Phillip Capital - Currency Conversion

(login for full post details)

Hi,

I know that PC does not charge a fee for currency conversions (account withdrawals, USD to EUR specifically), but they do state as part of their administrative fees that their currency exchange rate is marked up. It seems like this amount could be any percentage and a potential deal breaker since it is unknown and not specified anywhere. The IBs I've asked aren't really providing an answer; it seems like this is something PC determines in situ.

Has anyone here recently requested this service? Does anyone know approximately how much they mark up their exchange rate and whether this varies a lot depending on the amount/occasion?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

(login for full post details)

Trading non-base currency futures is messy unless you have funds in that currency on deposit. Sorry I know that's not a good answer to your question. You should be able to calculate how much PC are charging you though, currency rates don't fluctuate that wildly. I'm surprised that if you ask them they won't actually tell you.

Again doesn't answer your question but here is my experience with non-base currency futures from another thread here.

SMCJB

I suspect there isn't one way that fits here all, but I can tell you my experience.

My trading account is denominated in USD but on two different occasions now I have traded EUR dominated futures contracts. When this happens my account shows a USD balance, a EUR balance and a combined balance which in my case converts the EUR balance to USD at current fx rates. initially your non-base currency balance (in my case the EUR) will be negative because of the margin requirement. When it's negative, your broker will probably charge you a funding rate, even though you have a positive balance in your base currency and they aren't paying you interest on that! The alternative is to deposit funds in the other currency, something my brokers would allow me to exchange through them. For what its worth I did NOT do that, as at the time interest rates on the EUR were negative and my broker would have charged me for having a positive balance! At the end of the trade I had a EUR balance and my broker (when requested) just converted that to USD at the prevailing rate.

To be honest it was messy and is one of the reasons I don't trade non-USD denominated contracts anymore.