Why are my IB equity orders filled on IDEAL?

I

isaac000

I thought IB's IDEAL is only for Forex trading. But some of my equity trading are shown excuted through IDEAL as well. The commission for these fills are quite a lot higher than other ECNs like Island and Arca. Why is this happening? Thanks in advance!
 
I started getting NYSE Listed IDEAL fills in early November.
Roughly 2% of my fills are IDEAL.
I believe we have no choice in routing...
with "unbundled" one can only use SMART.

How do you know that the cost is higher?

I do not get any sort of breakdown of transaction costs...
Since I switched to IB "unbundled"...
Though it's definitely 35-40% cheaper than the previous $0.005/share... so I'm happy.
 
I have unbundled selected but i can choose the ECN to route to...HoundDogOne, are you sure you are limited to SMART routing just because you chose unbundled?

I've started noticing these IDEAL fills on NASDAQ stocks in my case. Commission does appear to be higher for these fills but it's quite rare that i get filled on IDEAL. To see commissions breakdown, go to Account management->Report Management->New Statements (Beta)
then open one of your statements. Unfortunately the breakdown doesn't show ECN charges separately from IB commissions.
 
Quote from giggollo:

I have unbundled selected but i can choose the ECN to route to...HoundDogOne, are you sure you are limited to SMART routing just because you chose unbundled?

I've started noticing these IDEAL fills on NASDAQ stocks in my case. Commission does appear to be higher for these fills but it's quite rare that i get filled on IDEAL. To see commissions breakdown, go to Account management->Report Management->New Statements (Beta)
then open one of your statements. Unfortunately the breakdown doesn't show ECN charges separately from IB commissions.
More...

I think you are correct.

I rarely set routing for orders...
Because I feel that SMART does a very good job.
Since SMART's efficiency is directly related to IB profits...
I'm sure they have their top 2-3 engineers assigned to the SMART routing algorithm.

It's "Non-Smart Routed API orders" that do qualify for "unbundled" rates.
 
HoundDogOne, this is straight from IB's website:

"only the bundled fee structure is available for Non-Smart Routed API orders."

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/commission.php?ib_entity=llc

I'm not surprised there is so much confusion surrounding IB unbundled commissions. Like I said on another thread, if IB is going to offer unbundled pricing, I think it's absolutely necessary for IB statements to show a breakdown of unbundled fees by "IB Commissions", "ECN", "add/remove liquidity", "SEC fees" etc...otherwise how can customers verify what they're being charged?
 
Quote from giggollo:

I'm not surprised there is so much confusion surrounding IB unbundled commissions. Like I said on another thread, if IB is going to offer unbundled pricing, I think it's absolutely necessary for IB statements to show a breakdown of unbundled fees by "IB Commissions", "ECN", "add/remove liquidity", "SEC fees" etc...otherwise how can customers verify what they're being charged? [/B]
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I agree, IB should break their commissions down. I've written a Perl script to deconstruct the commission into its component parts. It isn't a perfect solution, but it works pretty well. Of course it doesn't handle Amex specialist fees which appear to be unpredictable. So far I've found their commissions to be accurate, although I've been surprised at some of the times I've been charged for removing liquidity when market conditions made it seem much more likely that I was adding. I assume that they are just passing on what the ECN charged them.
 
Quote from isaac000:

Just sent my transaction details of these IDEAL fills to DAV. They are going to investigate into it.
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Got the following word from IB:
"Ideal is not just for FX, SMART may route your order to IDEAL and it is not more expensive."

So, IDEAL is IB's own ECN that's not just for FX but for equity trading as well? Are we going to see more IDEAL fills in equity trading in the future?
 
Historically, IB initiatives have driven down costs for traders...
So I hope to see IDEAL+SMART volume continue to climb:

My Stats

NYSE Listed (Small to Medium Caps) - 3,700,000 shares since November 13th

NYSE 92.9%
IDEAL 2.0%
CAES 1.9%
ISLAND 1.7%
SMART 0.8%
ARCA 0.7%

So IDEAL+SMART is now 2.8% of my share executions and climbing...
Higher than any other ECN...
Gotta be better than NYSE monopoly.
 
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