Hey All, I'm getting killed paying the spread on Interactive Brokers. I use the SMART order system. At my previous broker, I could usually put an order in that was halfway between the spread. Can someone please tell me what is going on before I change brokers, AGAIN. Thanks. -Steps
Maybe I am not being patient enough or something. I am used to being filled quickly halfway or a third of the right away.
Is this live trading (i.e. real money) or paper? Paper trading at TOS fills you almost instantly where ever you put the order between the bid/ask. It's unrealistic to expect this in live trading. My live trading orders frequently take hours to fill.
Live. 10-100 contracts. I'll try waiting a bit longer but I used to get fills much quicker was filled quickly on optionsfirst and i've even had to leg into spreads when paying the spread. I figured maybe it was the Smart ordrs that was letting me down. I also have had to modify orders to get filled and I don't quite understand the modify cancel fee on ib. I don't want to use market orders but so far I might as well have.
I'm only really familiar with fills from TOS and IB. I'm with IB and I have friends with TOS. We've compared notes on the same trades and seen similar fill experiences at least on these 2 platforms. This isn't just for single option fills but fills on complex (3 and 4 leg) spreads as well. On complex spreads the bid/ask can be quite wide, but I always start at the mid. Sometimes I get lucky and sometimes I have to start moving the order around to get a fill. But if my order gets too close to the natural, I just bag it and look for other opportunities.
Ok thanks that was helpful. I guess I will try to be a bit more patient. I was wondering how the smart order would show on the exchange. I mean obvious it can't show up on more than one exchange so I assume then it goes to the most liquid or the e change with the best bid ask spread. I just wonder if you can do better picking the exchange yourself. Actually I was thinking if going tos. The software is just so much bettr you can really analyze. I already use the tos software to graph spreads. I haven't yet used the scanners but they look good. But I am running a bit blind as far as portfolio diagnostics. Maybe I will have two accounts since I want to trade other products as well do a partial acats.
consider putting some of your trades in as limit orders. Of course the tradeoff is, you get better fills but you miss a few entries.
In the options world you'd never do market orders except as an emergency exit. I always enter and exit on limit orders.