IB 'Seek Price Improvement' option. Dark Pools?
- Thread starter Daal
- Start date
Not really.Timber hill is the trading arm of IB parent company. They are a large electronic trading desk that makes markets in options. If your order can be executed against their values, either single leg or complex order, they will trade all or part of the order with you. The advantange is that they might do better for you. The disadvantage is that no one sees that order until it executable.
It applies to stock. By default the stock smart router pings a few dark pools to get a fill. (The benefit is not only potential price-improvement, but also lower venue-fee). The few chosen ones are the ones that have the lowest latency and highest likelihood of a fill.
If you chose the option you inquire about, the smart router will try all the dark pools we have access to before routing to an exchange.
Our relationship is (for now) limited to liquidity-taking.
Please note that our Smart router gives you some of the benefit you seek. If you post a non-marketable order (which we route to a venue) and IB then subsequently receives a liquidity-taking order for the same stock, we will cancel your order at the venue and cross the two orders within our platform. Hence, your order provides liquidity to IB customers.