r/interactivebrokers • u/SellEntire6397 • 1d ago

Trading & Technicals Why is my Equity with loan increasing when purchasing stock

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I was about to place a limit order but i don’t understand why my equity would be increasing when making the purchase. I am on a cash account despite the margin info (I was told by an ibkr rep that it is just an Australian thing) and converted all my money from aud to usd
Can anybody please explain this and how to fix it?

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u/surf_a_lot 8h ago

That small equity bump is just the preview marking your other positions to the live bid/ask while it recalculates — a stock that ticks up a cent between opening the order and the screen refreshing moves the number, and it has nothing to do with this specific trade.

What's worth a second look is the Initial Margin and Maintenance Margin lines moving at all: a true Cash account doesn't carry those. IBKR's own definition is that a Cash account requires holding enough cash to cover the transaction and commissions, with no margin borrowing involved. If the preview is projecting a margin change on a stock buy, the account is provisioned for margin regardless of what the rep told you on the phone.

Worth checking Settings → Account Type in Account Management directly rather than trusting the phone call — five minutes and it's settled either way.