I dont know why i never asked this, but sometimes when i trade, like today, i bought to cover 200 shares of a stock and I made it a limit order of 12.17 It came back that i got filled at 12.1699. I notice this alot actually. Another stock i got was 21.5975. Who is getting these fractions of a penny?
who is getting my partial pennies?
- Thread starter peilthetraveler
- Start date
It's like Superman 3
(Office space ref.)
(Office space ref.)I believe Michael Bolton created the algorithm, but he put the decimal place in the wrong spot 
I was wondering this too. I have seen fractional pennies on NYMEX contract trades also. My guess would be the automated shops out there that arb prices and have servers co-located at the exchanges for extreme speed and volume. Interesting subject that doesn't get much attention.
Here are a couple of examples..
Bought 1 QM 97.400002
Sold 1 QM 100.074997
Sold 1 WTI 99.699997
Here are a couple of examples..
Bought 1 QM 97.400002
Sold 1 QM 100.074997
Sold 1 WTI 99.699997
Whenever i get fills like 12.1699 instead of 12.17 my statment says that i only payed (# of shares) * 12.1699 so in that case they would actually go to you (if the trade is in your favor otherwise they go to whoever is on the other side of the trade)
My broker is scottrade. Actually when i was trading with Bright, i dont remember ever seeing partial pennies, but nevertheless, im getting them now. I would say that maybe 10 to 15% of my trades are like this. The stock i was talking about today was VCI But it can happen with pretty much any stock i buy or sell. No idea why.
Happend all the time when I used Scottrade before. This has been discussed before on ET.
My guess is perhaps they can boast on "price improvement"
Haven't the slightest idea if/how this happends on the nymex.
My guess is perhaps they can boast on "price improvement"
Haven't the slightest idea if/how this happends on the nymex.