It seems to me with many brokers you can't reasonably & profitably buy at bid & sell at ask, because the broker is in charge of your order flow, and almost always steps in (by offering fraction of a penny price improvement themselves, or through some third party) when they assess it's the type of stock worth playing this market making game. Do you know of any broker that does not take over your order flow. and/or that gives you a fair chance to buy at bid & sell at ask?
Maybe you should rephrase your question. If your broker gives you routing options then you can route an equities order to any ECN - your order sits directly on the ECN and will be matched/executed using their order handling engine (per ARCA). If you route to a market maker then that's another story... If you're talking about options contracts order flow then I have no idea...
Thank you for your response. The reality is, that I don't think my question is relevant because the order is almost always filled by a buyer of seller whose broker doesn't take the order flow, and routes it properly to the exchange(s-.
If you feel your broker is either delaying the order by going through the price improvement process or is parking your order on an exchange that benefits them more than you, you can direct-route your order at IB (in return for a larger commission),TDAmeritrade, and likely others.
there are plenty of DMA brokers that offer retail accounts. ours is at Genesis - but there are many many more.
I've bot a lot of modestly liquid stocks a penny above bid or sold a penny below ask through IB. If you're best bid or best ask and someone wants to transact, you're filled.
If there is an advantage with IB, it could only happen if they would do the following: they route the orders of their customers who are buying and their own customers who are selling to the SAME exchange, so that they stand to become coutnerparties*, and DON'T step in the middle themselves by offering fraction of a penny price improvement. *or at least that way they get you a bit closer to first in line. Certain brokers buy not only don't do this, but buy up other brokers (even for high prices), I believe, mainly to make money on the order flow--for their own advantage. It seems to me you are saying IB is not doing this with Timerhill, and I hope you are right.
I'm a simple kinda guy. I don't know what IB does or who the counter parties are or what they do or what IB does with Timberhill. If I offer to buy a penny over best bid and my bid holds, I'm j ust that first in line. No advantage. Just best bid until someone goes a penny higher than me.