Good thread. Not knowing how SMART routes the order, if Timberhill is taking a first look at a substantial amount of customer's orders then they could essentially be one of the biggest PFOF equivalent considering the huge amount of professionals using IB. Potentially one of the biggest frontrunners by volume.
You do realize that Timber Hill no longer is a market maker in the US (and for the record for what the firm and I have stated repeatedly over the years, even when TH was making option markets, it never traded against IB flow) https://www.businessinsider.com/two-sigma-securities-buys-us-options-business-of-timber-hill-2017-5
Def do you have statistics on the execution performance for Options? Stocks statistics have been published.
Sorry, I don't have anything I could publish but will check with your US side to see if we obtain an external audit on that side.
Question: is IB’s smart routing effected by a small cap stocks relative volume? For example, if a low float stock has big news and is moving up fast, does IB limit the speed/timing at which stocks are bought and sold relative to previous day volume?
I don't understand your question. But IB does price-cap orders and so you may want to enter or exit at a certain price but IB won't let you. Their price-capping algorithm is horrifyingly bad when you want to trade a fast moving position that has low liquidity.
Thanks for the reply. I seen a popular Youtuber talk about having an issue where IB took over a minute to buy a couple thousand shares in a small cap stock that had high volume. He mentioned that he called IB and they told him that they limit how much stock an individual can buy in a company based on former days relative volume. So, if a small account has multiple times it’s normal volume on a given day, IB will only buy so many shares then wait to fill the rest of the order for a given time. After reading this thread, I was wondering if IB really would do that (which would make day trading small cap stocks impossible with them) or if it was one of his Smart routing settings that gave preference to something else other than speed. He was definitely using the smart routing feature. Thanks again.
I have never heard of that before but it wouldn't surprise me. IB has lots of methods to try and control risk. It would probably be worth your time to call someone at IB who might know.
In general, at the beginning of work in any industry, it would be very useful to discuss this with someone who understands something in this industry.