Why does IB charge cancel fee on single option but not on spreads? What's so special about a spread (as opposed to a single option) that IB (or the underlying exchange) is willing to waive the cancellation fee? Someone please shed some light on me!
They don't send spread orders to the COB unless marketable. They remain in their system. So they don't charge.
Ah.. I see. Thank you. Why can't IB do the same thing with single option - don't route until marketable?
It not in your best interest for your orders not to be exposed to the auction market at the exchanges. If you do that many cancels, maybe you should go to another broker. IB is the only broker that charges all their accounts.
Didn't I read somewhere that they cut their maximum cancel fee to one cent? Or is that for something else.......
For american stocks it looks like 1 cent for each cancellation or modification, with some credit for each trade executed. It doesn't look scary on the extra fee column of the statement, although I don't trade many options. It's more for european stocks, abt 50euro cts from memory
This is not correct. The combination orders are sent out immediately and then are managed by an algorithm that maximizes the likelihood of their fill. IB does not charge cancellation fees on combinations, because the exchanges don't charge either. IB has lowered the cancellation charge on outright orders to 1c/cancellation. It used to be as high as 1-2 USD/cancellation.
$0.01/contract? or $0.01/leg? I just want to confirm that when you say combinations, you mean any order with more than one leg? And what's so special about that that the exchange is willing to waive the cancel fee?
Not per leg, not per contract. Per cancellation event. By combination I mean an order with more than one leg that can be represented by an exchange as a native order. My guess is that there is significantly less traffic in the combinations and hence the exchange is not worried about their system being taxed.
Ah.. I see. Thx IB. What do u mean by native order? Would u consider married put a native spread? How about a custom 3x2 ratio spread? Also my understanding is that IB's SMART routing is capable of filling multi leg spreads across multiple exchanges. Does that mean when I route an iron condor 3 legs can hit one exchange and the 4th leg can hit another exchange? If I later decided to cancel is there an cancellation fee involved?