If a broker has a smart order functionality, and you get a fill .10 away from the market because the smart order entry chose ISLD (which was not at the inside market), is the broker at all liable for the bad fill? (My guess is no.) To be more specific, I was trading SEBL, and I was long about 1000 shares, and trying to sell at the best price, which was about 7.55 at the time. I used a smart order to sell, and I got filled through ISLD at 7.45, even though the inside ECNs were trading .10 higher. I always put my limit orders well below the market (on sells) when the market is moving fast just in case the market is getting ready to tank. When I want out, I want out now. I hate to pay the spread, but I will gladly pay a couple pennies when the market is moving that fast. I checked time and sales later, and I couldn't find my 7.45 trade on the prints, but at that exact time there were trades going off between 7.50 and 7.55 before and after my trade. Does any broker actually have a reliable smart order funcionality? I mean, one that will continuously look for the best price? IB's works most of the time, but on occasion it gets stuck on one ECN and you really can get screwed in a fast market. That one trade cost me $100. Not that big a deal, but if that happens just once a day, that's $25K a year I'm losing because of a not so smart order.
IB makes you take that test before you get an account. on that test ib says they are never responsible for software problems. your out of luck.
You my friend are a PIKER! If you are crying over $100 STOP TRADING. You obviously are not that bright if you use a market order in SEBL. Why not use ISLD or ARCA with a limit .02 cents below the BID?
If you will read carefully, I specifically said I used a LIMIT order well below the best bid. When the market is moving extremely fast, the ECN with the best bid or ask is constantly changing. ARCA doesn't work for shit anymore, so I'm trying to get the best price. You probably don't trade fast markets based on your post. I'm talking about an $8 stock potentially moving 20 or 30 cents in a second. I'm hoping that there is an intelligent algorithm out there that can get a good fill in this type of market consistently. You exhibit very little class getting on an anonymous board and insulting someone, especially when you don't understand the post.
That's Nasdaq for you. I"ve seen my orders held up and displayed 20-30 seconds later after I crossed the market by .20-.50 cents to buy whatever I could at the offer and then some. The best thing to do is have hot keys with direct connections to any venue you want to hit. But in general, that's what happens when a stock breaks hard.
I've stopped complaining about execution quality because there's always a possible explanation (excuse) for why I didn't get filled where I thought I should be. In your case, if you saw prints at 7.50 to 7.55, those could all have been market buys executed against limit sell orders. In other words, the bid price could have been 7.45 throughout the period that trades were executing at a higher price.