Interactive Brokers Q&A [2024]

[Brndete]

Got it. Keep it going, though

IF you transfer CHF, IB will credit you CHF. Even if base currency is USD.

You could also

• buy something in CHF
• get a family account and split fees with your account
• Accept pretty high one-time fees for the conversion

[fittim]

Hi. Thank you so much. I think, it’s not worth worring about it too much. But for your information: I transfer CHF from my Swiss bank to IB. Usually chunks of around 10’000 or so. I change CHF to USD on IB. Usually ~$2 of fees. I transfer $100 to my kid’s account in IB (sub-account of mine, I see both when logging in). With this $100 I buy 1 share of VT for my child. I like this way and would like to keep it. But I’ll make sure in the future that I have a little more than $5 cash left in the childs account.

[oswand]

IBKR doesn’t charge the TER on your ETFs, because they are just the broker.

Expense ratios. This expense is measured as a percentage of the amount you have invested—for example, 0.50%.
You won’t see it on your statement; it’s deducted from your returns before they get to you. So, for example, the investments in your ETF might return 5%—but if your expense ratio is 1%, you’ll only see a 4% return, meaning you’ll lose one-fifth of your return right off the bat.

The money from the ETF expense ratio goes to the investment company to pay management and administrative costs, which could vary widely depending on the ETF and company.

Get to know your investment costs | Vanguard

[wysi]

I bot VT ETF - My account is a cash account. It had only CHF Cash.
IBKR bought the VT and afterwards did an automatic FXCONV USD.CHF.

Is this a new feature? I thought I have to do manual conversion.

Other question:
Ther was only a fee of 0.35 for the buy of VT ETF. No fee for the FXCONV.
If I do a manual FXCONV, I have to pay 1.8 USD = 2 CHF fee.

Why this difference?

Also: I manualy did an FXCONV afterwards, to get USD cash.
Next I bot again VT. IBKR did not use my USD cash, they did again an automatic FXCONV aftewards…

[wysi]

Fee for manual FXCONV

[Dr.PI]

Welcome!

Interactive Brokers: Changes in currency conversion for Cash accounts in April 2024

IB sent me this email yesterday. Anyone else received it?

@wysi

Next I bot again VT. IBKR did not use my USD cash, they did again an automatic FXCONV aftewards…

Probably the trade was not settled yet

IBKR always says I don't have enough cash settled to make a trade. WHY?

So I wired 4000 CHF to my account. It arrived, and I converted it to USD. I see 0 under my CHF balance, and 4260 in my USD balance. Then I go and try to buy some VT. I chose LIMIT 61.20 and 60 shares. But no, it won’t ever accept my order because it says I don’t have enough settled cash and need 3800 USD. How do I need 3800 USD, I have 4260 USD in cash right here right now! At this price, I should be able to get 4260/61.20 = 69 shares and still have some change left over. What is going on, ho…

[wysi]

Thanks for the pointers!

Is there no possibility to know, when my trade has settled?
Just wait approx. 2 days?

[assemblyrequired]

IBKR doesn’t offer access to BX Swiss. How can I transfer titles from neon (which is BX Swiss only) to IBKR? Would I need to transfer them to e.g. Swissquote (who does offer access to BX Swiss) and perform a change of stock exchange (“Börsenplatzwechsel”) to SIX, and then transfer it to IBKR?

[Abs_max]

Not sure if exchange has anything to do with the positions. If you have FWRA etf for example, you should be able to move to IBKR

[assemblyrequired]

@Abs_max

Not sure if exchange has anything to do with the positions.

If that were the case, why do brokers offer a change of stock exchange (“Börsenplatzwechsel”)?

[Abs_max]

I think that is if you want to sell your positions on different exchange and in general they also have a different ticker. But I don’t know if this is relevant if you want to transfer

I suggest to check with IBKR. FWRA is transacted on SIX as well. So should be possible to move from NEON to IB.

[ma74782]

I am looking to buy a CH based Vontobel Fund on IBKR (Valor 002356802). I am new to IBKR and opened my account recently. If I put in a „Buy Order“ of 20’000 CHF (I don’t have the funds in my account yet) and head for the “Preview” it tells me „Cash needed for this order and other pending orders: 20205.67 CHF“. So this would be the total price incl. fees I assume. In my account I have so far chosen the tiered fees (stocks, ETFs). Reading the commissions page, shouldn’t the maximum fee then be 49 CHF?
Commissions Stock Europe | Interactive Brokers LLC - am I doing anything wrong or simply reading it wrong?

Thanks in advance for answering this newbie question.

[Helix]

The Vontobel Fund (CH) II - Ethos Equities Swiss Mid & Small A is not a stock or ETF but a mutual fund (commissions).

The fund has outperformed their SPI Extra benchmark by 0.88% annually since the end of 2005. And still about 0.70% in the last 10.5 years. But that is gross (so excluding their costs). They state (recent) ongoing charges of 0.80% and 0.06% transaction costs which eats everything and some.

How you pay 20205.67 CHF, so 205.67 more, I don’t quite understand. You should pay 4.75 CHF. Because that is what my (paper trading) preview tells me. Screenshot?

[ma74782]

Thanks for that clarification! See the screenshots attached:

Why I am even trying to simulate this purchase is that I currently have about 40k invested in this very fund at Raiffeisen, since about 2 years and finally realized it’s costing me way too much. So now i am considering paying it out from Raiffeisen and then either investing it in the same product on IBKR or another one altogether (which I am leaning towards if I see the fees). Any opinion on this?

[Helix]

And this pops up when you click on the “Preview”-button? But I have no idea what could cause this. Maybe your Reddit post will get you some answers from IBKR.

@ma74782

investing it in the same product on IBKR or another one altogether (which I am leaning towards if I see the fees). Any opinion on this?

There are some ETFs on Swiss mid cap stocks on justetf.com, but your fund also has small caps. Your fund is not thaaat bad, it is just impressive how the managers are always able to make any and all alpha disappear.

[ma74782]

Yes this is the popup after i click on “preview”… Thanks for trying to come up with an explanation

[Zenol]

Yesterday I received my first dividend payout from the VT ETF. 2 problems:

1. It seems like the dividend was automatically converted from USD to CHF. (See 1st picture: time exactly 17:00:00 - that was not me). Why is this? Where can I change these settings?
2. There was a withholding tax of USD 1.56 out of a total of USD 5.20. That is exactly 30%. However, I have filled out the corresponding document (W-8BEN - see 2nd picture), so that only 15% withholding tax should be due?

Can anyone help me? Thanks for your help

[assemblyrequired]

I’m also brand new to IBKR. I received my first dividend payment as well yesterday. Where can I get that info from your first screenshot from?

[Zenol]

When in Client Portal (I use the German version):

Performance & Berichte → Kontoauszüge → Aktivität → PDF

(Date from yesterday)

[Dr.PI]

@Zenol

It seems like the dividend was automatically converted from USD to CHF. (See 1st picture: time exactly 17:00:00 - that was not me). Why is this? Where can I change these settings?

Interactive Brokers Q&A [2023]

IB automatically converts cash of less than 5 USD in non-base currency to the base currency.

You can change the base currency, but once you are going to have larger dividend, it won’t be converted.

@Zenol

There was a withholding tax of USD 1.56 out of a total of USD 5.20. That is exactly 30%.

Oops, this is a problem! I guess you better contact the support, because there are could be tons of obscure reasons.

@assemblyrequired

Where can I get that info from your first screenshot from?

Activity report.

You can also setup a custom template for an activity report and let it be delivered daily by email.