Difference FX SPot and FX Future?

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:33 am

Maybe this is a newbie question but i am not friend with all the futures terminology yet:-)

Is there a difference of buying 1 contract at CME for 62 500 GBP for 2.037 = 127 312.5 USD

or

buy FX Spot 62 500 GPB at 2.037 currency pair GBPUSD = 127 312.5 USD with Interactive Brokers.

Thanks.

jungle · Post by **jungle** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:53 am

Trading spot is different from trading futures (or forwards). You should find out from IB how their roll works - it's very unlikely you'll genuinely be trading spot, as that would require delivery of the notional at settlement. So either you'll be trading spot intraday and closing the position before the official end-of-day, or you trade spot and roll forward, e.g. via T/N.

Re: that specific quote, that the spot and futures prices are the same seems odd - it implies flat curves in GBP and USD rates, and neither of them are.