Account Base Currency

Account base currency is the single currency a trading account is denominated in. Every deposit, withdrawal, floating and realized profit or loss, margin figure, and IB commission tied to that account is calculated and displayed in this currency, regardless of which instruments the client trades.

It is chosen when the account is opened and usually cannot be changed afterward without opening a new account. Common choices are USD, EUR, and GBP, while client-friendly brokers add local options such as ZAR, THB, INR, NGN, or AED. The base currency does not restrict what a trader can trade; someone on a USD account can still trade EURJPY, gold, or indices, with each position's result converted back into USD.

The base currency drives conversion cost and pip value. If a client's bank holds ZAR but the account is USD, every deposit and withdrawal crosses a currency exchange with a spread and often a bank fee, and pip values on trades are converted from the quote currency into USD. On a EURUSD position a pip is worth USD directly, but on a USDJPY position the pip value must be converted, so the base currency subtly shapes reported risk.

For partners this quietly moves conversion rates and payout value. Offering a local base currency in an emerging market removes a deposit-stage FX hurdle and lifts funded-account rates, while the currency your IB commission is paid in exposes you to exchange swings if it differs from where your clients trade. A rebate accrued in EUR but paid in USD can shift a few percent purely on the FX rate applied.

When a client funds an account, the broker converts the incoming money into the account's base currency at its applied rate, and the reverse happens on withdrawal. All trading results are then normalized into that base currency: each closed position's profit or loss, quoted in the instrument's quote currency, is converted back so the balance stays in one unit.

Pip and margin values follow the same logic. For a pair whose quote currency matches the base, pip value is direct; otherwise the broker applies a live conversion, so the same lot size carries a slightly different base-currency risk across pairs. IB commissions and rebates accrue per closed trade, are aggregated, and are paid in the program's payout currency, which may differ from the client's base currency and introduce a second FX step before the money reaches you.