IB vs Thinkorswim RE: price improvement

Quote from Option Trader:

Today, the difference between IB versus TOS, was 19.5235 (with TOS) versus 19.51 with IB, which was also the displayed price. Sold 400 shares with TOS, then another 400 shares 22 seconds later. The sale on IB was 5 seconds later at 19.51 at the displayed price of 19.51.

(Note: To support Jim Rockford, the sale with IB did NOT got to "smart" or "IDEAL" which means Timberhill, rather it went to NYSE.)

A minute later sold 100 shares with IB with displayed price of 19.53 at 19.53, then did the same with TOS and got 19.5435. The IB order went on NYSE again, and the TOS order went on ARCA.

Perhaps what is going on with IB smart route is that it's choosing NYSE displayed over ARCA displayed, and simply ignores ARCA hidden orders.
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What was the symbol?
 
Quote from Option Trader:

Today, the difference between IB versus TOS, was 19.5235 (with TOS) versus 19.51 with IB, which was also the displayed price. Sold 400 shares with TOS, then another 400 shares 22 seconds later. The sale on IB was 5 seconds later at 19.51 at the displayed price of 19.51.

(Note: To support Jim Rockford, the sale with IB did NOT got to "smart" or "IDEAL" which means Timberhill, rather it went to NYSE.)

A minute later sold 100 shares with IB with displayed price of 19.53 at 19.53, then did the same with TOS and got 19.5435. The IB order went on NYSE again, and the TOS order went on ARCA.

Perhaps what is going on with IB smart route is that it's choosing NYSE displayed over ARCA displayed, and simply ignores ARCA hidden orders.
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Thank you for sending me the symbol.

Your order was not routed directly to ARCA. Instead it was in-house crossed by ATD and just "printed" at ARCA.

To my knowledge, TOS sends majority of their flow to ATD. ATD executes some of that flow in-house (often w/ an improvement) and sends the rest out to regular venues.

As I already indicated in an earlier thread, we are working on establishing a connection to ATD.
 
Better hurry ib soft as think or swim is kicking the shit out of ib. There platfrom puts your 8 year old outdated platform to shame. Your interface is horrible and cumbersome as hell to use for active traders.
 
Quote from ESSTUD:

Better hurry ib soft as think or swim is kicking the ... out of ib. There platfrom puts your 8 year old outdated platform to shame. Your interface is horrible and cumbersome as hell to use for active traders.
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I don't think that's appropriate to say. IB definitely does have its share of advantages as well. And yes, this change would definitely make a difference for many customers. Thank you IBsoft in advance.
 
Quote from IBsoft:

Thank you for sending me the symbol.

Your order was not routed directly to ARCA. Instead it was in-house crossed by ATD and just "printed" at ARCA.

To my knowledge, TOS sends majority of their flow to ATD. ATD executes some of that flow in-house (often w/ an improvement) and sends the rest out to regular venues.

As I already indicated in an earlier thread, we are working on establishing a connection to ATD.
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IBsoft,

What about scanning for hidden orders on ECNs?

Suppose the best displayed bid is 54.51 on INET, but a better bid of 54.52 is hidden on ARCA. IB SMART will naively route a sell order to the best displayed price at INET, while ignoring the possibility of a better hidden price elsewhere, and so, SMART will not hit the hidden liquidity at ARCA in this example. Don't you think SMART should have a user-selectable option to scan the available destinations at progressively more aggressive prices, in order to find non-displayed liquidity (hidden orders, discretionary orders, black-box liquidity hidden off-exchange, etc.), before using the best displayed price?
 
Quote from freehouse:

In all fairness to IB, this blog entry in the Wall Street Journal states that there are now 55 different stock exchanges and trading platforms. Thus, it will probably be somewhat difficult to add all of these avenues to find liquidity:

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/03/05/all-these-exchanges-have-to-merge-someday/
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It would seem 5-10 of them would account for 90% of the business. IB has identified now how TOS does it.

Additional point (a critical one): A stock with low liquidity can be impacted by every buy or sell order. The additional routing destinations who offer price improvement it seems to me are using the prices on NYSE & ARCA as a baseline (even if the bid is only 100 shares in size on each) to determine the price improvement offered. The moment you hit the bid on the NYSE & ARCA you cause the price to crumble. But the whole time you are selling to these alternative destinations, they don't run away from you--so it acts as a buffer for you, and helps you get in & out of low liquidity stocks. E.g., today I sold 800 shares, 100 at a time on TOS with a 1.565 cent price improvement & the price stayed the same. The next order gave me no price improvement and knocked down the price. In short, this ATD has other critical advantages as well, especially in a trading world where the price runs away from you.
 
Quote from Option Trader:

It would seem 5-10 of them would account for 90% of the business. IB has identified now how TOS does it.

Additional point (a critical one): A stock with low liquidity can be impacted by every buy or sell order. The additional routing destinations who offer price improvement it seems to me are using the prices on NYSE & ARCA as a baseline (even if the bid is only 100 shares in size on each) to determine the price improvement offered. The moment you hit the bid on the NYSE & ARCA you cause the price to crumble. But the whole time you are selling to these alternative destinations, they don't run away from you--so it acts as a buffer for you, and helps you get in & out of low liquidity stocks. E.g., today I sold 800 shares, 100 at a time on TOS with a 1.565 cent price improvement & the price stayed the same. The next order gave me no price improvement and knocked down the price. In short, this ATD has other critical advantages as well, especially in a trading world where the price runs away from you.
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Agreed.
 
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