IB does not show any information on clients stops to Timber Hill or anyone else. You allegations above are 100% FALSE. Please read my previous comments and statements.
Stop hunting has been around forever. Make mental stops or keep your trading stops on your side of the server. Problem solved.
Wrong about what? The text I quoted verbatim from IB's Web site (including, of course, that now-removed FAQ)? And if you say IB doesn't internalize order flow to Timber Hill (even though its disclosure clearly says they may do so), are your posts here a guarantee that IB won't? And will you post here again to revoke your claims if IB/TH "changes their mind"? Def's marketing-speak responses and apparent ignorance on the topic of internalziation and order management systems don't exactly give me much confidence in his "vehement" D) denials. As for IB's high-volume customers (if any such actually exist), to a certain degree they're getting what they deserve if they don't do their own DD. If that means they end up getting shaved by unknowingly feeding liquidity to Timber Hill, I guess that's part of life we have to accept in a world with a somewhat toothless SEC.
You state that you chose not to use IB. Could you please explain why? We try to give our customers the best possible and cheapest possible fills. That is the service we are offering.
We have just changed the commission schedule. The API directed stock order pricing does not apply to the directed native pegged stock orders.
IB strives to be a one-stop shop. Could you please explain addition of what flexibility would improve the quality and cost of the fills and why?
IB indeed does not implement all the order types the various ECNs offer. Instead we opt for putting as much logic into 'Smart' as we can for the following reasons: - in the constantly changing fragmented market place we want the trader to focus on making trading decisions instead of worrying about where he should route his order to get a good and low cost fill; the latter is the service we provide - there are too many ECN order types to fully understand, implement, maintain and support (by the customer service); if one takes into account that majority of them would not actually be used by our clientele, offering them would not be economical
My clients have to close their IB accounts because IB apparently doesn't know how to margin a futures spread correctly. They have also complained in the past about IB not offering the exchange supported implied futures spreads - I do not know if that is the case any more. But I do know that the Chicago FCMs take their business, and the Chicago FCMs surely know how to apply the SPAN inter and intra-commodity margin credits - even on an intraday basis.
Here is a reply I received from IB just a few days ago: Here also for reference is their earlier reply on their new illiquidity surcharge:
Just read through the entire thread and I'm still confused.. Does Timber Hill have any visibility into all SMART orders regardless of whether they are the execution venue? I assume that as part of the 'price improvement' logic, the order would have to be transmitted to them to see if they can fill the order at a better price, right? I'm not contending that TH would actually make it a policy to trade against IB's customers, but assuming they are given visibility of all the SMART orders, it would be theoretically possible, right?