I have a weird issue with my IBKR account. I recently created two more accounts for my children which are linked to my main account. So I can easily manage my children’s investments. However I’m having an issue when transferring funds between accounts. My main account has cash available but when I go under transfer funds → transfer funds between accounts and select USD it says I have 0USD available to transfer.
Anyone know what’s up? Or is experiencing the same thing?
Are you sure you have USD cash? Maybe you select UK-managed account, number ends with F?
I’m sure I have USD cash, I can see it clearly under my cash report. But my base currency is CHF could this be the issue?
EDIT: I transferred the money yesterday and the market is not open yet, that might be my issue. I will check again this afternoon.
Forex markets are open 5x24, so that shouldn’t be the issue. Maybe it’s related to your base currency being CHF. You can also open a ticket or chat with IBKR support. They are usually really fast.
No.
Did you convert CHF to USD? Then probably it hadn’t settled yet. Check the Activity report.
I’ve transferred some USD from my Swiss bank account to IBKR two days ago, still no notice of IBKR having received it. Anyone know how long this takes? USD have already been deducted from my Swiss account.
Can I ask which bank it is? Depending on the amount, there may be a validation/control process that can be done to avoid money laundering attempts…
From my experience, the money will follow if later on the next working day. Is the transfer indication entered correctly in the remarks?
I think I found out what the problem is: There seems to be a cost of 15.- involved (according to How to Send Money to Your Interactive Broker's account for free), and I opted for “shared costs” ordering the transaction. Probably IBKR doesn’t wish to pay the fee 
Anyone know how much negative interest you’d pay for CHF 200k per day?
Wow, that’s like negative CHF 1600 per year or 4.40 per day, quite expensive if you don’t invest immediately! Is this really correct?
Exchange it to another currency until you only have CHF 50’000 left. IB is not a good place to hold cash.
In theory you’ll get the same return in any currency: Interest rate parity - Wikipedia
(though right now, I bet the SNB is defending against EUR so it might be favorable to convert to USD, but that’s still a gamble)
If you want to play that game, some swiss banks don’t charge interest rates on those amount (but they won’t be happy about it, expect calls from your banker).
Sure, but psychologically, not paying interest seems to be the better option.
Anyway, I don’t understand why one would hold so much cash at IB. Either invest it or keep it at one or multiple swiss banks, where you have a guarantee up to a certain amount as well.
Well it took 2 days in the end but my funds appeared in the transfer form.
Did you understand the difference between “margin” vs “portfolio margin” accounts?
From IB I read:
# Margin Models
Rule-based: Predefined and static calculations are applied to each position or predefined groups of positions.
Risk-based: Exchanges consider the maximum one- day risk on all the positions in a complete portfolio, or subportfolio together.
# IB Margin Accounts
Reg T Margin: Margin requirements are computed in real-time under a rules-based model, with immediate position liquidation if the minimum maintenance margin requirement is not met.
Portfolio Margin: Margin requirements are calculated based on a risk-based model. Customers must maintain account equity of USD 100,000.
TBH I only fully understand the 100K USD equity requirement…
Do you know why I get this message and the order is not accepted? As you can see the settled cash in USD is higher than the order by~40 USD… I exchanged the CHF to USD few hours ago like every month and never had this issue before but it looks I will have to wait until it is fully settled, isn’t it?
Yep this is correct. They must have changed something in their procedure recently. I ran into the same problem. It takes about a day to settle.
I have currently the same issue while trying to get my monthly rate of VT. @Patirou has it worked afterwards for you?
Yes basically I traded CHF->USD on day 0, on day 1 I could buy my shares of VTI/VXUS.
