IB's has a short list which is useless to say the least. last week out of 9 stocks I was trying to short only 1 is available to borrow. Same thing happened this morning when i was trying to short ADVP and APPB neither is available. Those folks who are using Datek, Cyber, Mbtrading and a few others had no problem at all. yes, the commission is cheap at IB but what is the point if you can't play when opptunity comes? I missed the shorts today and I lost 3% profit on each of them. If Datek, MB, Cyber and others has the inventory to borrow why doesn't IB have it? I am considering open a account wiht either Datek or Cyber just for shorting.cheers
I've noticed my orders get filled fast if a movement goes against me (down when I buy or up when I sell short), but go unfilled when the market moves in my favor. Now I'm not pointing fingers at InteractiveBrokers.com, because I'm newbie daytrader, It just seems suspicious. Anyone, am I being cheated? And if so, who's cheating me? Please respond by email: RayBailey2@aol.com. Thanks in advance.
I think fast fills in that case can be explained more simply: panicked sellers are nailing your bid or greedy buyers are nailing your offer as they see prices moving away from them (and toward you).
This used to be possible by using REDI or ARCA until about two weeks ago when IB decided to take that functionality away from their customers by disabling all active order routing features of those two ECNs. If you use BEST or BEST_ECN to enter a short sale on a downtick IB holds back the order and does not display it to the market at all until there is an uptick which it then will try to hit. I still hope that IB will reconsider this decision as it blatantly contradicts their mission statement of providing their customers with the best and fastest means of execution possible. Otherwise I'll be moving my short-term Nasdaq trading elsewhere.
Def please could You check with IB if they will give us back the shorting possibility like it was (also mentioned here by dlincke)? if not, I also, have to look for another broker. thanks for all Your help eli
What?!! I am new to IB and stunned to read that IB disabled ARCA and REDI smart routing capabilities for its customers! This is hard to believe. ARCA 's ability to follow the bid by 1 cent is great for short sales. Now I would like to know if this means I can't even use ARCA or REDI to hit several ECN's since by the time my order is sent some of the ECN's may be replaced by a MM in which case the order would be canceled instead of going through SNET. I would like your feedback regarding IB's shortlist too, is it that terrible,( haven't shorted yet with IB). Thanks
You cannot use ARCA/REDI to hit anything anymore except orders on their own books. All marketable orders without corresponding liquidity on the internal book are rejected. As for their short list, in my experience it is excellent for NYSE stocks but at times spotty for some Nasdaq stocks.
I don't get it! Would IB want its customers to use its Best ECN's routing instead of using ARCA and REDI capabilities?! I noticed that IB tries to promote or at least recommend Best and Best ECN, it's sure better to attract new accounts from online discount brokers. Anyway this decision is very questionable, we should complain en masse.
Why even bother pressing the bid, you won't get filled anyway.. The proper way is to short into rallies/squeezes, there you can even put an offer a few cents above inside offer and still get hit. If your trading on 15min chart, short into rallies on the 3min chart, if trading the 5min chart, short into rallies on the 1min chart, etc etc. Much easier this way.