How can HFT "teleport" in front of me, albeit with all their coding magic, when I've placed the trade YESTERDAY? No change was made in either price or quantity, so I really should have been close to the front. What's more, it wasn't even a large order!
Smart route with futures should not delay your order and place inline, unless the order is not placed on the exchange order book. You can try asking your broker if the order is sent to a dark pool first and then to the exchange or directly there. They might not respond, which is not a good sign. I'm also not an expert on futures exchanges, but I think orders can be crossed without clearing the book. I also think that broker orders with size can trade though the electric book. You should check with the exchange to see what their policy is.
That would be my expectation too, but it's possible for a broker to get a 1st look at the order to see if they want to cross it with their own trading desk. I don't know anyone that does that, yet.
CME uses a bunch of different matching algorithms that vary by product. Spreads are even different from outrights. You never say which product you are trading so it's impossible to address your question. If you are trading small size in a pro-rata contract then, yes, you will be last to fill.
Sometimes the amount of misinformation in ET is simply mind boggling Price banding for each market http://www.cmegroup.com/globex/files/PriceBanding.pdf Refer to http://www.cmegroup.com/confluence/...tching+Algorithms#MatchingAlgorithms-Pro-Rata for the keys and more explanation