SPY options problem at IB

R

roncer

Well I once again had a SPY option trade on this morning and when I transmit my order to cover ..............nothing happens. I am trying to sell and have a limit order placed at the bid price but nothing happens. So I keep clicking, re transmiting the sell order, about 5-10 times and still nothing. So I cancel this order and place another sell order at the market. Still no fill. So after clicking the market order a number of times I again cancel the order and I am about to enter another new order for my third attempt when 2 fills pop up. Now I have been filled on 2 sell orders and that makes me short..........but I was only trying to cover my original long position.........Whew! So now in order to get flat I must cover this 2nd short position. Well this time I am able to exit immediately at the market.

So what has happened here is I have tried to cover (sell ) my original long position for a profit but was unable. And now with this 2nd unwanted short position I am able to cover but I now have a net loss. I call IB (via...questions about a trade you received desk) and an apparently intelligent fellow answers but gives no name. I tried to explain and asked if he could check time and sales for the time of my original order entry and price but he immediately insists that it is my service provider that is not functioning correctly and will not check time and sales.

I have been with IB now for about 8 years. And I have very actively day traded futures and stocks on the TWS during this period and never had any problems such as this. However working with SPY options has become rather troublesome as this type of delay on a fill has happened a couple of times before and also using market orders in general often seems to have a slight time lag before execution. It seems like they are nibbling a bit. FWIW..............anybody else experiencing such things??

Ron
 
IBKR needs to boost EPS and they will do whatever it takes including holding orders causing you to lose money and pay extra commissions. Perfectly legal though.
 
IBKR = IBs ticker symbol.

I don't know the exact nature of your problem this morning, but I can commiserate with because of similar problems I've had.

Many if not most of my SPY option orders are routed to Philly. This exchange is notoriously slow, at least on the IB platform. I believe that they hold orders as well, but I can't prove that.

I've had the experience of cancelling a SMART order routed to Philly, only to have it fill immediately. I believe that either the order had already filled earlier or that Philly was holding the order. So, in this case not only do I get an inferior price, but it automatically counts as a cancel towards a potential cancel fee.

Meanwhile, IB collects great order flow pmts. from Philly. IB used to default to ISE. Long after that changed it was still listed as the default exchange on IB's website. ISE was a very fair exchange and I would guess that it still is. However, I guess that ISE's order flow pmts weren't as good.

Such is the nature of the business.
 
It just happened again...........13 secs before recieving a fill on a market order on SPYTW. And again it cost me money.

However this time the guy (zack) at IB went to time and sales and is also calling the exchange.

It's taking a long we will see if they will correct themselves.
 
This sounds weird.

Please send the order particulars (time, size, price, series) to help@interactivebrokers.com and put mg101 into the subject line. That way I'll get the email and we will check it out.

IB does not hold orders.

Thank you.
 
You get the NBBO no matter what exchange you send the order to. There is no advantage for any exchange to hold up an order since a simple check of the NBBO would give you the correct price. I dont use IB but there is no advantage for them to hold your order or give you a bad fill. On a side note, aside from the ISE Philly's electronic sysem is the best, thats why the NASDAQ bought them. 10 years ago it was not a strength of Philly.

If you send an order I am sure its time stamped electronically and that will guarantee you the NBBO. There is no way for IB or any exchange to get around that rule. Pushing send many more times in on you.
 
So Zack at IB, after calling the exchange regarding a 13 second time lag on my most recent order, had the following comments to make. I taped what he said and will try and duplicate his comments exactly:
" These SPY options are not fully electronic traded like the emini's. The exchange receives the order and if none of the market makers there step up then the order is often sent to another exchange. They are re-routing the order to get the best price. In your case is was sent to the NYSE but it was not filled there and came back. This delay took several seconds. This is called a linkage order and there are some delays with linkage orders. When the order came back it went par (or to the crowd) and then it came back from the crowd and was almost immediately filled electronically. I don't beieve that this is set-up to be exclusively traded electronically. There is a croud invloved, their is an auction involved, and they're market makers involved so it's not going to be traded like the emini S&P. I asked the exchange if this kind of delay could happen mulitiple times in one day and they replied yes. I don't know why you think this has something to do with IB!"

So these were the comments. What to do?

Ron
 
You called the Exchange, which exchange? and they said it went to another exchange? LOL Something sounds really fishy with this story

I dont work for IB but I can tell you right off the bat the SPY is fully electronic all over the place. PLus as I said you are retail and you get the NBBO so as soon as you hit send and create a time stamped order you can figure out what your price should be.
 
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