Im just opening an account with I.B. However in their demo it appears that the spread is artificially widened by one tick on the asian and australian indexes. It is clearly obvious from watching the last sale prints that the spread is actually a full tick wider than the inside bid/offer should be. Can anyone comment on this. For example the spread in SPI futures, gold, crude sgx nikkei etc. are all one tick too wide on the demo. Also can someone tell me if this is legal? Can a company widen the spread artificially and effectively pocket the extra tick? Im very nervous now about opening this account since viewing the demo.
Seriously you should see the demo. It just isnt right. For example it will show 10 points or two ticks spread on the SGXNK nikkei and yet the last sale prints will be 2-3 points either side of the bid ask. If im mistaken please correct me but thats not good at all. Basically the spread there quoting is artificially widened by a tick on the SPI and SGXNk nikkei at least.