Closed foreign futures still leave a leftover currency line

A flat ticket can still leave a currency line

Selecting a futures contract listed outside the United States books gains and losses in that exchange's designated currency rather than in US dollars. When that contract is closed, the futures ticket can be flat while a leftover currency balance remains: a positive or negative foreign-currency residual that stays on the statement after a non-dollar futures contract is closed.

A US-dollar account that trades those listings typically shows a separate foreign-currency line plus a combined balance that converts the residual at the statement-date exchange rate.

How contract selection creates a second currency line

Futures contract selection, in this workflow, is choosing a listing whose settlement currency differs from the currency posted as margin, which creates a second currency line after the trade. Illustrative foreign listings include a German equity-index future, a German sovereign-debt future, and a Canadian oilseed future, each settled in a non-dollar currency.

US-dollar margin on deposit does not keep the account single-currency once a foreign-listed contract is selected and a leftover foreign-currency line appears.

Currency translation does not make the residual riskless

Currency translation restates a leftover foreign-currency residual into the account's home currency at the current exchange rate so equity can be read as one number. The combined currency balance is that single home-currency figure, produced by converting every currency line at the statement-date exchange rate.

A leftover foreign-currency balance is not a riskless cash residual. Later conversion uses the then-current rate, which can differ from the rate when the futures result was booked. A positive leftover foreign-currency balance has the economic character of an unleveraged long holding in that currency. A negative leftover balance has the character of a short holding. That unleveraged currency exposure is exchange-rate risk on a leftover residual that behaves like a cash long or short rather than like an open leveraged futures position.

If 5,000 leftover units of a European currency are held while its dollar price moves from 1.35 to 1.20, combined dollar equity falls by 750 without a new futures trade.

Margin management after the futures side is flat

Margin management here means watching combined equity against large offsetting currency lines so an exchange-rate move cannot erase a thin cushion or push the account below zero with no open futures trade. The futures ticket can already be gone while those offsetting currency lines still set how much combined equity remains.