ESMA Rules for CFDs (Retail Clients only)
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has enacted new CFD rules effective 1st August
2018.

The rules include: 1) leverage limits on the opening of a CFD position; 2) a margin close out rule on a per
account basis; and 3) negative balance protection on a per account basis.

The ESMA Decision is only applicable to retail clients. Professional clients are unaffected.
Please refer to the following articles for more detail:

ESMA CFD Rules Implementation at IBKR (UK) and IBKR LLC

ESMA CFD Rules Implementation at IBIE, IBCE and IBLUX

Introduction
A London Gold CFD enables you to have exposure to price movements of physical Gold without actually owning it. A London Gold CFD is an agreement between you and IBKR to exchange the difference in price of the underlying over a period of time. The difference to be exchanged is determined by the change in the reference price of the underlying. Thus, if the price of physical Gold traded on the London bullion market rises and you are long the CFD, you receive cash from IBKR and vice versa. A London Gold CFD can be bought long or sold short to suit your view of market direction in the future.

Contract Specifications

Price Determination
The IBKR London Gold and Silver CFDs reference physical Gold and Silver traded on the London bullion market. The London bullion market is a wholesale over-the-counter market for the trading of precious metals. Trading is conducted among members of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Most of the members are major international banks.

IBKR receives quote streams from approximately 10 such major banks, in much the same way it does for cash forex. IBKR Smart routes between the banks, and the best available price at any given time becomes the reference price for the CFDs. IBKR does not add a spread to the banks’ quotes.

Low Commissions and Financing Rates: Unlike other CFD providers IBKR charges a transparent
commission, rather than widening the spread. Commission rates are only 0.0015%. Overnight financing rates are just benchmark +/- 1.5% (an additional 1% surcharge is added for retail accounts).

Transparent Quotes: Because IBKR does not widen the spread, the Metals CFD quotes accurately
represent the spreads and price movements of the related cash metal, as described above.

Margin Efficiency: IBKR establishes house-margin requirements based on historic volatility of the
underlying and other factors. Retail clients are subject to regulatory minimum initial margins of 5% for
London Gold or 10% for London Silver. 

Trading Permissions: Same as for Share and Index CFDs.

Market Data Permissions: Metals CFD market data is free, but a permission is required for system
reasons.

Worked Trade Example (Professional Clients):

You purchase 100 XAUUSD CFDs at $1,942.5 for USD 194,250 which you then hold for 5 days.

Closing the Position

CFD Resources
Below are some useful links with more detailed information on IB’s CFD offering:

CFD Product Listings

CFD Commissions

CFD Financing Rates

CFD Margin Requirements

CFD Contract Specifications

Frequently asked Questions

Are short Metals CFDs subject to forced buy-in?
No.

Can I take delivery of the underlying metal?

No, IBKR does not support physical delivery for Metals CFDs.

Are there any market data requirements?
The market data for Metal CFDs is free, and is included the market data for Index CFDs. However, you need to subscribe to the permission for system reasons. To do this, log into Account Management, and click through the following tabs: Settings/User Settings/Trading Platform/Market Data Subscriptions. Alternatively you can set up an Index or Metals CFD in your TWS quote monitor and click the “Market Data Subscription Manager” button that appears on the quote line.

How are my CFD trades and positions reflected in my statements?
If you are a client of IBKR (U.K.) or IBKR LLC, your CFD positions are held in a separate account segment identified by your primary account number with the suffix “F”. You can choose to view Activity Statements for the F-segment either separately or consolidated with your main account. You can make the choice in the statement window in Account Management.

If you are a client of other IBKR entities, there is no separate segment. You can view your positions normally alongside your non-CFD positions.

In what type of IB accounts can I trade CFDs e.g., Individual, Friends and Family,
Institutional, etc.?
All margin and cash accounts are eligible for CFD trading. 

Can I trade CFDs over the phone?
No. In exceptional cases we may agree to process closing orders over the phone, but never opening
orders.

Can anyone trade IB CFDs?
All clients can trade IB CFDs, except residents of the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand and
Israel. There are no exemptions based on investor type to the residency-based exclusions.

Валютная пара в окне FX Trader представлена в виде "ячейки", открыть которую можно щелкнув по иконке FX Trader вверху главного экрана в TWS. 

Как и в строке рыночных данных в "Управлении ордерами", слева указан бид, а справа – аск.  Чтобы создать ордер покупки, нажмите на аск, а чтобы создать ордер продажи – на бид.

Активные ордера и сделки отображаются в соответствующих вкладках во втором разделе окна FX Trader.

Примечание. Созданные в FX Trader ордера показаны в окнах "Управления ордерами" в TWS, однако ордера, созданные в окне "Управления ордерами", не отображаются в окне FX Trader.

Нажмите СЮДА, чтобы посмотреть записанный вебинар о работе с FX Trader.

Due to a June 2018 ruling by the Israeli financial court, Interactive Brokers is no longer permitted to offer spot forex trading to Israeli retail clients. While IBKR's forex offering is a deliverable "spot" transaction, the ruling interpreted a 2014 amendment to Israeli Securities Law 5728-1968 to cover spot/cash transactions in addition to derivative/contract style transactions.

• Forex transactions that would create a negative balance or would increase a pre-existing negative balance in either component currency will not be allowed to Israeli retail clients.
• The negative cash balance test applies only to the component currencies and for the cash movements created directly by the forex trade. There is no restriction regarding the creation of negative balances by other means such as cashiering activity or trading activities in securities (stocks, bonds, options, etc).

Example: Having USD 1,000 and converting to ILD, value of ILS 3,600 (1 USD = 3.6 ILS) 

Procedure

In order to be consider a "Qualified Investor" IB requires client to meet the following criteria and procedural requirements.

Qualified Investor qualification need to be recertified every 3 years.

For Individuals

Individuals, which comply with at least one of the following alternatives:

1. Total value of Liquid Assets greater than NIS 8 million; or
2. Annual income in each preceding two years is greater than NIS 1.2 million or the income of the Household to which he belongs is greater than NIS 1.8 million.; or
3. Total value of Liquid Assets greater than NIS 5 million and the annual income in each proceeding two years is greater than NIS 600,000 or such annual income of the Household to which he belongs is greater than NIS 900,000.

"Liquid Assets" means cash, deposits, securities, equities and funds.

"Household" means an individual and the persons living with him or who are dependent on him for their living.

The client must:

• compete the Qualified Investor Representation form and
• provide a written signed confirmation from a registered attorney or accountant certifying their qualification. This certification should be no older than 3 months.

For Corporates

The following entities can be exempted:

1. Authorized mutual funds or fund managers
2. Provident funds or fund managers
3. Insurers
4. Banking corporations
5. Portfolio managers
6. Investment advisors, who acquire for themselves
7. Stock Exchange members
8. Underwrites, who buy for themselves
9. Venture capital funds
10. Corporations (including funds, partnerships) other than corporations which were incorporated for the purpose of purchasing securities in a specific offer, with equity exceeding 50 million NIS
11. Corporations, wholly owned by one of the aforementioned investors

Entities qualifying under exemptions 1-9 must provide confirmation of their status from a governmental register.
Entities that wish to be considered under exemptions 10 and 11 must:

• complete the Qualified Investor Representation form and
• provide a written signed confirmation from a registered attorney or accountant certifying their qualification. This certification should be no older than 3 months.
   

OVERVIEW 

In general, interest on account balances are credited/debited at benchmark rates plus/minus a spread as shown on our web pages. For qualified clients with substantial forex positions, however, IB has created a mechanism to carry large gross FX positions with higher efficiency with respect to carrying costs. We refer to it as the “auto swap program”. The design allows clients to benefit from IB’s participation in the interbank forex swaps market where implied interest rate spreads are usually much narrower than the spreads available in the retail deposit market. 

a. Concept 

Interest is charged on settled balances, so the intent of a Forex swap as used here is to defer the settlement of a currency position from one day to the next business day. This is done by a simultaneous sell and buy of the same amount of base (first) currency but for two different value dates e.g. on T you go long 10 mio. EUR.USD for value date T+2. By example, on T+1 the position is swapped T+2 to T+3, here a sell of 10 mio EUR.USD for T+2 and a purchase of 10 mio. EUR.USD for T+3. As a result you have deferred settlement from T+2 to T+3, with the difference in prices of the two trades representing the financing cost from T+2 to T+3.

b. Cost

This service is provided as a free service and no commission or markup is charged by Interactive Brokers. The interbank market bid/ask spread inherent in the swap prices may be regarded as a cost but is not determined by Interactive Brokers. Interactive Brokers provides the service on a best efforts basis to our large Forex clients.

c. Position Criteria

Swap activity is only applied to accounts with gross FX positions larger than 10 mio. USD or approximate equivalent of other currencies. Positions are swapped (rolled) in increments or multiples of USD 1 mio. (or equivalent). The residual settled balances are traded under IB‘s standard interest model¹. Positions that are swapped (rolled) are real positions, i.e. the projected T+1 settled cash balances.

The so-called “Virtual Positions” are not considered; the virtual position is only a representation of the original trades expressed as currency pairs, for example EUR.CHF.

Settled cash balances are a single currency concept, e.g. EUR or CNH. IB executes all swaps against USD as it is the most efficient funding currency. Should you have a position in a cross, e.g. EUR against CHF, two swaps, one in EUR.USD and one in USD.CHF will be done. The threshold(s) and increment(s) may change at any time without notice.

d. Client Eligibility

As we offer this service for free, only clients with substantial currency positions are eligible for inclusion in the service. US legal residents need to be an Eligible Contract Participant (ECP) and be in the possession of an LEI number (legal entity identifier). Interactive Brokers cannot guarantee a client’s inclusion in the program and all inquiries require compliance approval prior to become active.²

e. Swap Price Recognition 

Interactive Brokers may conduct a series of swaps in a currency during a day. Interactive Brokers will use average bid and ask prices at which it executed, respectively average bid and asks as quoted in the interbank market. Swap prices are not published but can be seen (or calculated) in the statement after execution. The swaps are applied in the account at the end of the day.

f. Recognition in the Statement 

You will find the swap transaction(s) in the Trades section of the statement. The swap are represented as simultaneous purchase/sale or vice versa, do not have a time stamp and shows an M (manual entry) in the code column. The actual swap prices are the difference in between the two prices.

Here an example for cob 20150203 that shows a swap from 20150203 to 20150204.

g. Examples of Swap Prices 

Here a couple of examples that use swap prices from a major interbank provider. Often bid/ask spreads are even tighter. 

In more detail, let’s assume you want to calculate the implied CNH rate resulting from a USD.CNH swap. We are looking for the implied rate of the quote currency CNH (Currency 2). Therefore the following formula is used:

 So using above figures, this results in a 7.02% implied interest rate for CNH.

Now if you wanted to calculate the implied rate for the base currency (Currency 1) the formula would change slightly. Here an example using EUR.USD:

 Using above example, this results in a -0.75 % implied interest rate for EUR. 

¹. For example, in the case of a USD 20.3 mio. position only 20 mio. will be swapped. USD 0.3 remains in the account and interest using benchmark and spreads will be applied. A USD 300k position will not be considered for swapping at all. The position by currency is taken as the reference, regardless of the overall position. 

 ² US, Australian and Israeli domiciled residents are currently not eligible for inclusion in the Automated Forex Swap Program.