Hello,
I have a question regarding money conversions. Specifically, with a Rakuten Securities account.
I'm planning to invest in a set of stocks and ETFs, and to do so I need to convert JPY to USD.
I am quite confused on how the system works. Here are a few questions:
1) When does the conversion occur?
Today I tried to convert 1 USD as a test, at 10:00am, and the order was placed in the waiting list.
It is written that the delivery date (受渡日) will be tomorrow.
Why is this? I thought that the order would be immediately accepted if during day hours.
Rakuten even has a day/night policy that makes orders during the night more expensive...I thought that they introduced that so if you need an urgent conversion during night hours you can still do it, at a cost... but if the transaction is just carried over the next day anyway, then what is the point?
2) Hidden fee?
During my test converting 1 USD with day rate, I noticed that:
-Today's conversion rate: 103.93
-USD to buy: 1
-JPY required (円貨換算額（概算）): 109
How did it jump to 109? That is a massive increase and I don't understand how it is calculated.
I read that the conversion fee on Rakuten is supposed to be +25銭 for USD/JPY. That should be 0.25 JPY, while the difference between 103.93 and 109 is significantly higher than that.
3) Conversion at the time of purchase:
It is also possible to directly convert to USD at the time of buying a foreign stock.
I checked the rate, and for today it jumped from 103.93円 to 104.18 円 。The different seems to be +25銭, so I guess that is what is being included, just wanted to double check.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Also if you have any additional tips, or are aware of better ways to convert money, please let me know!