Price never went near 21.88 (the average highest price for the week, no less) - see attached chart. Like I said, the OP got seriously screwed on this one, and better think hard about ever doing something like this again. Good Luck empee, as you can see, nobody really gives a shit. But I could have told you that already.
Odd lots don't print to the tape. Plus 21.88 is < 10% off the opening price so most likely you would never ever get that busted due to busting policies at exchanges.
By the way, who is to say that the best offer right at the open was not 21.88? And if the original poster sent a market order in, he was willing to accept any price. Just because the official opening price is some number says nothing about where the best bid and ask are at the very moment an order is submitted.
-I have an experimental account I test strategies with. I bought a small odd lot of DGIT today at the open with a market order.- consider what happened part of the experiment you are doing perhaps you could do it again ( odd lot nasdaq mkt open ) and if you get another bad fill then you would have more evidence that this strategy does not work for you
Another point that doesn't make sense is according to IB market orders don't fire until the primary exchange opens. I purchased the stock in a scottrade account and got filled at 9:30:06 at the opening print, I got filled on this order at 9:30:01; so unless Scottrade erroneously reported, I got filled BEFORE the primary exchange opened which is against IB's policies. Luckily this is an experimental account so its not a costly error (and why I experiment). I have tried OPG and have seen no difference in my fills; I believe some exchanges dont accept OPG via IB also (I havent used them in awhile so I cant remember). While its classic IB not to care/be helpful, I've never had a problem like this, obviously one solution is to use limit orders, I could use IB algo order to buy, etc. You are right, you're really on your own. I have already moved 80% of my main business from IB; the only accounts I have left are this experimental one and one other because of IB's capability for special combo order types. Thanks for everyone input. I guess another reason to move from IB as I have been doing. While the $$ was insignificant, I'm was just really upset and that I thought this would be an issue they could clear up immediately, instead their tenor was rude and condescending, and in the end I think this fill is not only outside the market, but violates their own rules (I got filled before the primary exchange opened). When I try to explain this they use illogical arguments like look at their website(?) for more information. They directed me to their webiste -> individuals -> trading -> order types -> odd lot. Here it says: IB prohibits odd-lot opening orders from being routed to NYSE Arca. (This was a nasdaq order tho). Ultimately, its just really unbelievable a broker could justify this fill AND charge me $50 (because I filed a bust request) which was ultimately denied; which is a sad case for the exchange. On top of that, classic IB arrogance and attitude on such a ridiculous issue.
OPG orders work for NASDAQ and NYSE (not sure about AMEX) and you do get the opening price (on Nas anyway). Let's be honest - sending a market order to execute at 0930 on a not-very-liquid stock isn't something you should be practicing. I've had bad fills before with IB (much much worse compared to this) and IB has always fixed the bad fill without me even bothering them.
Yes, IB will not open an odd lot position on ARCA (neither NYSE nor NASDAQ). You can close odd lots on ARCA. So maybe what happened was the best offer was some reasonable price on ARCA but since IB prohibits odd lots to ARCA it picked the next best offer which was far away from the market. Now you can argue that this is not the way the order should be routed, but you are also saying "get me out immediately no matter what the price" when you send in a market order. Maybe IB should redo their market order logic such that odd lots become limit orders at the best ask if they cannot be filled because of particular exchange restrictions. However, I can see cases where that would not be what I intended when submitting a "market" order. So now you know how IB treats odd-lot market orders, you can decide whether you really want to risk a market order or not.
I think you're probably right, this sounds like exactly what happened (yikes!). Or in this case "get me in immediately, no matter what the price", but the analogy still holds true. Sounds good, thanks for taking the time to make your explanation. With a fill as bad as this, it's up-in-the-air whether or not empee was nailed by some opportunistic broker (even if the tape does have a lower price, if that horrible fill is anywhere near an offer price, it could have been executed legally), and charging him $50 for a fill bust request AND denying it is just plain wrong. I'd take the entire episode as a lesson learned and move on. I've had similar experiences with the futs, and only use limit orders now, in fact as your recommend in your last paragraph. So good luck empee, may you have a good trading week and put this experience behind you.