IBKR behaves weirdly when converting currency and immediately buying with a cash account

Investing / Brokers
109

Yes

I think there are two things going

  1. IB has a policy to keep at least 100 USD balance (or equivalent)in account. If you happen to have only one currency then you can ignore the warning. But this doesn’t work if eventual trade needs a currency exchange in between.

  2. T+1 & T+2 settlement period means that in front end numbers look balance but in backend there are gaps.

Based on my experience, if I want to run down the balance cash on my account below 100 USD (or equivalent), I need to first convert currencies and have them settled to the ones I eventually need. Once I have that I can reduce the balance below 100 by ignoring the warning. Otherwise the trade doesn’t work