Original plan was to open account with IB in UK in GBP (where funds are) then convert to USD at their rates and send as USD to US IB account. Blocked by no longer being a UK tax payer - requirement for IB UK account opening. Also I have a vague memory you have to transfer in your originally designated 'base currency' - so GBP/USD conversion would be done by a bank maybe - so self defeating if so.
Completely depends on what you're trading. In my case, the numbers work perfectly. Each pip is $1. So, I can work out the % easilly. #pips/$amount risked X 100%.
I'm working with a small forex trading balance: $1000 in a forex account at any given time. I always buy one mini lot of EUR/USD or USD/CAD ($1/pip).
Misleading? Maybe, but I think when a broker quotes a % in this context they are using a major pair like EURUSD as their reference.
Don't wanna ride a dead horse but if you would have written "each pip of EURUSD is equal to $1 trading mini-lot" then it would have been correct. But since you haven't it was misleading as for example EURGBP is $1.5.. / pip (mini-lot) which is kind of a big difference. But of course maybe there is a universe where 2 is equal to 1 and anything else doesn't really matter there anyway. One boob, two boobs who cares.
You can transfer in and out in any of the currencies offered on IB platform afaik (I wire GBP/USD/HKD/EUR). Haven't heard of any trouble opening with IB UK despite not beeing a UK taxpayer. Is it because you are a british citizen ? Have you tried IB llc, that's the one to contact if you live in Asia, they have an office at least in HK, but even then part of the account will be open with IB uk.
Look buddy, let's be honest here. The original question is vague and misleading. What does .2% in this context actually mean? Is it .2% of the number of units purchased? Is it .2% of the spread? .2% seems really high to me given that, for example, my margin requirement on the EUUR/USD is 3%. 10,000 X EURUSD X .03 = $397 at current price. So. 0.2% actually seems awfully high for a comission or spread. 10,000 * EURUSD X .03 = $26. I currently pay less than one tenth of that on my spread. So, what exactly is this .2%??? I really don't know. Maybe the OP should look again. Is it in fact .02%?