Interactive Brokers • The Choice of Professional Forex Traders

Interactive Brokers is the choice of professional forex traders because of our tight interbank spreads, advanced FXTrader order entry tool, and tight integration with other asset classes such as forex futures and options. In addition our IB Universal Account^TM allows customers to trade assets in multiple currencies and convert the proceeds at professional rates.

Interactive Brokers provides two vehicles for the exchange of currencies: IDEALPRO which allows a customer to trade Forex and IDEAL which allows a customer to convert their balances from one currency to another. Whatever currency balances you may hold, we always pay higher interest on credit balances, and charge lower interest rates on debit balances.

IDEALPRO provides professional Interbank spreads which are generally 0.5-3 PIPs (smallest price increment) wide, but the minimum order size is $25,000 or USD equivalent. Multiple large forex dealers provide direct price feeds with IDEALPRO displaying the composite of the best available price. With our universal account, it is easy to trade IDEALPRO cash along with currency futures from a single screen. To promote price transparency, as is the custom with all our products, we have separated our commissions from the quoted price. Please keep in mind that although many brokers don't explicitly charge forex commissions, they do build their commissions into the price spread.

IDEAL (for currency conversions) provides bid and ask quotes at spreads that are better than what you can obtain at your bank or through a credit card transaction. There is no minimum order size for an IDEAL order.

All forex trades are entered through the Trader Workstation like any other trade. The currency you wish to buy or sell is the transaction currency and is entered like any other securities or futures market data line into the Trader Workstation. You then choose Forex as the assets type and select a settlement or payment currency. Currency exchanges can be entered in one of two ways as buying one currency is the same as selling the other currency. Buying a transaction currency of Euros with a settlement currency of USD is the same as selling a transaction currency of USD with a settlement currency of Euros.

Forex Trading Example

Example 1

If you want to buy/sell a specific amount of GBP, first enter the symbol GBP as the transaction currency. Then choose USD as the settlement currency from the drop down menu. You will then receive the quote USD/GBP, e.g. Bid: 1.5300 Ask: 1.5310 This means that GBP 1 = US$1.53XX

If you want to buy GBP 10,000, click on the ask and enter 10,000 as the quantity of GBP that you wish to buy. You will pay $1.5300 for each GBP. Thus, you will pay $15,310.

If you want to sell GBP 10,000, click on the bid and enter 10,000 as the quantity of GBP that you wish to sell. You will receive $1.5300 for each GBP. Thus, you will receive $15,300.

Example 2

If you want to buy/sell a specific amount of USD, first enter the symbol USD as the transaction currency. Then choose GBP as the settlement currency from the drop down menu. You will then receive the quote GBP/USD, e.g. Bid: 0.6530 Ask: 0.6536 This means that USD 1 = GBP 0.653XX

If you want to buy USD 10,000, click on the ask and enter 10,000 as the quantity of USD that you wish to buy. You will pay GBP0.6536 for each USD. Thus, you will pay GBP 6,536.

If you want to sell USD 10,000, click on the bid and enter 10,000 as the quantity of USD that you wish to sell. You will receive GBP0.6530 for each USD. Thus, you will receive GBP 6,530.