This might be a very basic question but I'm a newbie to IB and having my initial struggles understanding the TWS Software. My Base cuurency is CAD for my simulated account. I wanted to trade 75K short on USD//CHF. So I was able to buy 75K from the USD/CAD pair from Ideal Pro. My question is now how do I place a trade for shorting USD/CHF. Every time I try shorting 75K USD for CHF, I get the error shown in the attached file. I was told that you can convert from one currency to another on IB i.e. e.g. convert 100K CAD -> USD -> EUR -> CHF -> USD -> CAD Obviously, you don't get your 100K back (more or less), but I'm wondering how I can place such a sequence of trade on IDEALPRO. Any help would be much appreciated.
Looks like you just don't have the margin to complete the trade and it is giving 0 usd as the margin just because it is a simulated account.
If you have the available margin in an actual account you would just sell 75k USDCHF and you would be shorting USDCHF 75k. The fact that your base currency is CAD wont change anything you would just borrow the required funds in the currency required to make the trade. I hope that helps.
is your account a margin account or a cash account? if its a cash account you cant trade on margin. (in that case you need to change that in account configuration)
Thanks everybody, Moarla you are right. I had to request Margin in Account Management with IB, Once they approve it, I shold be able to trade FX. Lets see how long does that take. Thanks Guys.