TS is expecting full functionality in June. IB isn't transmitting all IEX orders properly either at this point (e.g. IEX routed STP orders don't trigger and get submitted) - I'm waiting to hear back on if they're planning to fix it. We'll see, the last time I made them aware of an order submission issue it took four months of back and forth before they finally told me they're not going to bother with a fix.
Thanks IBsoft. Could you please reply to this thread when the fix is implemented? Also, out of curiosity, can you comment on why direct routed API orders charge 1.3 cents/share compared to .0035 for SMART routed cost plus orders? On page 12 of this presentation http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-...rontrun-hfts-interactive-brokers-has-solution it says that IB doesn't sell order flow. Assuming that's the case, the only remaining explanations for the ~.01 difference that I can think of are the value of Timber Hill trading against IB's orders and IB keeping part/all of the rebates from various dark pools - do those two things happen and do they explain the pricing difference? Honest question and want to understand - as far as I'm concerned that would be a perfectly reasonable justification for the difference (although I'm a bit surprised by the magnitude of it).
My guess is that different exchanges charge different fees and with SMART routing, IB is able to route to the lowest fee venue while still getting the best price, thereby saving on fees. If you direct route, they can't do that - thus the higher price.
While I agree that there might be some slight differences in routing costs (measured in mills), there's no way it's large enough to account for nearly a penny difference. Other DMA brokers are able to stay in business charging < .0005/share. Obviously, routing cost differences are very small, if they even exist.
I received a response in the message center saying that these were intentionally disabled by the developers due to the orders being non-native. Can you please clarify what's going on with IEX routed STP orders?
The fix is implemented. We will lower the per share directed API fee to 0.75c/share. We prefer our clients utilizing the Smart Routing, because they receive frequent price improvement and a dark pool rebate of 0.1c/share or higher. Please look at your daily statements and you should be able to see it. IEX is one of the venues the Smart Router accesses, so it is unlikely that you will do better by directing your orders there.
Great. Do I need to upgrade my TWS for them to go through? I just tested one on 944.3b and it didn't trigger. Thanks for addressing this and really appreciate the rate drop. After I execute a large enough sample through IEX, I will report back here with some figures on how much better (worse) I fare through SMART when costs are considered.
I just tested this in production and my directed IEX stop order triggered and filled as expected. jtrader33, are you testing this with a paper account? Currently, IEX stop orders in the paper-trading system will trigger but not fill. No special version of TWS is required.