Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) ❤
No. of Recommendations: 0
I just bought BRK puts. As I didnīt have enough USD cash I converted some GBP into USD to cover the missing USD amount for the trades I intended.
Then I made the BRK puts trades. To my surprise not the USD account was debited was instead my GBP account, with actually more GBP converted by IBKR after my own conversion order. Is this because the conversion was not settled yet? That IBKR just grabs whatever cash account you have and eventually convert enough of that into USD to cover the trade(s)?
No. of Recommendations: 0
Im with IBKR for 16 years and have never experienced this. They use my USD account when I do a transaction in BRK. It must me a mistake, have you contacten their helpdesk?
Satire
No. of Recommendations: 0
I really think the problem was that I bought the bought just a few minutes after converting GBP into USD and though the increased USD amount was shown nevertheless the currency exchange still was not settled, because next day I received this email:
Currency Conversion Notification
This is to inform you that Interactive Brokers executed a currency conversion in your account U****.... either because a negative cash position is not allowed in this account type or the negative cash position was caused by a recurring investment trade.
ACTION SYMBOL EXCHANGE QTY PRICE CURRENCY DATE/TIME
Sold GBP.USD FXSETTLE ..... 1.35 USD 2025-08-28 14:06:34 EDT
In order to protect our clients and the firm, it is IBKR's policy to cover negative cash positions in non-compliant portfolios, as specified in the IBKR Customer Agreement and on the IBKR website.
If you wish to avoid automatic currency conversions in the future, you may perform your own conversions on any of IBKR's trading platforms. Instructions for converting currency (FX Orders) on IBKR platforms can be found in our User Guides.
Btw: I do not have a cash account, but by purpose a pure cash account.
No. of Recommendations: 1
In the past, I have converted (using their Forex screen) to foreign currency for trading - trying to calibrate the number of shares to the amount converted, etc. More recently, when I bought some Japanese shares, they automatically converted to the target currency seemingly at the proper conversion rate (which make things much simpler). It sounds like you are correct in your assessment, but I always thought currency conversions were nearly immediate. (Of course, I may be wrong as I feel I have the skills of a Cessna pilot sitting in the cockpit of an F-16 when I trade on IBKR).
Jeff
