Which ECN to use for MKT & Stop loss orders?

I mainly trade the highest weighted stocks in nasdaq and dj30 and was advised by my prop firm to use ARCA since it routes out to other market centers in the event of no liquidity on the book. I'm curious if people use ARCA for this reason in order to obtain the best market price available.

Slippage sucks even more when your order skips price points because you are forced to route thru only one ECN, skipping better available prices. However, if ARCA is able to add/route more liquidity at will then I suppose this is my best option.

There were some other ECN's that say they scrape LIT (lv 2 visible, non dark pool orders) however, I was advised against using those as these ECN's may change their configurations without prior notice.

 

ARCA and EDGX are the best for fills.

NSDQ is pure shit. You get filled from the first bid/offer on the book and the rest pull.
Complete garbage

 

I like the IEX simply because I hate the predatory HFTs.

 

I use the IEX feed, their order book is too thin to route to them consistently.

 

You may find IEX is better if you give it a try. Just like comagnum said, it helps you avoid the HFT canceling their orders in other ECN book and then placing them on worse price for you, your pain is their gain.

 

Thanks I'll look into it. I was also advised to check ALLINWT as this apparently will fill the best price?

 

Provided you can set up a synthetic stop that is held at your server I would suggest you send the order to an SOR once fired.
Another option would be to send it to IEX Router. They have a logic to eliminate time delays in routing.

If you have to send it natively to an exchange, you can submit it to EDGX/BATS with a ROUX routing strategy that will fill as aggressively as possible. But this will be held at the exchange and you might get frontrun by colocated traders.