Here's a pretty obscure order execution question. I'm trying to get filled on a sell order for a thinly traded stock on NYSE. I should be at the head of the queue because my order was inside the spread when I entered it. The reported last trade is above the spread, so it looks like no trades have executed since I entered my order. However, the volume keeps ticking up, in fact several trades have executed since I entered my order. How are these trades occuring without changing the last price and without hitting my ask? To be precise here is the situation: Before I entered my order: Bid 1 @ 10.22, ask 2 @ 10.25, last trade 10.25, volume 24,300 shares. I put in a sell order for 800 shares. The market now looks like this: Bid 1 @ 10.22, ask 12 @ 10.24, last trade 10.25, volume 25,100 shares. Who is getting filled, at what price, and why don't they have to trade through me? Thanks, Martin
Post the stock and date/time of this, I will try to look at it on my machine later. Your broker, regardless of commission level owes you an explanation. el surdo
Easily: 1. someone posted a limit sell order 6@10.25 right before you did 2. a couple of trades occurred say 7@10.25 and 1@10.25 (leaving your size in the queue) 3. More aggressive seller stepped down showing 12@10.24 4. You see your 1 x 12 10.22 x 10.24 Look at T&S, and unless you data feed is shit (which is very true for IB), you'll see the whole picture. Remember, when you look at the quote window, you only see a small fraction of what actually happened - black boxes are blazing fast. Personally, I use market orders only because I'd rather pay the spread (if it's reasonable) than skip a good opportunity...