Converting currencies, especially from SGD to USD to purchase overseas securities on Interactive Brokers can be confusing many new users to the platform. In this article, we will show you how easy it is to convert between any two currencies.

Every account on IB has a base currency. This base currency determines the currency of translation your statements, and also the commissions, research and trading fees are charged in your base currency.

When buying securities or stocks from another overseas exchange like the NASDAQ, NYSE, LSE, TSE, the securities are listed in another currency like the USD, EUR or JPY. To trade that particular security, you need to first convert your base currency to the listed currency of the security.

There are two main markets to convert currencies on Interactive Brokers – namely IDEALPRO and FXCONV.

IDEALPRO is IB’s avenue to conduct