I'm using IB's TWS and in the past any time I did a straight buy or cover order on a short where I gave a limit price 5 cents or more outside of the ask/bids, TWS always waited until it could find my price before executing. But when I did the same thing on a short -- giving a limit price about 20 cents outside the ask/bids (I only wanted to go short if support was broken) -- TWS instead seemed to execute at the market. Is this an IB issue or normal behavior?
They are no different... Limit order = my price OR BETTER right now; STOP limit order = "support broken" ---> "my price or better"; Don't blame them...
OK, thanks, that makes sense, but then how would I do this: a stock is in a downtrend and hits a continuation pattern between 29.80 and 29.95. Rather than doing a short within it because I don't know if it might bounce back up out of resistance, I want to short at specific price, say 29.75. Is it possible to place that kind of a limit order beforehand and only have it execute if the specified price is hit or do I have to place the order as it happens?