Interactive Brokers does not always execute my stock orders

Marc4711 · Sep 15, 2016

Hi together,

I have a question regarding execution of orders inside Interactive Brokers.
Hopefully somebody understood the concept and algorithm behind IB.

I`m a little bit confused because offen I place an order but the order will not be executed. If I look into the deep book, there is enough volume there to buy or sell the stocks and also the queue should not be the issue.

Is there something I have to configure?
Do I use the wrong order type?

Hopefully someboy can help me with that.

Best regards

stevegee58 · Sep 15, 2016

Is it a limit order or a market order? If it's a limit order, where is your order being placed in relation to the bid/ask?

Marc4711 · Sep 15, 2016

It's mostly a limit order, but I tried it also with market order or market order if touched. The order should be transfered to the exchange, says at least IB. If the price for limit is achieved the order will not or not directly be execited as described. I lost many trades.

JackRab · Sep 15, 2016

Which product do you trade... and what does IB say?

Marc4711 · Sep 16, 2016

I currently trade stocks. Nothing much. They cannot find something.

nonlinear5 · Sep 18, 2016

Marc4711 said:
I currently trade stocks. Nothing much. They cannot find something.

Post a ticker, exchange, time of order, and the limit price of the order. Without this info, it's difficult to anwser your question.

i960 · Sep 18, 2016

SMART routed?

JackRab · Sep 18, 2016

nonlinear5 said:
Post a ticker, exchange, time of order, and the limit price of the order. Without this info, it's difficult to anwser your question.

Yeah @Marc4711 , you're a bit skinny on the info here....

Marc4711 · Sep 27, 2016

Thank for your replies.
We spoke again with IB and there is no possibility.

Bob111 · Sep 29, 2016

no possibility of what?
from my expirience (i always used "smart" in the past)-if you are trying to BUY at bid (even on most liquid stock/etf) you ALWAYS will be LAST in line. and will be filled most likely, if someone steps on your bid(ie-the bid will became asking price) .specially true,if stock is about to move in "right" direction in really really short time frame.
i give up my very profitable "business" just because of that. cause most of the time when you right about the price and direction-you won't get any shares , or worse-1-2 shares and pay a full commission.

Now... little bit of topic here(or maybe not)- as i said above-i always used "smart" routing and currently working on system that will execute buy orders at ask and sell short at bid. spread is 1 cent on those securities and they are extremely liquid ETF's. manual entries for buying 2000 shares lot using smart at ASK produced very different results with commissions (unbundled schedule) range from $5.26 to almost $12 per execution
Question to fellow ET members: from your experience-what is the best way to execute such fairly large order and what can cause the difference in commissions(adding\removing liquidity?)
and! tips on maybe different\better routing? Any experience\help will be greatly appreciated! i'm planning to automate execution, using either my own or IB's algo for routing.
But as i said above- i don't know much about it.
Thank you!