3. Select the settlement currency (example: USD) and choose the forex trading venue.

Notes:

The IDEALFX venue provides direct access to interbank forex quotes for orders that exceed the IDEALFX minimum quantity requirement (generally 25,000 USD). Orders directed to IDEALFX that do not meet the minimum size requirement will be automatically rerouted to a small order venue principally for forex conversions. Click HERE for information regarding IDEALFX minimum and maximum quantities.

Depending on the headers that are shown, the currency pair will be displayed as follows;

The Contract and Description columns will display the pair in the format Transaction Currency.Settlement Currency (example: EUR.USD). The Underlying column will display only the Transaction Currency.

Click HERE for information regarding how to change the shown column headers.

1. To enter an order, left click on the bid (to sell) or the ask (to buy).

2. Specify the quantity of the trading currency you wish to buy or sell.

For example, an order to buy 100,000 EUR.USD will serve to buy 100,000 EUR and sell the equivalent number of USD based on the displayed exchange rate.

3. Specify the desired order type, exchange rate (price) and transmit the order.

Note: Orders may be placed in terms of any whole currency unit and there are no minimum contract or lot sizes to consider aside from the market venue minimums as specified above .

FX position information is an important aspect of trading with IB that should be understood prior to executing transactions in a live account. IB’s trading software reflects FX positions in two different places both of which can be seen in the account window.

1. Market Value

The Market Value section of the Account Window reflects currency positions in real time stated in terms of each individual currency (not as a currency pair).

The Market Value section of the Account view is the only place that traders can see FX position information reflected in real time. Traders holding multiple currency positions are not required to close them using the same pair used to open the position. For example, a trader that bought EUR.USD (buying EUR and selling USD) and also bought USD.JPY (buying USD and selling JPY) may close the resulting position by trading EUR.JPY (selling EUR and buying JPY).

Notes:

The Market Value section is expandable/collapsible. Traders should check the symbol that appears just above the Net Liquidation Value Column to ensure that a green minus sign is shown. If there is a green plus symbol, some active positions may be concealed.

Traders can initiate closing transactions from the Market Value section by right clicking on the currency that they wish to close and choosing close currency balance or close all non-base currency balances.

2. FX Portfolio

The FX Portfolio section of the account window provides an indication of Virtual Positions and displays position information in terms of currency pairs instead of individual currencies as the Market Value section does. This particular display format is intended to accommodate a convention which is common to institutional forex traders and can generally be disregarded by the retail or occasional forex trader. FX Portfolio position quantities do not reflect all FX activity, however, traders have the ability to modify the position quantities and average costs that appear in this section. The ability to manipulate position and average cost information without executing a transaction may be useful for traders involved in currency trading in addition to trading non-base currency products. This will allow traders to manually segregate automated conversions (which occur automatically when trading non base currency products) from outright FX trading activity.

The FX portfolio section drives the FX position & profit and loss information displayed on all other trading windows. This has a tendency to cause some confusion with respect to determining actual, real time position information. In order to reduce or eliminate this confusion, traders may do one of the following;

a. Collapse the FX Portfolio section

By clicking the arrow to the left of the word FX Portfolio, traders can collapse the FX Portfolio section. Collapsing this section will eliminate the Virtual Position information from being displayed on all of the trading pages. (Note: this will not cause the Market Value information to be displayed it will only prevent FX Portfolio information from being shown. )

b. Adjust Position or Average Price

By right clicking in the FX portfolio section of the account window, traders have the option to Adjust Position or Average Price. Once traders have closed all non base currency positions and confirmed that the market value section reflects all non base currency positions as closed, traders can reset the Position and Average Price fields to 0. This will reset the position quantity reflected in the FX portfolio section and should allow traders to see a more accurate position and profit and loss information on the trading screens. (Note: this is a manual process and would have to be done each time currency positions are closed out. Traders should always confirm position information in the Market Value section to ensure that transmitted orders are achieving the desired result of opening or closing a position.

We encourage traders to become familiar with FX trading in a paper trade or DEMO account prior to executing transactions in their live account. Please feel free to Contact IB for additional clarification on the above information.