Account Balance and P&L Continue to Change

I have found that the P&L, Unrealized P&L, and Balance continue to change long after the position is closed when trading with CitiFx and with another demo i'm trying.

Having been a sucessful stock trader for 10 years, with several brokers, I never seen this allowed to happen.

I know this is not an oversight; seems strange and is distracting when trading.

Can anyone explain why these amounts are allowed to change after the trade is flat?

Thanks,
TF

 

Depends on your base currency and the currencies you are trading. For example, if you have a USD account and buy X Euros and then sell X Euros, you shouldn't see any further changes (unless there's some delayed financing charge for an overnight position).

But now let's say you buy AUD with JPY in your USD account. When you close the trade you wipe out your AUD position but have a + or - JPY balance which is worth X USD today. Tomorrow that same JPY balance will be worth Y USD because of the change in the USD/JPY exchange rate.

Not sure if this is what you're seeing but maybe so.

 

Hi,
is this what happens with IB and their accounts ?

Thanks,
Andy

 

Yes. With IB you are buying and selling the actual currencies and taking margin loans when you are short a currency.

 

Asiaprop will have some explanation surrounding a conspiracy as to why this is occurring.....

And of course, it will be true