Swiss Online Share Trading refers to the share trading activities carried out with the help of Internet in Switzerland. The Swiss Stock Exchange (SWX) monitors the online share trading activities in Switzerland.
The official stock exchange of Switzerland is known as the SWX Swiss Exchange, which is located in Zurich. Besides stocks and shares, the SWX is also involved in the trading of other types of securities, for example, bonds issued by the Swiss Government and derivatives like stock options.
Online share trading services provided by different companies in Switzerland offer the investors a comprehensive variety of information, which include the following:
Closing prices
Volume and turnover
Indices
Historical closing prices
Historical price data.
SWX price data
For providing this information, the current and historical data are mixed and consolidated.
The process of Swiss Online Share Trading starts from the investors. The brokerage houses and investment consultants of participant banks collect the orders placed by the investors through the in-house computerized systems. Then, the data is sent towards the trading desk of the particular institution. Here the orders are scrutinized and then directed towards the SWX Trading System. From that section, they are sent to the SWX Central Exchange System where the receipt of the order is automatically confirmed, a time stamp is given, and the accuracy of information is verified. According to the type of trading, the trade executions are distributed to the providers of financial information, for example, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Telekurs. The matching of buying and selling orders is done through the completely automated SWX Exchange System according to the rules and regulations that are clearly stated. The priority of orders is firstly dependent on the price and secondly on the time when they are received irrespective of the source and size of the order.
The principal index of the Swiss stock market is known as the Swiss Market Index or the SMI. The SMI is made up of 30 most important equity securities on the basis of free-floating market capitalization.
The unique feature of the Swiss Stock Exchange is that all the operations of the exchange are run on a fully automated basis. The automated execution, clearing and settlement system of the Swiss Stock Exchange is the first in its class.