I do it almost every month (I use the functionality to convert to EUR cheaply and transfer to my EUR account abroad). No problems so far.
I’ve done it as well, no problems and no extra fees. Could your cash balance be the result of a transaction that hasn’t settled yet?
hey all, IB customer support answered
this applies since i just transferred my monthly savings. so they have a 3 day lock-in of funds whenever you transfer some. i guess i dont mind to much, but i definately don’t like it either.
Heyall,
i have another question after a few months with IB.
I expected to pay CHF 10 per month (since my stash is still <100k), but i can’t find it anywhere. clearly i don’t spend that much in commissions, so what’s up? does anybody have a bill or statement, showing the monthly fee?
thanks!
first 3 months are free. If you already trade for more than 10.-, you will pay no fee
Here is another bit of information that fits into multiple threads on this forum…
after 3 months of monthly rebalancing by adding funds with my new IB portfolio, i can present commissions paid so far. commissions dominated by selling my former CH & IE- based funds that i transferred ti IB from my former broker (SPMCAH, VWRL & EIMI). the vanguard trades average out slightly below $0.30 per trade, where the volumina ranged between $100 and $10’000. amazingly low cost! howevers, soon i’ll be charged chf 10 per month 
which in turn are over- compensated if i wanted to do the same monthly funds adding with Corner Trader 
gogo, $100’000 should be rachable by end of 2019!
@nugget I have VUSA by Corner Trader. How can I transfer it to IB? As soon as I transfer, I guess I should sell it and buy VT or VTI, right? Btw, I would not like to close CT. I also hold VEUR there. Does it make sense to keep it? What else could I hold at CT, so that they don’t close my account?
Also, @hedgehog said that for some potential hypothetical tax reasons (which I don’t fully understand), it would be better to split VT into VTI and VXUS (I would not like to go so much into detail to split VXUS into VEA + VWO). How big is the risk and should I really make this split?
after you opened an account, they have an asset transfer formular. CT has it, too. you need to file each broker’s formular, and then they will take care of it.
transferring assets and closing down the account are two separate, independent actions. They don’t close it without you asking for it.
this depends only on your wishes for your asset allocation.
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Dear all,
hope you are doing well during christmas period!
when attempting my monthly rebalancing for December today, i encountered a yet unseen problem, and I dont have a clue:
trying to purchase a few shares of VTI with some dollars I just converted from CHF, IB tells me I could not place this order because there was insufficient cash:
clearly, I have enough USD in my account.
Anybody saw this before?
btw this is a non-margin account, and there are no open orders whatsoever. Restarting the client did not resolve it.
Thanks for any contribution!
[edit]
quick as IB people are, i got a reply from customer support within half an hour:
FX conversion orders settle at the end of the day two business day’s after the execution. This account will have settled USD cash of 4,425.53 on 1-3-2018.
Also any MKT order add 5 % to the order amount at the Credit Check step. Always use a Limit order type when using the remaining funds in the account. Your order to Buy 5 shares of VTI which is trading art 137.60 USD at this time requires 688.25 USD settled cash. A MKT order will add 5 % to that as there is no certainty at what price a MKT order will actually execute. So the same 5 share order is Credit Checked as needing 722.67 USD.
this is interesting, since my activity statement clearly indicates that in the last months i always purchased my ETF shares only minutes after the FX conversion. Anyone saw this before?
thanks for your reples!
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As mentioned by IB, you should use “limit” instead of “market”. “Market” can be really risky.
However, I don’t understand the answer. Does this mean you need to wait two business days before placing an order after a fx conversion ? I wonder if this requirement is due to the new year/new month time frame
I have also always placed my order just after the fx conversion.
Jeez, just convert to a margin account already and stop worrying about minor shit like that. Life’s too short
2 Likes
As @wapiti said it might have to do with new year ?
I’ve also always placed orders immediately after currency conversions and they’ve been executed instantly…
There is no catch? For the time between the purchase and the settlement of your fx trade, they are lending you money. They do this for free?
When you purchase stock, cash is settled after 2 or 3 business days during which they will not charge interest. If there’s bigger delay between the settlement date and when your cash arrives, I guess you’ll get charged a little - but at current interests it’s frankly not worth my time to think about it
Trading art… 
What is IBALGO?
BTW, I logged in to Account Management today and my heart stopped for a moment as it shows NAV $0.00. When I logged in to WebTrader it shows the correct value. Oh, the modern software, a lot of features, even more bugs…
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Hi, I am working with the IB simulated trading account for practice. I have also sold 1M$ for Swiss Francs CHF (USD->CHF) to set the “right” start condition (i.e. to have CHF in my account). However in “balances” of my “account” is shows only USD (1,001,037 USD to be precise); should my balance not show the CHF (i.e. the CHF which I received from the sale of the 1M$)? why is the CHF (which I received from the sale of the 1M$) not showing in my account balance?
The fact that my account is showing a total of 1,001,037 USD and not 1M USD indicates that the sale of the 1M USD for CHF must have executed ok - the increase in the total in the account must be due to the value of the CHF increasing relative to the USD (in the unrealized P&L there is shown 1’089).
So, since my account is showing USD, how do I now go about selling the CHF (to simulate what I would do when I open a real account and initially deposit CHF and then convert to USD) - I guess that I will just buy USD and IB will automatically use the CHF which is, lingering somewhere, in my account.
Thanks for your help.
I’m late in joining the game, so just read on the Stock Yield Enhancement Program now. So I’d like to come back to some concerns raised a while ago:
Right, you loose SIPC protection while the ETFs are loaned out. However, you get 102% of cash (collateral) in return during the loan. So IIUC in case the shit hits the fan you’d “just” be sitting on those 102% cash instead of the ETF (which of course could be less than the ETF is actually worth - but at least you’re protected a fair bit.
What additional risk? What I can think of is that IB doesn’t manage to return you the loaned ETF. In that case, from what I understand you’d “just” have to live with the 102% cash collateral. So is that really a risk? or a big risk?
Right, for US citizens paying tax in the US the dividends are not qualified but you instead get payment in lieu of dividends - which are taxed substantially higher than qualified ones in the US.
But IIUC in Switzerland dividends are treated as normal income anyway - and I’m not aware of any difference between qualified and in lieu - or am I missing something?
So overall I’d say with the SYEP:
- you risk sitting on 102% cash collateral if the shit hits the fan (a risk indeed, but only on additional gains since loaned out, not on the absolute amount)
- you have a very high likelihood of getting “dividend payment in lieu” instead of normal “qualified dividends” - but IIUC in Switzerland that’s irrelevant
- you support the evil short sellers (that’s a moral question though)
- you get a minor additional yield instead (which is probably to be treated as income in Switzerland too I guess)
Is this too good to be true?
Mind you ETFs themselves do this all the time (see e.g. https://www.ishares.com/us/education/securities-lending) - albeit they have actual control over counter-parties, which you don’t have with IB
Any more opinion on the Stock Yield Enhancement Program? I think it could be another 0.05% gain with relatively low risk…
Is it working with ETF?