No way it is the NBBO. I am talking about $1+ wide spreads in $40 billion+ market cap stocks.The IEX is displaying the NBBO, the same as the other ECN's. Maybe look into using 'primary peg' type orders to get better fills.
You keep alluding to other exchanges, brokers, etc.The trades I have done on the IEX have not seen a different NBBO or better fills at the other ECN's. IEX does a great job at midpoint fills - and is great at no price improvements right after the trades - meaning your not sitting on a losing trade right after it is filled like you often get on the other exchanges. I would ask your broker to give you a snapshot of all the ECNs NBBO & fills when the trade was made to get a better idea what happened.
Thanks!If you want: give me the symbol/date/time. Easy enough for me to pull up the NBBO & fills at the highest volume ECNs. Why do I bring up other ECNs? Because the NBBO (N=National) is from all the ECNs via a consolidate exchange quote feed - see SEC rule NMS 611.
Not an expert on this -