Last friday I had a situation where my buy limit price was better than what was reflected in TWS bid ask lines. Here are the details: * I had put in a buy limit of 28.12 for AXP on NYSE * The order had been live for at least 10 minutes, probably longer * At some point AXP began showing best bid at 28.10. It stayed that way for an extended period of time * My order was "green" all the time and was reflected in "Pending". * I was never executed at my limit (this is not necessarily an issue, obviously). How is this possible? I thought that my buy limit, being highest, should be displayed. Any thoughts and comments appreciated. Thanks !
i really do not know. my guess is that the specialist did not want to display the order. the best suggestion for questions like this are to post the details of the trade to the help desk and ask them to look at the audit trail. BTW, if I can find the thread I'll post there. There was a question of modified orders not changing back to green even though the order went to the market. I got word from programming this AM that it has been fixed.
I've had that happen many times... although 10 minutes seems pretty long for a stock trading 7 mil shares. It could be that the specialist was working a large order and either already planned on filling you at your price or he was just to busy to deal with your "small" order. I'm not sure you would have any sort of recourse unless the specialist traded through your price without filling you. On some systems you can "status" your order and the specialist (or clerk) will verify that it is still active. It's too bad this happens because everone wants their order to be shown in the market but this ain't NASDAQ fletch
Fletch, Thank you very much. I should have been clearer: The LIMIT was put in while the market was at least .25 higher. I just noticed that when it was time for the LIMIT to be the "best bid" it wasn't displayed, and I was not executed by the specialist. I didn't see any trades below or at my limit, but that is somewhat besides the point. I have noticed that the specialist often holds even market orders for a long time (ie 30 secs to a minute) even on 1M+ stocks. Also: wasn't I supposed to be "auto executed" by SuperDOT ?
The way it works at the NYSE is they can sit on your order as long as they want if they are busy. My understanding is that the SEC won't even consider looking at a marketable order unless it's been marketable for over two minutes and not filled or displayed. fletch
I have often experienced the problem of my limit bid or ask not being displayed when it is the better than those shown. I have not tracked it systematically, but it is my impression that I usually get filled at my price or better when this happens. If I don't get filled it seems to be because the stock does not trade at my price or worse than my price.
Thank you for all the good feedback. I guess I was wrongly under the assumption that I would auto-execute without intervention of the specialist and that my order automatically would become the best bid. This was a small order of only 300 shares, so it would fall within the SuperDOT limit. I have forwarded to the trade desk at IB, in case they feel it's an issue worth pursuing. It was just the first time I saw the described behavior, so I initially suspected tws. Thanks again ...