Choosing Base Currency?

I guess i am not very clear on my last post.

Say i have 100000 USD in my IB account and i am bearish on the dollar.

Should i ?:

a) convert the 100000 USD into Aussie (or whatever foreign currency) and buy stocks in australia.

b) buy the Aussie forex through IDEAL Pro and take a AUD loan from IB to buy australian stocks.

The problem with a) is i have to pay a huge spread through IDEAL to do the conversion.

The problem with b) is i have to pay a higher interest on margin for the austrlia stocks i bought.



So, is a) or b) more desireble?

Thanks for the help.
 
I think IB should try to make this a little more transparent. It seems to me togive them a huge leg up over other stock brokers.

What is the easiest way to place cash reserves in a non-base currency to draw higher interest? Are there any tax ramifications? Can it be done in an IRA?
 
it does not matter if you use ideal or idealpro it gets converted either way ... only with idealpro the amounts have to be bigger but the spreads are better ... so if you can use idealpro you should ...
 
"it does not matter if you use ideal or idealpro it gets converted either way ... only with idealpro the amounts have to be bigger but the spreads are better ... so if you can use idealpro you should ..."





From what i understand, you dont get real currency for IDEALPRO. The foreign exchange is only on paper.

For IDEAL, you can actually withdrawl the money into your bank.

So, i dont think it is just a matter of spread.
 
Depending on the size you are doing, it might make sense to use currency futures. You will not get paid interest (the interest differential is built into the transaction price), but you will get exposure to the currency, and the spreads and costs are small.
 
Quote from Nasdaq5048:



From what i understand, you dont get real currency for IDEALPRO. The foreign exchange is only on paper.
More...

where do you get this nonsense ... ? ? ?
it's like I stated idealpro is real conversion
 
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