Hi, I have been reading extensively on interactive brokers but now I'm confused and would appreciate expert help please Is Interactive brokers CFd over the counter product or are there actual buyers and sellers ( in regards to US equity ) and also, Is there much """spillage"" on US CFD's during high volatility??? Can the price chosen to short or buy not be the expected price>?? These two questions I need answered and would appreciate your help please.
With IB, for those eligible, when you place a CFD order, the opposing hedge order is placed at an exchange and thus for US markets, you should get the advantages of the SMART routing. From our site which I believe answers both your questions: Efficient CFD Reference Pricing - The IB CFD price reflects the exchange-quoted price for the underlying share. IB uses its efficient Smart Routing technology to determine your CFD reference price. With other brokers, you run the risk of not getting the best possible price. Our clients have the ability to add quotes to the exchange book in the same way they would trading stocks. This is possible because IB will match all CFD orders immediately with a hedge-order. As a result a non-marketable CFD order will create a matching non-marketable order for the underlying share on the exchange.
What I noticed is a huge delay to get filled even with small orders. A 500 share cfd market order for an actual liquid stock takes sometimes around 30 to 40 seconds to get filled. If the market runs away in my direction during that time the filling price is usually not in my favor. I think here is much room for improvement.
The opposing (hedging) order needs to be filled on an exchange first. Without specific examples there are too many variables at play to provide a reason for the delay. The ones that come to mind are - short sale, is your order marketable - lifting the offer or joining a bid, depth of the book at time your order was placed, etc.