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Above all, remember that over time:
1. Your wallet will grow in size (hopefully upwards).
2. The broker/bank may change its rates overnight.
3. The broker/bank may withdraw from the local market, may be acquired or may merge with another market player.Point 1) is not a problem in itself (quite the contrary)
), on the other hand it will have an influence on your costs. Point 2) is difficult to control and, most certainly, you will not be able to transfer your portfolio to another establishment without losing feathers.As for point 3), you can minimize the risks by choosing a broker/platform that is also a bank, and not just a broker, whether in Switzerland or offshore.
Indeed, with the drop in PM in recent days my finger is starting to twitch, in other words is about to pull the trigger.
.Another interesting value in the same register: UVV (Universal Corporation). It is not about the movie studios but about the largest tobacco producer/planter in the world. Its clients are of course PM, British Tobacco, JTI, etc.
This is a value further upstream than the cigarette companies, little known to the general public. Dividends have increased every year for decades. The increase is always very modest (2% this year if I am not mistaken) that is why I consider this value as a bond but whose coupon increases with inflation. In any case, it is in the portfolio fund as far as I am concerned.
I say "not bad"!
Good morning,
I hold PM directly on the NYSE and I confirm the somewhat special treatment of the dividend, that is to say that a large part of the dividend is not subject to any withholding tax.
This is because the head office is located in Switzerland and not in the USA. The same is true for all those American companies that have moved their head office to Ireland in recent years (for example Eaton Inc which became Eaton plc). There are also American insurance companies that have their head office in Bermuda such as Montpelier Re Holding (MRH). Here too the dividend is special.
Birdie
Make a "watch list" of stocks that you like and when the time comes for earnings announcements (between January and the end of March 2014), pull the trigger when one of the stocks on your list corrects sharply (say between -5% and -15% over 1 or 3 sessions)... as long as there is nothing bad in the results. Sometimes, the expectations of analysts and funds of all kinds are just too high, causing a correction. Nothing too bad, just an opportunity for those who know how to seize it.
Copycat,
What you say is absolutely correct, you can buy and sell EUR and USD freely. I think it does not apply to me because I have a lombard in CHF so if I sell a position in USD, it will not go to my USD but to my CHF. But hey, what I wrote is therefore not correct in a normal situation.
I forgot an important point above:
It often happens that companies increase their capital, issue new shares, offer free shares instead of a cash dividend. It also happens that a major shareholder offers to buy back minority shareholders' shares at a price (often rotten). In short, sometimes the individual shareholder must be contacted by the company via the broker and his opinion asked. Swissquote sends an electronic form to your inbox and you can respond electronically (e.g. do you want the dividend in cash? if so, for how many shares?). Tradedirect, as for them, will send you the same question by paper mail and you will have to respond by paying postage for the mail yourself.
Choosing your broker using a comparison table is a good start, but all the comparisons show more or less the same thing: brokerage fees, account fees, entry and exit fees, deposit fees.
On the other hand, there are certain aspects or details that can only be known after the fact (because no newspaper or specialized site seems to have taken note of them). Here is my experience with 2 brokers: Swissquote And Tradedirect.
Deposit fees
For a long time Tradedirect (formerly e-sider) charged deposit fees as a percentage of the value of the portfolio. This didn't bother me when I started but as my portfolio grew it became more and more expensive. I contacted them to ask for an exemption/package but of course I was refused. Recently they switched to a capping method but any client under the old percentage method had to make a formal request to switch to the capping method as long as they were aware of the new conditions...a practice bordering on dishonesty in my opinion.
Swissquote, for their part, have applied a cap on deposit fees of up to CHF 100 per year + VAT, but this has just been increased to CHF 200 + VAT last April....neither seen nor known, if I may say so, since I discovered it on my new quarterly invoice. Do you know many service companies that double their rates in one fell swoop?
Lombard Credit
Tradedirect does not offer this service. Swissquote does.
Tax declaration
You can request a tax return from Swissquote. The cost is CHF 100 + VAT if I remember correctly and regardless of the number of positions. For Tradedirect, I made a request and they could not answer me right away on the price….they called me back later to tell me that the price depended on the number of securities/positions…..and it was very prohibitive!
Opening of values
For some reason, Tradedirect has trouble keeping up with splits, IPOs and new values. I remember that the day after a stock split, I had to ask them to open the new value… it was for a big, well-known company. I have also often asked to open values. Swissquote does not have this problem.
Similarly, when there is a stock split or a particular operation that influences the cost price of the position, Tradedirect seems to have difficulty recalculating the cost price. I had to call several times. Not this problem at Swissquote.
Registration in the register of shareholders
For Swiss stocks, if you want to receive information from the company or participate in general meetings, the broker will have to register you in the company's shareholder register. This is done automatically at Tradedirect but it will cost you CHF 20 per position at Swissquote.
User-friendliness of the website
Both sites are quite pleasant to use, with an advantage for Swissquote.
Customer Service
With Tradedirect I had to contact them several times on a particular subject. Not good. The employees are however courteous, friendly and seem well trained. At Swissquote, if you call and have a rather specific question you risk being transferred to a colleague in Zurich who will ask you if you speak English!
Also account in EUR, USD
At Swissquote my account is in CHF only which means that I suffer an exchange rate effect with each purchase AND sale of foreign shares, thus increasing my exchange rate risk. At Tradedirect, I have a multi-currency account which allows me to keep the currency when I sell a share or when I transfer from CHF to USD/EUR.
Purchase and sale slips
When buying or selling, a slip is generated in a few minutes (pdf) at Swissquote on the stock account. At Tradedirect, a pdf is also generated but it takes a little longer (but it's not so bad because some brokers issue the slips the next day). On the other hand, you have to go and get the slip from your BCV bank account, it is not generated on the Tradedirect account. Weird.
Year-end recap
At Swissquote, I can see how much my portfolio has progressed in the past year (as a percentage, taking into account in and out movements, exchange rates, etc.). At Tradedirect, it's impossible to know. It's not rocket science, you don't have to make complicated algorithms and it seems to me to be essential information that any client would like to have!
Trade policy
As I wrote above, Tradedirect is not very good in terms of commercial policy. In my opinion, they changed their name late (change of direction?) from an apple cider name to a more striking name. By the way, they left feathers there in terms of branding. It also seems that they realized a little late that the Swiss market was also in German-speaking Switzerland! Another point that I find annoying is to practice offers like "CHF 100 free trade for new customers" while already captive customers who have already paid thousands of francs in brokerage get nothing.
Swissquote has less dubious practices, although the doubling of their deposit fees left me somewhat scratching my head.
Well, I hope I was able to help some people.
Likewise: it is not the total assets but the income that is important (even if the two are obviously linked).
I am still far from the age I indicated so I do not know if it will be feasible. It is clear that, when the time comes, it will be necessary to compare the portfolio income to the possible penalties that will be given to me because of stopping early. Then there is also the health and family factor. In short, too many unknown parameters to make plans on the comet.
As far as I'm concerned, the higher it goes, the more questions I ask myself. Especially when we see the PE of defensive values (yield) pass the 20x mark.
The problem of the last 6-9 months is that investors have been looking for yield and have very naturally turned to JNJ, KMB, PFE, CLX, etc. offering a good dividend, pushing some of these stocks to record highs. And specialists think that this will last for a while with the Fed keeping interest rates low.
What to do now? I keep stocks like JNJ and CLX, with low beta, and which increase their dividend year after year (CLX just announced a new increase 2 days ago) and I liquidate some positions with high beta (> 1.0) and stagnant dividend.
Yes the banker should be able to answer you! He is paid for that.
In my experience, if you are not a good customer of the bank (i.e. having substantial assets in said bank AND buying their rotten and overtaxed products), the bank advisor will dodge any questions relating to taxes, invoking the fact that he is not competent in the matter. On the other hand, if you have several millions in assets in the bank, the same advisor will redirect you to his tax department and you will be very well advised!
Me between 55 and 58 years old. But not to stay inactive. Just to get out of the system (as an employee) and do consulting, teaching, financial director of a foundation, etc... for fun and when I want... while keeping an eye on my stock portfolio and having fun seeing my dividends come in every month.
Roche, Swissre, Vinci, Baloise, Alleghany Corporation
My portfolio is very little concentrated since the first 5 lines represent approximately 11% of the total value.
This also means that my TOP 5 changes frequently as individual stock prices fluctuate.
Good morning,
I confirm. The SREN share will pay CHF 7.50 in tax-free dividends this year by drawing on its reserves.
Other companies, such as Zurich Insurance, are doing the same this year. However, reserves are running out.
and it is not said that Swiss law will not change. Some right-thinking leftists see this as a tax injustice.
Lorsque je parle de correction, c’est par exemple celle qui s’est produite il y a peu de temps avec les elections italiennes. Certains titres europeens de qualite ont corrige de quelques pourcentages sur une semaine….puis tout est revenu a la normale.
Meme si en 2013 les principaux indices termineront sur un resultat positif (croisons les doigts), cela ne va pas se faire sans volatilite durant l’annee. C’est lors de ces corrections qu’il faut agir. Probleme: faut avoir du cash a ce moment-la!
Avec des valorisations pareilles, je me desinteresse de CL, CLX, KMB, KO, MCD, etc et pourtant j’ai la plupart de ces valeurs en portefeuille. Je regarde plutot du cote des financieres qui pourraient faire du « rattrapage » en 2013. C’est risque mais ca peut rapporter gros. Exemple: Aflac justement ou Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) qui affiche un dividende de 4% (ils viennent de l’augmenter) et pour les residents fiscaux suisses, le taux de retenue de l’impot sur dividende n’est que de 15% au Canada contre 30% aux USA ou France, si je ne m’abuse.
Bienvenue sur le forum Alexandre.
Tres jolie watch list cependant attention a la valorisation elevee de la plupart des titres cites. En effet, beaucoup de ces titres sont a des plus hauts historiques (cours de l’action et haut P/E). Il serait peut-etre judicieux d’attendre une petite correction des marches.
Il y a un titre en particulier qui retient mon attention depuis quelques semaines: Aflac. C’est une compagnie d’assurance grand public aux USA et pourtant Wall Street semble l’ignorer un peu. Une valorisation P/E tout a fait acceptable, un bon rendement et surtout croissant d’annee en annee.
Quelqu’un qui initie une position Aflac aujourd’hui sera a mon avis bien recompense a long terme. Pour ma part, j’ai la gachette qui me demange….
Bonne continuation
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