If you trade the SPX.... you need to trade through a floor broker. We use LakeShore when we trade the SPX... and the fills with the floor broker are always MID or better.... most of the time better. Identical spreads on ToS or IB... just sit.... There is a market within the electron B/A on the SPX because it's pit traded... so what you see on your screen.. may not even be close to the real market. The real spread on the SPX.. is about .15 But you see on your screen as much as $1.00 Use a floor broker if you're serious about the SPX. Now.. NDX... is both electronic and pit traded... so the spread is much tighter. But I will say we still use the floor broker for OTM NDX options for fills. The spreads are much wider.. OTM.. and they (floor brokers) can work the volatility in these positions with the market makers for better fills. We have also found that using ThinkPipes....instead of ThinkorSwim's platform... smart routes the orders much quicker and better. ThinkPipes is the professional platform of ToS... a little less user friendly, but much more powerful. Hope some of this helps, Murray
Murray, I'll check into ThinkPipes, but you may save me a little time. Is this a retail trader avenue?
Did not get burned. And 'freaky friday' looked to me like nothing more than the big guys exiting their positions 30 minutes prior to mkt close last Friday so that they did not take home any risk. That last 30 minutes was the 'tell' that indicated a pretty good chance that the selling would not continue into Monday.
Actually I had call spreads which were starting to make me nervous. The sell off was a welcome pull back