IB - Order Execution Time

[alanb41252]

When using IB I very often find that it takes quite a long time to execute an order. In fact it takes so long that if the price action is rapid, then I miss my entry point altogether.

I manually transmit market orders by clicking on the "Transmit" button.

Is there a faster way to get orders through ?

 

[neil]

Try using one of the IB front ends like TSIM or Bracket Trader etc

 

[sidinuk]

The way to get a quicker execution is to change a limit order rather than enter a fresh market order.

So if you want to buy the ES at 1050 have a resting buy limit miles away at say 950 then just before you want to enter click in the price change it to a price greater than the market and click transmit when the price is the one you want. This will then get executed at the current ask quicker than a new market order would.

 

[al-motor]

Alan,

Funny enough i seemed to experince a slight delay today as well- not too sure what was going on, or if it wwas the shares that were traded ?!?


cheers
Al

 

[alanb41252]

I was trading US blue chips and execution time delay was more than SLIGHT. Bl**dy slow is all I can say.

 

[Trader333]

Alan,

Learn to use the shortcut keys, I have not experienced the problem you talk of and never have. Were these orders on thinly traded stocks ?, in fact which stocks were you trading ?


Paul

 

[alanb41252]

No Paul - they were not thinly traded. They were all Dow 30 stocks.

But yes, I'll look at the short cut keys.

 

[oatman]

I had a limit order "loaded" on YM and when I hit the button, nothing happened. I tried changing it but in the end had to stick a market order in to get the fill.
The other point of course is your internet connection :cheesy:
Mines only 64K.
Some days everything runs slow.

 

[sidinuk]

oatman, that happened to me today as well but it turned out to be user error! I don't seem to be able to mentally cope with numbers above 10,000!!

 

[oatman]

I had a LMT order in and changed it to MKT and hit the button, nothing happened. Only cost me a couple of points, but...............
it's not the principle, it's the money :cheesy:

 

[alanb41252]

At least it's better than Fin Spreads. Sometimes there when I want to trade, I click on the trade button and the whole website goes haywire. Very suspicious !

 

[Trader333]

Alan,

Dow 30 ? I have to say that I tried trading some of the NYSE stocks once and will not do again (other than SPY) precisely because it could take up to 30 seconds to get filled. So were these Nasdaq stocks or NYSE or something else ?


Paul

 

[alanb41252]

Yes, mainly NYSE stocks and yes it can take up to 30 seconds for a fill. It varies between instant fill and around 30 seconds which is crazy. Why is that do you think ?

Nasdaq stocks are much quicker.

What is SPY ?

 

[Trader333]

Nasdaq is all electronic where-as NYSE stocks use specialist firms which is why there may be a delay. On another board I read that a California based pensions company is taking several of the NYSE specialist firms to court because of the abuse of their positions. The sort of things they are accused of is front running orders, freezing the quote while they fill their own internal orders, failing to match orders with those already in the market and then taking the other sides themselves and even price manipulation.

So if you take that into consideration you can see why you get problems sometimes. It is funny because I only needed 1 experience with NYSE to decide it wasnt for me.

SPY is the stock that mirrors the ES and is hugely liquid. The advantage is that you can scale up or down with SPY where-as with ES you have to buy in complete contracts. The other advantage is that the spread is is a lot narrower which again is better for getting in and out of the market.


Paul

 

[alanb41252]

Paul

I trade NYSE blue chips as well as Nasdaq stocks.

I find it is really easy to make consistent money on a number of the blue chips despite the delays in order filling.

That's why I continue - plus it is also a more relaxing way to trade than with some of the more violent movers on the Nasdaq.

But I will take a look at SPY and if you could suggest some nice movers on Nasdaq which aren't going to leave me in bits, then I would be grateful

 

[oatman]

I'm not surprised what you say about the front running etc. It's always been going on in all markets.
We used to joke that the only way to get a fill in NY was to cancel the order.

 

[Trader333]

Alan,

The Nasdaq stocks that I trade are different on any given day. The criteria that has been given by others on here is a good start such as

stocks > $15
At least 1 million and preferably 1.5M shares per day
Spread 1c to 2c
Daily range of $1

Personally I am not a momentum trader and I look for value instead which is serving me well. I also tend to find trades that suit my style more in the evening session rather than the afternoon.

If you have a strategy that works well on the S&P Mini then SPY is great to trade as it does not have wild swings and is easy to get filled either in or out with spreads of 1c

Paul

 

[jonnyy40]

Which is the best option,Paul?
SPY S USD SMART
AMEX
ARCA
INSTINET
ISLAND
NYSE
PRIMEX

 

[Trader333]

For trading SPY I would just use SMART


Paul

 

[jonnyy40]

Thanks