IBKR Smart route and order fills.

[TheBigShort]

I trade with IB, and am guilty of using their SMART route for my orders. Recently, my buddy has been copying a few of my earnings trades using Questrade. His position sizes are smaller than mine but he is getting MUCH quicker and slighlty better fills.

Some reputable posters on this site have mentioned that the "SMART" route is only smart for IB.
Interactive Brokers has populated the first few pages on google regarding their smart route and there are alot of non reputable people encouraging smart route (Difficult to get a true opinion). I am mostly trading multiple legged option strategies on both US and CAD exchanges + individual equities.

Also from reading @Robert Morse posts, there is alot to learn about market making and how orders both complex and single legged are routed. Could anyone provide a book/paper that's up to date on this topic?

After doing some reading on this topic I will admit that I feel like a fish leaving WAY to many half dimes on the floor.

 

[SPYAlgoTrader]

been seeing horrible fills on SMART as well in paper trading and put moving account to ib on hold

 

[Robert Morse]

Most of our clients use our smart option route but we also offer the choice of routing to the exchange of your choice for the same commission rate. Our smart route avoids most maker/taker fees/rebates and is preferred by most traders.

 

[qlai]

been seeing horrible fills on SMART as well in paper trading and put moving account to ib on hold

Options?

 

[TheBigShort]

Most of our clients use our smart option route but we also offer the choice of routing to the exchange of your choice for the same commission rate. Our smart route avoids most maker/taker fees/rebates and is preferred by most traders.

Hi Rob,
Have you looked into how IBKR smart route is strucured? There are a few people on this site who are against it (posts from 2008-2012). Are there any rules of thumb on which exchange you should route your order to if you decide not to use SMART route?

 

[TheBigShort]

https://speedtrader.com/order-routing-and-how-it-affects-your-trading/ For those interrested, this did a good job at explaining some concepts

 

[qlai]

Guys, you are mixing options and equities which are different animals. Please narrow this for best feedback.

 

[elt894]

we also offer the choice of routing to the exchange of your choice for the same commission rate

On this page under "Options Routing Fees" it looks like there is an extra $0.20-$0.62 fee for direct routed orders, depending on the underlier. Am I misinterpreting something?

 

[Robert Morse]

Hi Rob,
Have you looked into how IBKR smart route is strucured? There are a few people on this site who are against it (posts from 2008-2012). Are there any rules of thumb on which exchange you should route your order to if you decide not to use SMART route?

I can only guess about IB, and I would prefer not to. We offer LVX at IB with SMART routing in addition to our offering at Wedbush, where we have more control of service/support and commissions. I can tell you that our SMART router in not "smart". Most are not. Most are designed to route to a DMM to reduce costs and avoid fragmentation to 15 option exchanges all with different price structures. Honestly, I would use our SMART route to take liquidity and choose an exchange with limit order away from the market. C2 offers the highest rebate. This reduces fees and I have not had one complaint about quality or speed of execution with our SMART route.

 

[Robert Morse]

On this page under "Options Routing Fees" it looks like there is an extra $0.20-$0.62 fee for direct routed orders, depending on the underlier. Am I misinterpreting something?

You are not. This is for only Lightspeed Trader only where we are not tracking maker/taker fees yet. On Sterling Trader Pro, Realtick and Silexx, those pre-set fees do not apply. I can have them waved for some of my accounts, and track maker/taker fees.