Suppose you're working a 2500sh order on a fast moving stock & small partials of your orders make 50-60% of your fills. Previously all these partials would be 1 ticket at IB, and the .70 unbundled min. charge doesn't matter.
Suppose you generate enough volume that you have a blended IB tier avg commish charge of .0015 ----or have that rate elsewhere.
Is this IB's new commish structure, if at a .0015 tier?
Buy 300sh=.70, Buy 200=.70, buy 400=.70, buy 500=.75,
buy 100=.70, buy 200=.70., buy 300=.70, buy 500=.75
The 2500sh order is now filled. Cost $5.70 on this new change.
= .00228CPS commish. a 52% increase over .0015.
25,000,000 shares a month*(.00228-.0015)= $19,500 more a month.
In an increasingly fragmented and faster electronic market, small partials are the standard now.Given that SMART will route, reroute, route, reroute reflecting this fact----you're almost guaranteed these minimum charges. This seems like quite a step backwards given today's environment.
My guess is IB is sneaking in a commission hike, and trying to reduce network traffic in one fell swoop.
I believe they'll do just that, but lose some of their most important clients doing so.
Also given the stiff direct routing charges from API, you don't have much choice but to go SMART, and certainly losing some control over partials. This type of change really backs customers into a corner, and also works to the detriment of IB as well.
I certainly hope this is not the case.