Why was my order rejected for "No cash available" when I just deposited cash into my TFSA/RRSP account?

When you invest in a product denominated in a currency other than what you are holding in your Margin account, it is not necessarily required to convert currencies to place the order.

• If you enter the order to open the foreign product position and do not make a currency conversion, you will open a margin loan in the currency of denomination of the product. On the margin loan you accrue…

Interactive Brokers will automatically convert currencies when trading non-GBP denominated securities. To do this, Interactive Brokers will engage in “spot” currency transactions on your behalf in order to settle your buy orders or convert the proceed of a sell order. Interactive Brokers will base the exchange rate off the spot exchange rate at the time of trade 0.03% fee…

Currency conversion can have a significant impact on your margin buying power in your Interactive Brokers (IBKR) account. Here is what you need to know:

1. Direct Impact on Buying Power:  When you convert cash from one currency to another, it can affect your ability to trade in both the original and the new currency. This is because your account's buying power is directly tied to the amount and type of currency you hold…

You will need a Margin account in order to use an attached FX Hedge order. A Cash account cannot use a FX Hedge attached order because it takes IBKR a fraction of a second to see how much negative cash is in the account after the non-base currency stock order executes. Even though it would only be a short amount of time that the Cash account would be holding a negative cash balance, a loan to the account is not allowed under any circumstances. In a Cash account you will need to first execute a FX currency conversion order and then place an order for a contract denominated in a foreign currency. …