order size at IB

Discussion in 'Order Execution' started by zenith, Mar 14, 2006.

  1. zenith

    zenith

    Anybody sends orders to buy 5000 or 10000 shores of stock on Nasdaq or listed as I single order? Or am I crazy to think it's ok to do this?

    I'm opening account with IB and curious what is the largest amount of shares I can send as one order. I'm talking about very liquid stocks by the way, and trading usually in the morning.

    What is your experience with IB or Cyber?
     
  2. newfool

    newfool

    Did that. Went without a hitch (Smart routing). $25 for a 5K lot though.
    :)
     
  3. alanm

    alanm

    No issue with IB (or any other functional DAT broker) in this regard. If it's marketable, and there's enough size on the other side of the market, you generally get a near-instant fill. Unless that size is on the NYSE or AMEX only, of course, in which case it's subject to the manual delays of those markets. In that case, you may want to route to an ECN to get a better fill. None of this is particular to IB, though.

    Naturally, a 10K share order is more expensive at $0.005/share ($50) than at a broker that has a per-ticket/unlimited-share price of $15, but that gets overshadowed if they slip you for just a penny ($100) in the process.
     
  4. fhl

    fhl

    Was under the impression that 10,000 shares was the max order size at IB. Could be wrong.
     
  5. alanm

    alanm

    Quote from fhl: Was under the impression that 10,000 shares was the max order size at IB. Could be wrong.

    No apparent size limit imposed by IB, though there appear to be limits on some of the exchanges/ECNs. Testing with orders to buy ATAR at 0.01, the limits are:

    SMART 500K (routed to BRUT)
    INET 50K
    BRUT 500K
    ARCA 500K
    BTRADE 500K

    The individual venues reject orders over 50K/500K. If you send a SMART order over 500K, though, it hangs light blue. Perhaps it thinks it can route to SuperMontage when it's open.

    NYSE may be able to accept orders of at least 2.5M shares. I tried to buy ATS at 0.01 after hours and it did not reject the order immediately, though I don't know if it would when it finally gets sent there.

    Yes, I'm really bored :)
     
  6. fhl

    fhl

    alanm,
    Thanks for clarifying. If you are bored again sometime, is it same for booktrader as entering directly on tws?
     
  7. nassau

    nassau

    You can place any size you like but will find you get part filled alot and need to adjust your price in some cases to get filled.
    I have bought and shorted 5k and not had a problem with stocks like ie dell, intc,nvda..but nyse good luck.
    I have had larger positions 10kplus and have had to exit in part otherwise you will find the market will move away.

    w
     
  8. INET only 50k? Wonder why.

    Maybe to avoid error trades.

    Be careful with those tests, you may have a brain fart and enter that as a sell.

    Then you'd be owned.