Bitstream,
Your problem with IB SMART arises because many securities tend to cluster their trading on ARCA as opposed to ISLAND, yet SMART will still prefer routing non-marketable orders to ISLAND. I have seen many examples of this problem. This could be solved by allowing each user to customize, for each ticker symbol, the SMART default routing destination for non-marketable orders. This change would greatly improve the performance of IB SMART for all traders, and particularly for yourself. A well-designed IB SMART would probably perform much better than what you are now doing. Why don't you see if you can get support from other customers, and with their support, ask IB to make the change?
Your problem with IB SMART arises because many securities tend to cluster their trading on ARCA as opposed to ISLAND, yet SMART will still prefer routing non-marketable orders to ISLAND. I have seen many examples of this problem. This could be solved by allowing each user to customize, for each ticker symbol, the SMART default routing destination for non-marketable orders. This change would greatly improve the performance of IB SMART for all traders, and particularly for yourself. A well-designed IB SMART would probably perform much better than what you are now doing. Why don't you see if you can get support from other customers, and with their support, ask IB to make the change?