At the last trader's expo I asked the IB guy how orders were routed to the NYSE floor and he said it was through their DOT system. Redi+ is an order entry system... similar to RealTick, etc. Direct+ (or NX) is the ECN that the NYSE is testing. Most NX orders bypass the specialist and the clerk. One thing to be aware of... the specialist will often fill an order without updating the bid/ask size. So you might try to NX an order when there is enough size shown but you never get filled. I believe that NX is only for orders > 100 shares and < 1100 shares, and you can't place two NX orders in the same stock on the same side of the market in less than 30 seconds. Fletch
Direct + is not being tested..it IS in effect. Just make sure that your order entry vendor offers it. I trade NYSE and have not tried it yet. But it is automatic. It is for orders up to 1,099 shares. here is the pdf file on it: http://www.nyse.com/pdfs/nysedirect.pdf