This is the reply I received from IB when I asked some details on the odd lot issue. I do not know if this is clear enough. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has an odd-lot order system. However, the NYSE has formulated a policy that does not permit certain types of trading with respect to odd-lot orders. Although the NYSE has advised that it is recognized that some types of buying and selling on the same day may be appropriate, for example, a customer may buy stock using an odd-lot limit order and then enter a stop loss sell order against that position, IB has decided to NOT PERMIT THE ENTRY OF OPENING ODD-LOT ORDERS for NYSE-listed products. The NYSE has advised that the following are not permitted: (1) unbundling of round-lot orders to submit the unbundled orders as odd-lot orders; (2) failing to aggregate odd-lot orders into round-lot orders; (3) entering both buy and sell odd-lot limit orders for purposes of capturing the spread in the stock; (4) order entry practices (not defined) intended to circumvent the round-lot auction market; (5) index arbitrage; (6) other types of program trading or any pattern of activity that would suggest day trading, - not including PRL's (part of round-lots) - which may not utilize the odd-lot limit order service. Examples of this latter practice could include among other things, entering multiple odd-lot limit orders to buy and sell the same security on the same day or limit orders to buy and sell a group of stocks on the same day where it appears or is established that the intent is to capture the spread in these stocks by buying on the bid and selling on the offer. However, such trading would not be precluded from using the odd-lot system if (rather than limit) odd-lot market orders were utilized. Odd lot orders are permissable through Nasdaq.
The problem with default volatilities for option models not being set correctly is still around in 735g. When annual volatilities are selected default model vols are not annualized and thus are off by a factor of SQRT(252). I had submitted a bug report about this two releases ago, but obviously the programmers didn't think it was worth their while. Even though I'm sure that crippling the hot keys took them a lot longer than adding this left out division would have taken them.
I actually decided to test it the other day. I managed to sell my SPY on NYSE is lots of 50 shares at a time. I did several trades over a 10 minute window. No apparent difference in time it took to sell vs round lots. I used market orders. Only thing worth noting: IB still charged $1 commission on 50 shares, not 50 cents. So selling appears to work just fine.
All I know is that different ECN's and different exchanges have different rules on this. But I always trade "best execution" or "best ECN", so I don't care too much. Anyway, I don't think it has anything to do with IB handling them differently than other brokers.
dlinke, i forwarded your comments to a programmer who is unable to replicate what you see with the hot keys. If you contact me via e-mail or PM perhaps I can arrange a call between you and someone at IB.
Reversing short position into long and vice-versa by one order ( not 2 separate orders ) will be a great feature. Also, some cheap and simple tool for fully automated trading should be added. DT-waw
I would like to have a "Close Position" option. It could go like this: In the main screen, for a stock that you have a position for, right-click on the position size (or on the stock symbol of a position), and get the option "Close Position". Clicking this would create a new order line, with a default order type. Sell for a long position, buy for a short, for exactly the right order size to close the position. Only thing left to do would be to send the order. It would work a lot faster, and you would avoid mistakes.
just a comment about the new TWS released last night.. whats up with the icons? they used to be so simple, so intuitive.. now they are these huge weird pictures.. it would be nice if IB would consider putting those guys on a diet.. otherwise, looks like another winner.. good job IB.. -qwik
I must agree about the new icons. Maybe an option for the old vs. new icons could be made available. Also, would like to see separate P&L numbers. One for closed positions, the other for open positions. Stuart
i'll avoid discussing the icons here other than i'll see what I can do. I thnk you'll find the OCA for groups feature is what many of you have been requesting. Note just because I haven't been replying on many of your comments/requests doesn't mean I haven't been passing many of them along.