I don't get rebates on my stock trading with IBKR, my question is why was the total ticket -$.06 to sell 30 contracts of INO May 1, 2020 $13 Calls? This includes Exchange fees, OPRA fees, ect.. The Free Brokers charge $.15 to $.75 per contract, for all the complaining some do about IBKR with Options their not terrible, platform is extremely stable compared to other sites that crash all the time.
Thank you, so IBKR with options is cheaper than the Free Online Brokerages as long as you provide liquidity. No $.15-$.75 per contract fee, plus their platform has not crashed on me!
This Your order was filled on the GMNI exchange, which I believe gives .75 per contract for adding liquidity. Not sure if IB passes on the total amount, but this is why you had a commission credit for the trade.
I set highest rebate but I'm always routed to EMERALD. Is GEMINI much better? Damn I've been missing a ton !
My info is a bit old, but I have Emerald, Pearl and Arca at .85 per contract in non penny optionable. Better than GEMI
Smart routing is supposed to consider rebate as well as current bid-ask of each exchange. Would you rather sell an option for 1.10 and get a 0.06 rebate on GEMINI or sell an option for 1.11 and pay a 0.7 total fee? I have never found a reason to use anything other than SMART routing.
I have found that I am generally better off not using Smart routing, if I have time. I will send a 1 lot to the CBOE where there is no liquidity rebate or charge. Once I establish the best price I can get, I will then send another order to an exchange where a high rebate is paid using the same price. Sometimes I will be filled, usually not. But this way I will ensure I get the best price and the highest rebate.
Then I'm guessing you have an automated routine to do that. Because by the time I do that manually, the bid-ask would have likely changed and I would have been better or worse off simply submitting the entire order earlier. Basically the change in market pricing over time will have a bigger effect than the commission on the total sale or purchase so it's basically just noise for me.
That's why I said if you have the time. It really depends on what you are trading. If you are trading options such the are moving quickly, I agree with you, smart routing is probably best. I tend to trade a lot of back month out of the money puts where time is not of the essence. Here my method seems to work best.