Essential Tools And Resources For Stock Trading In Belgium

Belgium is a small country wedged between the Netherlands, Germany and France. How does this member of the European Union deal with stocks? Here are some tools you should know about.

Bourses Des Valeurs / Warrants – Listed on Euronext Brussels

The Bourse des Valeurs Mobiliers (Euronext) was created in April 2000 through the merger between two bourses: the “Bourse de Bruxelles” and the “Bourse des valeurs de solidarité”. Warrants traded on regulated markets are included within its scope. The only part it has kept from its predecessors is Index-Options. Another segment coming from these predecessors is Fonds communs de placement or “FCP” (unit trusts).

 

The Bourse des Valeurs Mobiliers is located at 1000 Brussels. It has a staff of about 100 people, and its activities give jobs to around 130 people in the financial industry, including brokers and investors. The bourse also runs an educational program for individual investors.

Listed on Euronext Brussels

PIGS

A piggy bank which stands for Promote Invest Group Share, is a type of investment fund where the investor participates in a group of companies that finance professionals have carefully selected. Each company that makes up the PIGS portfolio must meet strict criteria: international exposure and growth potential based on objective financial indicators such as sales, operating income, and book value per share.

CACEIS

A full-service European bank is specialising in securities services, founded in 1967. It is the 6th largest player in Europe. The company structure enables it to have leaders or specialists in their field of expertise: CACEIS Bank, CACEIS Bank International Limited, CACEIS Luxembourg SA and CACIB Investment Fund Solutions plc.

 

They use these tools in stock trading for Belgium to provide financial institutions with custody, asset servicing and depositary bank functions for the handling of financial instruments (stocks, bonds), money market instruments (certificates of deposits), derivatives (shares options) and real estate assets/funds.

Belgique-Accueil

This support centre was created by the Belgian Financial Services and Market Authority (FSMA) to provide a reliable source of information on living and working in Belgium for international citizens. The website answers foreigners thinking about coming to Belgium who has just arrived or have been here for some time.

Belgian Fiscal Information Centre

The Belgian Federal Public Service Finance established this service on 10 January 2012 in response to the public’s desire to receive clear and comprehensive information about taxation policy. It also provides direct support via telephone or email during office hours. The staff answer questions involving income tax, capital gains tax, VAT, excise duties, business taxes and other forms of indirect taxation.

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What kind of services does this cooperative offer?

On top of providing information about stock trading in Belgium, the site offers a directory of professional advisors. It also offers a list of services to help companies and freelancers do their administrative tasks.

Tax-on-web

This government service provides all the forms you need for your annual tax return at a click of a button. When trading in Belgium, you can use this tool to file your income taxes online from home or an Internet café.

The website provides step-by-step instructions with illustrations that make filling your return quick and easy. To use it, you must have registered for eID (electronic identity) on the Tax-on-web website.

Google Finance

The same thing as Yahoo! Finance, but entirely free of charge. Provides similar enhancements to the Yahoo! platform while adding technical analysis tools for stocks under the “Analyst Estimates” section.

Google Trends

Google Trends is an online tool developed by Google which allows you to track free-floating search interest for any topic starting back from 2004 up until today! The results page will give detailed information about each keyword’s most searched period, including each month’s ranking trends.

Google Finance Sector View

A recent addition to the Google suite of tools, this one allows you to see which are the most popular sector-related stocks being traded on the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges. For example, typing in “healthcare” in the search bar will show all of the stocks that fall under this investment sector.

To learn more about these tools and resources for stock trading in Belgium, visit Saxo Belgium.