It was most likely your mistake and I can almost guarantee if you check the logs again you will see that you entered a buy STOP limit instead of a buy Limit. You chose the wrong order type. A buy stop limit would protect you if your short position exceeded a certain price and then would become a market order. In this case you entered a buy stop limit order at 76 but since the stock was already trading above that price it was automatically triggered and became a market order and filled at the price that was currently available. So you would have seen 76 on the screen when entering order but you didn't check the order type enough times to see the error.
I would guess this as well, I would think there would have been an autocheck for an stop order that would auto-exe, but most people cant be bothered to put those safety nets in place. But he probably would have gotten a break or and adjustment(say the high of the day) if he had know to call IB immediately.
Why don't you show us the audit log line that corresponds to this particular trade? Don't doctor it either. It will show that you screwed up. I have done hundreds of thousands of trades through IB and if there was ever a mistake in pricing it was because of my own stupid fault. So take some responsibility.
And second of all, you are a prick. You've told us you were trying to pick somebody off on a pricing error and then you screw yourself over. Sounds like it was the right outcome for a dick move. So stop being a dick.
so you wanted to rob someone than got robbed in the process and now whine about it?
I hate to harp on you (OP), but what you did (or at least trying to do) - justified or not - isn't called for in the markets. Obviously it's not illegal, but certainly unethical, and is most definitely closer to robbing someone or abusing post market than it is a legitimate trading gain. I don't think even ONE street guy would be laughing with you at Veritas or Top of the Tower if you told that story some Friday night. While no one would certainly be mad if you did this at a firm, it wouldn't be a positive thing if you were getting promoted either.
There are software products out there that record your screen activity and run in the background. I don't think it would mean a thing as far as getting your money back, but you would at least know. Just don't be Nixon with it.
Don't try to screw some poor TD Ameritrade cash account home gamer, no matter how dumb or how big of a loser they may be. Or even a rich guy in his New Canaan firm office.
Quote from newwurldmn:
This was done after hours. Different rules. Different protections.
I don't think there is even a best executions protection, which is why the OP thought he could steal $10 from someone else in the first place.
All this arguing about market orders isn't relevant to after-hours trading. Market orders and stop orders aren't active in the AH sessions; only limit orders are.
So the OP did in fact place a limit order to buy, not a stop or market order.
Although anything is possible, it seems odd that if IB was corrupt, they would target just the OP on this one little trade instead of doing this sort of thing more frequently. I've never seen a complaint like this before in my 3+ years of surfing ET.
My guess is that the OP typed 86 instead of 76 and of course someone's limit orders to sell at those higher prices got filled and they were probably quite happy about it (just as the OP would've been quite happy had s/he gotten a favorable fill in the 76's because of another trader's order entry error).
As perfect as I am ( ), I've been 100% certain of seeing something that was later proven wrong and I simply couldn't believe I could've seen it differently. It happens no matter how precise you are in every aspect of your life. Our brains can deceive us.
BTW, if you're short and you place a limit order to buy (cover) $10 below the closing price, that isn't evil. Companies often save their bad news for Fridays after the close or perhaps Monday morning price would gap down in pre-market, all legitimate situations in which the risk-taking short-sellers benefit at the expense of the risk-taking buyers. Trading and investing is risky.
It is a bit ironic though that the OP opens with this:
Quote from gster210:
just to see if it would get hit...if someone really wanted it or mistyped.
), I've been 100% certain of seeing something that was later proven wrong and I simply couldn't believe I could've seen it differently. It happens no matter how precise you are in every aspect of your life. Our brains can deceive us.
