A few points on the topic: 1) TMBR has been a HUGE plus for me. I have gotten fills from TMBR when I wouldn't have if going directly to the market mainly because of lack of size in the posted markets. I have not seen a case where I received price improvement yet. 2) If you are expecting price improvement at the NYSE then you should NOT use smart/best but direct the order to the NYSE. 3) I don't use smart/best for option routing so I have not experienced TMBR fills in this regard
You guys pushing the TMBR conspiracy theories should consider using marketable limit orders. I've never had a bad fill doing this and I don't care who's on the other side.
For Nasdaq trading TMBR is a real blessing as it tremendously increases the liquidity available at the inside - similar to PRIMEX when it was still included in SMART routing but without the nasty delay when there's no liquidity. Price improvements from TMBR are quite common too. In fact I've receive irrational fills by TMBR on size buys below the bid and sells above the offer a number of times lately. That's probably attributable to an inaccurate quote feed at TMBR, though. There seems to be a considerable amount of tweaking going on on a day to day basis as to the extent of auto-execution provided by TMBR. On the Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend TMBR seemed to provide full auto-execution on any marketable order. That of course was a real license to print money on certain NYSE stocks. Unsurprisingly, the next day TMBR proved to be not as generous anymore.
Where would be the problem ??? I even cannot see one -- what is the difference if your money is taken by NITE, MSCO -- or TMBR ?
Has there been a change in the way short sales must be entered with the new agreement? They must be designated as such? I have always just done a standard sale and IB knew if I was already long. If I was not, it is a short sale. Some guy on the discussion board at IB web site is making a big thing about this. Is this something I need to be concerned with?
you don't need to be concerned. The system will flag trades appropriately. The SSHELL flag is set for broker dealers and non-clearing customer who may carry positions elsewhere.
Well, that guy you reference may be me. But my point was that if we have to flag sales as short, then there should be a hot key for doing it, that's all. If we don't have to flag them, then I couldn't care less. However, another poster, in the same thread, wanted to know why that language was put in the agreement at all, if it wasn't meant for us. IMO, IB is not known for being imprecise in their written communications with their customers...seems to me that if that clause was meant for someone else, IB would have written it that way. ALso, I seem to remember that there is another clause in one of our agreements that says, to paraphrase here, that nothing an IB rep says verbally can supercede or cancel any part of the written agreement. You can *tell* us one thing but until IB puts it in writing, it has no force.