IDEALPRO-IDEAL-Conversions (Interactivebrokers)

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bvnc

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In the case that someone is familiar with Interactive Brokers´ FX platforms.

All the major currency pairs that are traded via IDEALPRO have their respective counterpairs represented only in the IDEAL platform, which usually is illiquid and also more expensive than IDEALPRO.

Can one, in spite of that, achieve speculative FX profits using their platform ?
 
IDEAL is really for converting foreign trading profits into GBP at a pretty decent rate so you can go to Tesco and spend them on Stella. If you want to trade, why would you use it instead of IDEALPRO?
 
Making the simple assumption that one wants to achieve a difference in real terms that is to say in the base currency.

e.g. you bought 50 (1 margin) units EURJPY - 163.62 - and sold at 163.82 (comm. incl.).
You exchange now at 0.006101. You would have lost money (balance:0.99947 Euro )
 
Yes I have horror stories to tell about their so call forex trading system,Ideal pro... I will not recommend it without going into much details.
 
coolTrader said:
Yes I have horror stories to tell about their so call forex trading system,Ideal pro... I will not recommend it without going into much details.
Click to expand...

Hi CoolTrader,
I'd be very interested to hear more about your IB FX Horror stories as in general IB are pretty good. IDEAL PRO also looks good, being a multi-contributor ECN with the top liquidity providers quoting on it. I've not actually used it in anger though so'd be keen to hear your tales.
 
bvnc said:
Making the simple assumption that one wants to achieve a difference in real terms that is to say in the base currency.

e.g. you bought 50 (1 margin) units EURJPY - 163.62 - and sold at 163.82 (comm. incl.).
You exchange now at 0.006101. You would have lost money (balance:0.99947 Euro )
Click to expand...

Hi bvnc,
I don't quite understand what your point is here. As mentioned earlier, IDEAL is designed for currency conversions and not for trading. The spread is indeed wider than the IDEAL PRO quotes so you will lose money on the conversion from one currency to another via IDEAL compared to IDEAL PRO. In your example 0.006101is about 193.91 so yes you are getting a worse rate. The advantage with IDEAL PRO is that you can trade much smaller sizes: the minimum deal size on IDEAL is about $25,000 or equivalent whereas there are no minimum sizes on IDEAL PRO. If the amount that you wish to convert is large enough to be done on IDEAL PRO then you can use it instead. I would suggest that you wait until you have accumulated sufficient JPY profits so that you can do the conversion on IDEAL PRO rather than converting them after each trade.

By the way, you can work a limit order on IDEAL so someone may be happy to meet you half way for a better price.

Hope this helps.
 
1.Cool trader, please share your experiences


2.Thanks a-gnome. My notion was that while eventually gaining from USDJPY / EURJPY in the short-term, due to the still declining value of the JPY, it might be more appropriate to exchange now and secure a higher EUR amount than later.


3.How can rollovers be made ?
 
coolTrader said:
Yes I have horror stories to tell about their so call forex trading system,Ideal pro... I will not recommend it without going into much details.
Click to expand...

Interested in your stories too. I opened an account some time ago with IB but I still like xpresstrade FX and use that. It is simple, I like their real-time news plug-in, actually it has very good commentaries about technical levels and news stories.

But the most important thing is the simple accounting of xpresstrade platform, the clarity of presentation, the nice charts and other features.

My impression about the IB platform is that it is old technology. It appears like a fairly outdated system. Maybe they plan to upgrade. I tried to get a historical chart from their TWS platform and was directed to, believe it or not, MarketWatch website.

The plus: commissions are rock bottom for share trading but for FX I'm not sure. The bid/ask spreads are tight but you pay a commission on top.

Alex
 
Last edited:
Alexander,

What are the spread and commissions like on xpresstrade FX ? Also do they have an API which IB does so if you have any programming expertise you can set up your own GUI to look how you want.


Paul
 
Trader333 said:
Alexander,

What are the spread and commissions like on xpresstrade FX ? Also do they have an API which IB does so if you have any programming expertise you can set up your own GUI to look how you want.


Paul
Click to expand...

Trader333, EUR/USD is 3 pips but no other charges. I do not care that much because I'm a position trader, I do no scalping or things like that. But please take a look at their platform to see how intuitive it is and the nice features they have.

I would like to have IB spreads and xpresstrade platform to be clear about that. My question is why should I be faced with a dilemma of this kind, I mean having to choose between a broker with tight spreads and a poor platform and a broker with wider spreads and a good platform.

Someone must come in and close the gap.

Anyway, API is a good thing to have especially when trading baskets of stocks but how many traders like me actually use it for Forex?

Alex
 
alexander said:
.......I would like to have IB spreads .......... My question is why should I be faced with a dilemma of this kind, I mean having to choose between a broker with tight spreads and a poor platform and a broker with wider spreads and a good platform.......
Alex
Click to expand...
Have you looked at the many front-ends available for IB's TWS? I use ButtonTrader which makes the perfect platform for me and is very well supported. So I get IB spreads and speed of execution and hardly ever touch their platform.
 
In a FX position trade:

How does one rollover after the two day holding period ?
 
peto said:
Have you looked at the many front-ends available for IB's TWS? I use ButtonTrader which makes the perfect platform for me and is very well supported. So I get IB spreads and speed of execution and hardly ever touch their platform.
Click to expand...

Good advice, I will look into that. Thanks.

Alex
 
a_gnome said:
Hi CoolTrader,
I'd be very interested to hear more about your IB FX Horror stories as in general IB are pretty good. IDEAL PRO also looks good, being a multi-contributor ECN with the top liquidity providers quoting on it. I've not actually used it in anger though so'd be keen to hear your tales.
Click to expand...


I posted it somewhere in the interactive brokers forum. It is too long to go into now. I have used them for dow futures, currency futures and I used their Ideal pro which is where the horror began:eek: . It took some months to get my money back.

On several occasions my limit orders will not be hit and then the market starts turning I try closing it manually still does not work and them wham my stop gets hit. It took a while to realize what was going on and I asked for refund and even that was painful for them to do. As I said long story.

And oh when you make profit or loss and you want to convert money back and forth it is Ideal you use not Ideal pro. So what ever you do win or loose after paying spreads you still pay for currency conversion.

They have a very good model and it is win win win at your expense. On the Issue of multi-contributor ECN It is was a joke then I don't know what it is now.

Let us know your experience, Good luck.

CT
 
bvnc said:
In a FX position trade:

How does one rollover after the two day holding period ?
Click to expand...

Usually on a retail platform the broker automatically rolls over the position each day, adding or subtracting the net interest rate differential to your account. On institutional platforms you often have to do the roll yourself. Alternatively (though this is now not so common) when placing the trade you can ask for it to be converted to a forward position to be delivered at some future date though I suspect that this is again mainly institutional rather than margined retail FX.
 
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