

Most Reputable Swiss Broker

Swissquote

4.5

Affordable

Everything you need to start investing in the stock market! Open an account with Swissquote and get 100 CHF in trading credits with my code MKT_THEPOORSWISS.

Pros:

• Swiss broker
• Easy to use

Invest with MKT_THEPOORSWISS code Read Our Review

The MKT_THEPOORSWISS code is only valid for active Swiss accounts.

Swissquote does not have many interfaces for trading. You can choose between two interfaces:

• The web interface
• The mobile interface

You can do the same things from both interfaces. In this article, I will cover the web interface because I find it much more convenient to trade from my computer than from my phone. If you want me to cover the mobile interface as well, please let me know in the comments below, and I will try to do that as well in the future.

The web interface provides you with all you need. You can trade stocks, bonds, ETFs, options and more. You will get information on each security as well.

Overall, the web interface of Swissquote is simple to use and not too bloated with features. But even with this simple interface, we do not need most of these features. If you only buy (and sometimes sell) ETFs on Swissquote, you will need only a small portion of the features, and you can ignore the rest as noise.

So, in this article, we will how to do the necessary basic operations with the web interface for your Swissquote account.

Transferring money to Swissquote

Before you can invest anything, you need to transfer some cash. Transferring money to your Swissquote account is very easy. Since you have your personal CH IBAN (Swissquote is a bank), you do not have to declare your deposits in advance. So, you can simply send a wire transfer to your transfer, and it will be picked up quickly in your account. And there is no need for reference numbers or anything special in your wire transfer.

From your main Swissquote account view, you can click on Add Money.

Then, you will see all the information about your bank wire. You do not have to copy anything by hand, you can simply scan the QR code, like you would scan any bill. This should work from any mobile banking app. Or if you prefer, you can also of course copy all the banking details and prepare the wire yourself.

Overall, it is very convenient. When I do a transfer from Migros Bank to Swissquote, it is usually done and processed on the same day, so I can access the money quickly. When the funds are ready, you will receive an email from Swissquote.

Converting currency

When you buy an ETF in a foreign currency you do not have, Swissquote can automatically convert the currency for you. If you want to buy VT in USD and have only CHF in your account, the broker will automatically convert enough CHF into USD to cover the trade (of course, you must have enough CHF). This conversion costs 0.95% per conversion. Currency conversions are one of the most expensive operations on Swissquote.

If you want to keep things simple, I recommend you only use automated conversions (skip this section and jump to the next). But if you like, you can also do manually currency conversions. For that, we must access the trading platform. From there, we can search for the FOREX pair. If we want to buy USD with CHF, we need to search for USD/CHF.

You will find the proper item under Currencies. Be careful not to touch the structured products. Once you click on USD/CHF, you will see more information about the currency.

If you want to continue and buy some USD, you can simply click trade and you will be presented with a simple window for the trade.

You can simply choose the amount you wish to buy. Then, you can either request a quote (like a market order) or prepare a limit order. In general, I use market orders, but many people are more at ease with limit orders.

Once you request a quote, you will get 5 seconds to validate it. If you are happy with the quote, you can click on Buy USD, and Swissquote will execute the trade for you. After that, there is no going back. Once you are done, you will have some USD on your account and less CHF.

Again, I should mention that this is an optional step, since Swissquote can automatically do the conversions when you buy in foreign currency. So, it is really up to you to decide whether you want to control all the steps yourself or you want something simpler.

Buy an ETF on Swissquote

We can now jump on to buying an ETF with Swissquote. For that, we need to go on the trading platform again. From there, we can search for our favorite ETF or click on the ETF in your portfolio if you already have shares of it.

On the top bar, you have access to the search function. Here I searched for VOO, the ticker of a US ETF. It works the same for any ticker (like VT) and you can also search by name. In the list, the one we are interested in is the first one. We can see the ticker is precisely what we look for. And on the right, we can see that this will be traded on the US stock exchange, in USD. Once you have found the security you are looking for, you can click on the security name.

On this page, you can see all the information about the ETF. Typically, there is not much you need to know about it once you have decided to use it. You can also access the documents about the ETF on the top left. Once you area ready, you can click on the Trade button on the top right.

On this view, you can configure your order to buy the shares of the ETF. There is something critical about this order view. You must configure properly the currency you want to use. In this view, you can see I bought this ETF listed in USD with my CHF balance. This is essential because if I set it to USD and I did not have USD, it would result in either a negative balance if you have margin capacity or simply in an error. Therefore, you need to set this properly:

• If you only have CHF and want an automated conversion, you must choose CHF here.
• If you have already done a CHF to USD conversion yourself and want to use the USD, you must pick USD here.

Other than that, this view is pretty straightforward. You can decide the amount you want to buy and the order type (Market or Limit orders are the most used stock market order types). You can also choose the validity if you are doing a limit order. Personally, I would do a market order so the validity is not relevant.

Once you are ready, you can click on Prepare Order and then validate it when you want.

Thereafter, you will be able to see the transaction in your account. You can see that we see the two currencies we have used because it was an automated conversion. We can also see the costs, the quantity, and price of the order.

You can also see the added shares if you go into your portfolio view.

There you will see the number of shares you own, their value and their performance.

Congratulations, you just bought shares of your ETF! And this is already it! That is all you need to know to buy your ETFs on Swissquote.

FAQ

Conclusion

Most Reputable Swiss Broker

Swissquote

4.5

Affordable

Everything you need to start investing in the stock market! Open an account with Swissquote and get 100 CHF in trading credits with my code MKT_THEPOORSWISS.

Pros:

• Swiss broker
• Easy to use

Invest with MKT_THEPOORSWISS code Read Our Review

The MKT_THEPOORSWISS code is only valid for active Swiss accounts.

In summary, trading ETFs with Swissquote is straightforward. If you only use automated conversions, you only have to learn a single feature of the interface, and you will be able to ignore the rest. And even if you want to do currency conversions yourself, it will still not be too complicated.

I only use the web interface since I prefer to use computers than phones. But if you would like me to cover the mobile interface as well, please let me know in the comments below.

And if you would like to learn more about this broker, you can read our Swissquote review.

Currently, I am using Swissquote as the main broker for our business (the blog). It is not our main personal broker, for which we use Interactive Brokers.

What about you? What do you think of trading with Swissquote?