Fido routes to IB?

Discussion in 'Options' started by Eliot Hosewater, Aug 17, 2006.

  1. I just filled a couple of option orders at Fidelity. When I checked the order status it said

    Routed INTERACTIVE BROKERS L.L.C.


    I thought orders went to an exhange. I can't find any older orders, but I'm pretty sure they went to PHLX.
     
  2. I just noticed this the other day also. Interesting.
     
  3. Surdo

    Surdo

    Fidelity pays for order flow, and has full disclosure.

    Unless you are getting an inferior execution I really would not be too concerned about this.
     
  4. arl

    arl

    Was it a spread order?
     
  5. I was rolling the short side of a calender, so it was basically selling a calendar spread. Got a bad fill price too. Fido doesn't seem to have a roll option, so you have to do it in two steps. TOS was showing it could be done for 4.30, I got it at 3.95. But then again I put them in at market, not a limit order. It was such a PITA that I just clicked "market".
     
  6. Why would you trade with fidelity? Volunteering to pay high commissions makes no sense to me. A least give yourself a chance by using a decent broker.
     
  7. I have a large Fido account and a relatively small one at TOS. I got spoiled using the TOS platform. At Fido you still have to look up the option symbols. And if you don't put a "-" in front it tells you to do it instead of doing it for you.

    BTW, are you referring to option commissions or all of them? I think their stock commissions are pretty good, and their options are better than Schwab, which is where I transferred from. I like their other services too, and the fact that they have a local office in case I need to go in and shit on somebody's desk.
     
  8. Surdo

    Surdo

    I have most of my 401K/IRA Rollover dough in Fidelity.
    For the volume of trading in ETF's and funds I do, I am more than satisfied.
     
  9. ajacobson

    ajacobson

    It has nothing to do with payment for flow. Many firms install an IB router which routes orders to an IB/TimberHill specialist operation on a specific exchange. It is usually BOX, ISE or CBOE. The report comes back to the brokerage firm as having been routed via the IB router and that is all they choose to report back. They could, in fact, dig deeper and disclose which exchange it was actually traded on.