Just for interest: LIFFE has a rule that when trading short-term interest rate futures precedence is given to the first 50 lots on the bid/offer. Above that some kind pro-rata basis works (I believe). The result was (not sure now) that lots of traders programmed their software to enter orders in multiples of 1 lot. Often you'd see the bids/offers increasing/decreasing by say 100 lots in steps of 1. The NYSE rule is probably for the same reason. Doesn't take many people to split up big orders into lots of <100 to really snarl up the technology.
Is there possibly more to that NYSE rule than that? Seems you could get the same result buy bidding/offering a penny ahead. Is there some AUTOMATIC execution involved? Any isn't there a published description of the NYSE rule? I looked a while ago and could not find it.
Does anyone know if IB has settled with the NYSE regarding odd lot trading? I see they just settled with the NASD for other violations.
hans, we all know you love PD as every one of your posts mentions them. As for IB and the NYSE. There is nothing to settle. Unless IB internalizes the odd lot flow, I don't think anything is going to happen in this area. If you recall, odd lots can get priority and thus with orders of say 99 shares you can get on top of the book. The NYSE does not want this and IB will comply. Perhaps there are ways to get around this but in the end, IB is not catering to the odd lot traders and thus it serves no purpose to fight the NYSE on this one.
def "If you recall, odd lots can get priority and thus with orders of say 99 shares you can get on top of the book." Funny thing is, every time I place an odd lot sell order (less than 100) to close positions, it ALLWAYS takes 2-3 times as long as an order for over 100 shares. I know because I've done this hundreds of times using TWS. Odd lots take anywhere from 5 sec. to 1 min. to execute, sometimes more, so I don't know why the NYSE calls it "getting priority". I really like TWS/IB, but this "no odd lot" issue is becoming a problem for me. IndexTrader
i'm not up on all the rules with odd lots. The specialist may not fill you right away but I beleive when that happens they often get you a better price. In general you'll get faster fills trading even lots.
IB is a direct access broker attempting to service active traders. It can not and does not attempt to provide solutions for all types of traders if it is to mainain the 1/2 penny to 1 penny per share fees. Some compromises must be made. So, if you're looking to trade BRK, you'll have to go elsewhere - unless you've got the really big bucks.
According to the notes for build 769 of the TWS, IB will now accept odd lots of NYSE marketable orders. Non-marketable orders need to be smart routed.