Hello, I've recently created an euro based account at IB and I would like to know how cash currency conversions are calculated. I mainly trade US futures although I will soon trade euro futures. Do I pay the EURUSD B/A spread on each conversion? which spread? how many ticks? How is it calculated? I make about 10 trades per day on US futures and it can affect my long term P§L. Thanks for the help, I'm clueless about this question.
yes plus a $2 or so cost.usually 8-12 pips sometimes less.you measure it in pips. market forces plus IB's cut im assuming your talking about IDEAL and not IDEALPRO
8-12 pips + 2$ = 6$ at each ER2 trade ( 4000 $ margin ). Converting my account in USD right now. No EUR based account finally.
I've just sold x amount of EUR( with base currency USD ) on ideal, and now it is showing - x on my cash EUR value. Did I make an error?
In IB currency conversions are not made automatically. You make them manually. Currency conversions are not tied to trades of securities or commodities. When you have margin account and trade in foreign(non-base) currency, system takes margin-loan in other currency. If you want to eliminate margin loan you have to make currency conversion.