Lobster, You are true on all counts. On correction through- IB no longer allows any trading of SPY on the amex at all which I think sucks b/c as you say, they are the most inefficient. Re the CBOE, I too have had spontaneous calls from IB giving me retroactive price improvements on SPX options hours later. However, this pales compared to the number of times a trade has gone off for hundreds of contracts at the same price I have been sitting on with best posted bid or offer with 1 lousy contract! BTW, I have looked long and hard. Has anyone ever seen a posted copy of the CBOE rule book?
I was told that IB is still working on this, but will send a bulletin as soon as native STP LMT Globex orders are available for all accounts. My account type is UNIVERSAL (base=EUR) and seems to have native STP LMT (for Globex). ( Source: Chat with IB_Help_HK )
You have to buy it (from the CBOE "store"). It's not expensive (around $10). I have a copy. It is also available (along with most other exchanges' rules) online at www.complianceintl.com, which has a free trial. I'm guessing the retro-active price improvements happen when a trade occurs outside the NBBO without sufficient reason, and the MM gets nabbed by the MarketWatch folks.
FYI a bunch of changes with IB stops with the current beta version. You'll be able to tigger them after hours if you desire and you'll be able to choose your trigger method (last, double last, bid/ask, etc). for more info, check out the beta release notes and perhaps try the beta. if you have comments on the beta, use the link on the site to mention them ASAP as you would have a chance to influence how they are implemented.
hi FX, stop limits are now officially native. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9184&perpage=6&pagenumber=3 moonriver