currency conversion

makaveli_mo

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Hello there, Hope everyone is enjoying the bank holiday in the uk!
My question is 2 fold
A) is there anyone using the barcfx platform for fx trading here? Does anyone know the costs and the competitiveness of the spreads
B) I would like to deposit a sum of money into my fx account say 10K GBP, by purchasing GBP/USD at 1.67 thereby converting my money. At this point this is termed as an open position. At this point I have purchased the currency I am assuming. (if I closed the software it would say I have open positions would I like to continue, I am using the software from Barc FX) In order to realise my profit/loss I would have to close the position Ie sell the GBP/usd pair to get back GBP.

Now supposing I simply wanted to convert the GBP to US dollars say for 10 K in travel money. I would leave the position open (I think correct me if im wrong) leaving the currency in us dollars.

This poses a problem how is my forex account able to hold 19 currencies in one account its not like I have 19 sub accounts. Therefore where are my us dollars held? And how can I transfer it to my us dollar account at my banking institution. I realise this may have been covered before but im really looking for an indepth step by step answer to help future readers as I can realise how this may be to the new user.
 
Update I understand that this is not possible to do via Barc FX and am now thinking of using IB brokers has anyone got experience using their trading platform
 
Yes, can be done with IB, remember there is a $10/month minimum commission (unless you are aged under 25) and the minimum forex order size to get the better rates is USD 25,000 or GBP 17,000.
 
Yes, can be done with IB, remember there is a $10/month minimum commission (unless you are aged under 25) and the minimum forex order size to get the better rates is USD 25,000 or GBP 17,000.

hello there thanks for your response can you outline a detailed step by step guide on how to do this using the IB platform. Also which account needs to be opened as to my understanding there are various FX trading accounts with IB. Thanks
 
hello there thanks for your response can you outline a detailed step by step guide on how to do this using the IB platform. Also which account needs to be opened as to my understanding there are various FX trading accounts with IB. Thanks

By the way wouldnt the exchange rates be the same no matter how much the order size is typically about 2 to 3 pips from the mid market rate available on xe.com
 
I've done it with idealpro - you will, of course, need a US dollar denominated bank account in your own name to withdraw the funds to (no 3'rd party transfers), and you have to wait the extra 2 days (plus any bank holidays) for the trade settlement before you can withdraw your USD.
 
gc1 your base currency account will be in GBP would you need to open a secondary USD account in the ib broker platform in order to hold the funds. Wow im finding it a bit difficult working the software. Something that should be very easy for some reason I am finding difficult. Is there any software that is more user freindly
 
under account then market value real fx ballance in the demo im holding cash (im assuming) in both us dollar and gbp without opening a usdollar secondary account. GOSH IM SO CONFUSED
 
when i use the fx conv functionality under market value I get usdollars as well as GBP. To change the functionality to fx conv however I click on the pair to buy or sell then instead of transmitting direct click cancel it appears under orders where i can modify it to fx conv then click transmit am I doing this right?
 
Now at this point when I right click GBP and click close currency ballance under the market value option it gives me the ability to convert the money into the base currency which is usdollars in the demo version. Im assuming if I didnt convert at this point I would be able to send the money to a usdollar account at my banking institution under my name am I correct or have I messed it up?
 
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