Hi, I'm using IB for forex for 1 week-3 year positions, but the way they calculate interest is ridiculous. I've just lived with this because I don't trust fxcm or oanda (called their customer service once and they seem like they cater to small customers only). What are my other options?
You are better off trading currency futures with IB than spot forex if holding overnight, I haven't checked but guess aud futures are quite liquid at least 3 months ahead.
Not if he's trading something that is a non-major. Also chart the spread between the futures and spot sometime.
The future should represent the keenest implied interest rates available, ie it should work out to cost a little bit like IB's rates excluding their cut (on both sides) - if this were not the case then the future would be arbitrage-able. I'd doubt even for very long term holdings the friction involved in rolling would scrub out the advantage but it obviously takes more managing.
short eur/nzd. however, I usually only trade the major crosses 99% of the time. my problem with IB is that the interest rates are fine, it's just that I don't get ANY interest back for the currency that I'm long on (it's 0% for every currency except like 1 or 2)