Paying the spread on Interactive Brokers

S

stepseazy

Hey All,

I'm getting killed paying the spread on Interactive Brokers. I use the SMART order system. At my previous broker, I could usually put an order in that was halfway between the spread. Can someone please tell me what is going on before I change brokers, AGAIN. Thanks.

-Steps
 
Is this live trading (i.e. real money) or paper?

Paper trading at TOS fills you almost instantly where ever you put the order between the bid/ask. It's unrealistic to expect this in live trading.

My live trading orders frequently take hours to fill.
 
Live. 10-100 contracts. I'll try waiting a bit longer but I used to get fills much quicker was filled quickly on optionsfirst and i've even had to leg into spreads when paying the spread. I figured maybe it was the Smart ordrs that was letting me down. I also have had to modify orders to get filled and I don't quite understand the modify cancel fee on ib. I don't want to use market orders but so far I might as well have.
 
I'm only really familiar with fills from TOS and IB. I'm with IB and I have friends with TOS. We've compared notes on the same trades and seen similar fill experiences at least on these 2 platforms.

This isn't just for single option fills but fills on complex (3 and 4 leg) spreads as well. On complex spreads the bid/ask can be quite wide, but I always start at the mid. Sometimes I get lucky and sometimes I have to start moving the order around to get a fill. But if my order gets too close to the natural, I just bag it and look for other opportunities.
 
Ok thanks that was helpful. I guess I will try to be a bit more patient. I was wondering how the smart order would show on the exchange. I mean obvious it can't show up on more than one exchange so I assume then it goes to the most liquid or the e change with the best bid ask spread. I just wonder if you can do better picking the exchange yourself. Actually I was thinking if going tos. The software is just so much bettr you can really analyze. I already use the tos software to graph spreads. I haven't yet used the scanners but they look good. But I am running a bit blind as far as portfolio diagnostics. Maybe I will have two accounts since I want to trade other products as well do a partial acats.
 
consider putting some of your trades in as limit orders. Of course the tradeoff is, you get better fills but you miss a few entries.
 
Quote from TraderZones:

consider putting some of your trades in as limit orders. Of course the tradeoff is, you get better fills but you miss a few entries.
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I think he is already using limit orders.
 
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