The answer is No for leveraged forex because IB (alone amongst brokers) treats forex trades as leveraged cash balances and you cannot have a debit cash balance in an IRA.
If you try to execute a *leveraged* FX trade in it, you will find that you cannot do it. A leveraged trade means that you are short one currency and long another in an amount greater than the account balance. I had such an account also and while you can do unleveraged FX trades in it, it will issue an error message if you try to do a leveraged one, to the effect that executing the trade would lead to a debit balance which is not allowed in an IRA account in any currency. I tried it and that is what happens. It is also on the IB web site.
Yeah I don't do FX trading in my IRA but plenty of other margin based trades like option spreads, futures etc. Bad assumption about FX.
Nope ...... Even in a regular account you can't place option orders unless you have the cash to cover the trade.
We're probably just confusing terminology. I trade options spreads in my IRA and I opened a margin IRA to be able to do it. A cash IRA can't do option spreads. But you're right I don't have 4X the buying power of my assets like my regular account.
IB gives you the option of currency to denominate your account. Isn't that a steal way to be long a currency?
The original question was about leveraged FX. Anyway, the approach has limitations because (1) it is not leveraged (well you can leverage it outside an IRA but then you will pay hefty interest) (2) in an IRA, you can then only buy assets in their own currency. Outside an IRA, IB will charge you (overpriced) interest if you buy anything denominated in USD while your cash remains in the foreign currency. Other than that, yes, you can hold spare cash that way in other currencies if you want, including in an IRA.