I have my hotkeys for sell limit and sell stop right next to each other. In a hurry I've hit the wrong one, adjusted the price down (below market, 'cause it was supposed to be a stop) and entered to have it sell immediately. Hate it when that happens. JPB
If you send IB's TWS a BUY limit order for a price well above the current trading price, TWS just seems to treat it as a market order. Since, you are in essence saying, "I will buy it at 1000 or better" when in fact NQ may be trading at 990. So, ok, you get filled immediately at the current asking price. I don't understand why this has to be that way. Why can't TWS figure, "Hey, wait a minute, why would anyone put in a LONG limit order above the current price?" The software should just throw that order out!
I have tws set to trade 1000 shares by default. Once I changed the buy order line to 2000 (forgetting to change the sell line as well), and when I sold it I forgot that it was defaulted to 1000 and was wondering why my P&L was still going down after the sale. By the time I caught up with it I was down almost half a grand. It was KLAC and the damn thing had just fallen off a cliff. Plus it was a Friday so I had all weekend to remember that boneheaded move before I had the chance to earn my way out of it.
What if there was news on a stock and you really wanted to put in a limit order way outside the market to take as many shares as you could get? Seems like IB shouldn't eliminate functionality in order to protect against order entry mistakes. By the way, there is a Percent field under Configure-->Percent where IB will not transmit orders that are a certain percentage off the current market price. Carl
aphie, I have to agree with Carl's example, and I also think you're misunderstanding an important use of the Buy-Limit order which, when placed above the ask, TWS properly interprets similar to a market order (although it's really a series of limit orders). I frequently use them to "sweep" orders and make sure I'm fully filled. That is, stock ABC is trading at 35.43 and it's a fast moving market, I'll place a buy-limit at 35.50 knowing that the software will try to fill me at 35.43, then 35.44, etc making sure I get my complete order. I certainly wouldn't want TWS to interpret my order any other way, as what I'm saying is fill me now!. Why not just use a market order? Because many exchanges (i.e. ISLD, Globex, etc.) don't accept market orders. Anyway, as Carl suggested, you can set a percentage default to protect yourself against horribly mistaken orders.
I see your point. I hope to see the day when I trade such size that I need to place a limit order several ticks above market.
IB is not limiting functionality in any way. The very basics of placing orders tells us that (when buying): - limit orders are placed BELOW the market - stop orders are placed ABOVE the market All a limit order does is "ensures that the customer will not receive an execution at a price less favorable than the limit price." Hence, if the market is at 900.00 and you place a "buy 910.00 limit" then you are telling your broker to "buy at 910.00 or better". You have to realize that in "the old days" when all retail orders were phoned in, the market can easily move above or below your stop/limit price in the time it takes to relay the order into the pit. Some of the better brokers will call you to confirm if a stop or limit order was way too far away from the current market in case you made a mistake.