Futher to my education on this thread.. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64007&perpage=6&highlight=digs&pagenumber=3 I recently did this trade in IDEAL PRO with margin of 50:1 SHORT GBPUSD @ 1.7710 TWS => SELL Underlying 262000 GBP To exited the position I bought it back BUT GBPUSD @1.7365 TWS => BUY Underlying 262000 GBP I thought the trade was done, and ZERO out. BUT.... I went to TWS >View > Account... three days latter and I see in Market value Net Liquidation column -621.16 in GBP still showing, What, I thought that I closed my position out 100%. This -621.16 is made up of debt interest and charges in GBP, that I must clear, apparently. I speak to HELP and they say I must cover the debt interest within the trade or via IDEAL ( ie NOT IDEAL PRO), So I should have ( I think) exited the position like this .... SHOULD HAVE BEEN.. IDEAL PRO To exited the position I bought it back BUT GBPUSD @1.7365 TWS => BUY Underlying 262622 GBP Do I have a correct understanding of this ? Do you understand this debt interest cover...Does this make IB trading forex really expensive, ? What are the debt interest rates per forex rates ? How do you handle a trade with this debt interest charge ? Please advise
Try this, look at your account window. Under "Market Value" there is a "Currency" column. Put your cursor on the row that you have a position in (assuming you have a position) and left click to highlight. After that go to the "Currencies" menu at the top of the account window. After opening that you should see "Close all non-base currency positions" and "Close currency position". Choose the latter and a order line with the proper amount will appear. The default is "Market" so you may wish to change it to a limit order. If you transmit that order you will be back to your base currency, usually within several US dollars. This should help eliminate some of the confusion.
What about the Debt interest portion of trade, how do you handle that ? Entering order via the TWS > View > Account screen, I assume included the debt interest part of the trade. The Trade example at IB web site says nothing about this trick !
I had a problem like that in left over after closing my position in USD / JPY IB customer reps walked me through what to do to get rid of my excess yen
I wish this was clear from the beginning. What a bloody mess. I have bits and pieces of yen, GBP, EUR and AUD. Thanks for posting the solution to this. IB: It would be nice if you showed IDEAL PRO balances separately.