Ok, I'm using IB, looking over my trades for the years, and scratching my head over the accounting for a small May trade: I bought AUD/NZD for 1.05809 on May 25 for 25K US, which translated to 26,450.49 (with a two buck commission) and sold the next day for 1.07122 or 26,780.50 for a profit of 330.01 minus $4 commission. Ok, all good. But on the next line it says in USD I lost $290.04 plus commish. Details below. Educate me, please. I don't do much FX. Thanks in advance. AUD.NZD 2023-05-23, 01:18:19 24,998.34 1.05809 -26,450.49 -2.00 AUD.NZD 2023-05-24, 16:40:22 -25,000 1.07122 26,780.50 -2.00 Total AUD.NZD -1.66 330.01 -4.00 Total 330.01 -4.00 Total in USD -290.04 -4.00
Just a guess: maybe it means the USD was converted to the other 2 currencies..., and the result of the trade not yet back-converted to your USD acct. As said, just guessing as I've no experience with FX at IB.
It was .6609 on the 23d and .06544 on the 24th. Ok, I gained 1.3 on the trade and lost 0.5 on the reconversion. That still doesn't add up. But even if it does somehow, how do I stop reconversion and just let it sit in the converted currency, AUD in this case. I just can't believe I actually lost money on this trade! Is this a good lesson in avoiding cross-currency trades and just sticking to FX futures?