IB TWS Not executing...once in a while

R

risktaker

I've had several instances where 10 minutes after market opens (9:40 ET) I'll send in a market order for an ETF (today was KCE) and TWS just sits there waiting and waiting and the f%^&*ng price keeps moving 10, 20, 30 cents from me and it won't fill!

This never happens after 9:45-9:50ET but in the first 10-15 minutes of trading. Again, it's *market* not limit order but it does not execute. I cancel and re-enter the order but it still does not go through! Maybe 5-6 minutes later.

Pisses me off and it's happened several times in the last 2-3 months. Had it happen with symbol XME as well a while back and it cost me too.

Anybody else can confirm this problem??
 
It is not unusual for an Amex issue to take 10 minutes or more to open, especially for something thin like most ETFs. I don't think IB will route a market order to a secondary liquidity source before the open. That would be extremely risky.
 
Quote from risktaker:

I've had several instances where 10 minutes after market opens (9:40 ET) I'll send in a market order for an ETF (today was KCE) and TWS just sits there waiting and waiting and the f%^&*ng price keeps moving 10, 20, 30 cents from me and it won't fill!

This never happens after 9:45-9:50ET but in the first 10-15 minutes of trading. Again, it's *market* not limit order but it does not execute. I cancel and re-enter the order but it still does not go through! Maybe 5-6 minutes later.

Pisses me off and it's happened several times in the last 2-3 months. Had it happen with symbol XME as well a while back and it cost me too.

Anybody else can confirm this problem??
More...

Yes, it happens because the PRIMARY market has not opened the ETF (It may be because the specialist wants to "pick off" people on the open). Try to direct route the trade (i.e., not SMART) and click on trade outside of RTH box. That may work.
 
Yes, you guys are probably right about primary exchange no having yet opened the ETF for trade (though 10 mins into the day!) and I have TWS NOT to trade outside of RTH.

As for the status light, it does turn green.

Thanks guys. Next time I'll mess with the RTH allowance to see if that does anything.
 
I can confirm that you should place orders as GTC and allow execution outside RTH. That's just about the only way to ensure that some ETFs execute. SMART gets stuck at times.
 
This problem indicates either a bug or flaw in the SMART router, or perhaps a problem of documentation and communication, which can and should be diagnosed and corrected. If bugs and flaws and misunderstandings of this nature are permitted to accumulate, as they have done at times in the past, then SMART's performance will gradually (or abruptly) deteriorate over time.

You should open a trouble ticket and tell us what happens.
 
Another possibility is that there are not actually trades being made, but bids approaching asks (for example) and then the asks being moved up before they're hit. I've seen this with small volume stuff, and pretty much with everything on those sticky market days (like the end of last week with a quad-witching Fri.)
 
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