I think it would be better if they don't screw with the shares and just display what the exchanges publish.
Its very common for platforms to show multiples of 100. Most give the user a choice. It's a matter of being less cluttered, more visually appealing and make room for other things. They aren't really changing the shares its just a multiple of 100. I think more important than one or the other is consistency, for the last 3 years I've stared at 1, 3, 30, 300. to just change it to 100, 300, 3000, 30000 makes it very awkward on my eyes.
From what I understand, when showing round lots only (that is, 3 for 300 shares) - * it would show 3 for 390 shares as well. * if there was 90 shares only, that entry would not be shown
I suspect then this will not go over well: SEC.gov | SEC Adopts Rules to Modernize Key Market Infrastructure Responsible for Collecting, Consolidating, and Disseminating Equity Market Data Effective June 8 Best bid and best offer (“BBO”) BBOs for each SRO in round lot sizes (e.g., 100 shares). BBOs for each SRO in revised round lot sizes based on the new “round lot” definition: $250.00 or less per share: round lot = 100 shares; $250.01 to $1,000.00 per share: round lot = 40 shares; $1,000.01 to $10,000.00 per share: round lot = 10 shares; and $10,000.01 or more per share: round lot = 1 share. National best bid and national best offer NBBO is based on the round lot size quotations. NBBO will be based on the new round lot size quotations.
What in the holy hell? They're really going to implement variable lot sizes depending on the underlying? This is a stupid idea and a total mess. In that case I understand IB just displaying the actual number. Everyone is the bad guy in this scenario
No, everyone is a good guy. This was done because odd lots were not price protected under Reg NMS. Since stocks went up in price so much, many retail orders were not protected. Now your 10 share of AMZN is protected.
That new rule for odd lots, though it makes some sense in terms of price protection, REALLY doesn't make sense if it is used for display... Not only will the user have to figure out in his head what "3" means based on stock price - whether it is 300 or 30, but now there is an additional weirdness of multiplying by 40 in your head for basically half the stocks. "So - 213 - hm - what is that times 40?" I guess that is why in MedvedTrader on L2 we have an option of round lots display. I expect people will just turn that off.
Looks like share size only has been added to the "latest" build. I went ahead and downloaded the offline version of the time tested version.
Ok...the update finally hit me and now my level 2 is displaying the full share size numbers. 1000 instead of 10 10,000 instead of 100 etc And I in fact hate it. My L2 is all cluttered and just a blur of numbers.
Yep it sucks. If you go to the stable offline version it will be back how you like it, and I don't think those versions update. I'm going to see if I can find the previous "latest" version in an offline and download that. I really hope IB gives an option to switch in the settings. Idk why they are forcing this on users after all these years.