IB accrued interest IB accrued interest (talking about the opaque and confusing interest rate explanation on forex): http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64052&perpage=20 IB official explanation about interest rate charges on its website: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/interestMethods.php?ib_entity=llc If you don't know why you have been charged for more than expected, the above may answer your question. PS: Actually someone suggested IB disclosing the steps of how IB arrives at that interest charge in the statement (instead of just showing a figure). It reduces the chance of getting surprised by the charges/debts.
Just my opinion: The interest charges are well disclosed (and yea, my estimate is a cost of around $400/yr after tax on the first 10k thing -- it's a wash betw 10 & 100k compared to other brokers, and above 100k, it's only about 10bp below Vanguard's MM, which I consider the gold standard). The only financing element that is not transparent is in short sale borrowing fees for equities. I think it's more the confusion of sometimes customers don't realize an explicit FX transaction needs to occur to avoid borrowing funds in the target currency when an equity/futures/options trade settles in that currency.
i dont know if you found any inexpensively tranders for the nordic area, but you'll find plentyof tips here: http://www.stocktalk.no/Thread.asp?GroupID=18&Group=Online+Brokers also se nordnet, netfonds or etrade. ST