For USD interests, you need to keep at least 10k USD in your cash account to earn the interest. For other currencies, you can have a look at the minimum cash amount to keep here: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accou...erest-rates.php

So, to earn interest on your idle USD cash, you can consider depositing them in short-term US T-bills/T-bills ETF like BIL.

Sorry, my account only ever sees SGD and USD, I can't answer you on that one...

For the RSP window, the amount is in USD, not in number of shares, maybe that's why you were getting the message.

How the t bil interest works?

Like stock? Got ex date?

Not sure if you are referring to T-bills or T-bills ETFs.

For T-bills, the fees on IBKR is quite expensive. Minimum commission is about 5 USD per trade.

The cheaper alternative is to go for BIL ETF or SGOV ETF. In that case, you get monthly distributions from the ETF, and the unit price will drop on ex-date. Everything is just like stocks/stock ETFs.

The issue is there is a 30% withholding tax for those T-bill ETFs and IBKR will only refund you the withheld amount in the next year. So, instead of earning 5% p.a., your return will be about 3-4% p.a.

That said, for amounts smaller than 10k USD, it's still better than leaving your cash idle in the cash account and let IBKR earn everything.

Thanks seniors for the reply. I have just changed the base currency and right now it is showing sgd. I have both usd and sgd in my wise acc. Although i can fund my IB in sgd, but it will autoconvert the currency. I can choose either usd, gbp or eur. No sgd.





My next question is, do I need to keep changing the base currency whenever i want to deposit usd or sgd intermittently?

thanksssss

This post has been edited by jinj: Nov 15 2023, 05:24 PM

my IBKR base currency is USD. i can deposit SGD from my CIMB sg acct to IBKR and it won't auto convert to USD.

You don't need to change base currency. Base currency is what your investment are shown in. You can have different base currency and deposit in different currency. Up to you to see what base currency you want to see in portfolio. Mine is SGD but I invest mainly in USD stocks.

Dont waste your time with that. Its not that easy to earn. And your main purpose is to invest in stocks and get a much higher longer term return. Dont chase after peanuts.

I got my account up already but I noticed I can't buy fractional shares of ETFs like SPY. It was possible when I was on the demo account. What gives?

Kamina51 you need to enable fractional shares. search for the question How do I enable fractional shares?

This post has been edited by Medufsaid: Nov 15 2023, 09:20 PM

I read that there is no longer any 'inactivity fees' for some time now, and now the only charges are the commissions for actual trades done. I hope I read the correct news. Anyway, I can't find the much talked about 'inactivity fees' on their current website.

Yes, there is no inactivity fee. It was a big news back in 2021, and resulted in a lot of people transferring from Tradestation Global International to IBKR.

Google "IBKR inactivity fee" and you will see lots of 2021 news.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/interactive-...-132135973.html

During the recent TD Ameritrade SG shutdown, I managed to get my account transferred to TD Ameritrade USA. However, I learnt that they do not allow foreign account holders to name any beneficiaries.

Upon checking with my Will executor, they said the repatriation of any assets from the US normally is quite troublesome and may take years and lot of costs involved. So now I am mulling closing out that account, bring back funds to Malaysia in USD and then open an IBKR SG account.

do you have a Singapore bank account? lesser steps if you bring it into singapore instead

Whether it is a US or SG stock broker, pls note that any US assets amount above USD60k is subject to US estate tax. The US estate tax applies even your account is outside US.

I don’t have USD bank account in Singapore. So will need to convert to SGD when receiving in my SG bank from TDA US, and then back again into USD to IBKR. Not good.

This post has been edited by Mattrock: Nov 16 2023, 08:26 PM

oh wait, possible to directly transfer the positions from TD Ameritrade USA to IBKR? i think someone in this very thread has done it before

Sorry newbie here. What is the brokerage fee and commission for stock/etf ? Is it 0% fees for Malaysians also since we are trading in usd ?

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/prici...ssions-home.php

Follow IBKR Pro pricing. Retail investor follows the tiered pricing. Fixed pricing is for very larger volume like institutions or traders.

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/prici...ions-stocks.php

Tiered pricing is minimum 0.35 USD for US markets. From time to time you may get brokerage fee rebates of 1 US cent from the exchange if your order improves liquidity.

? i tot you are approved AI... how come move to tda usa?

afaik i may be wrong... ibkr sg is for sg residents only... my residents goes to ibkr usa