Barron's 2012 Top Online Brokers **** 4 Stars **** Excelling in Trading Experience and
Technology, Usability, Portfolio Analysis and Reports, Customer Service and Education
Best Execution through Smart Routing
  • Print

 

IB SmartRouting Overview

 

 

Place Trade Financial clients receive the benefit of best execution via our clearing firm.  Read more about the technology that saves you money above and beyond our deep discount commission and ultra low margin rates.

The Smartest Trades use IB SmartRoutingSM. IB SmartRouting searches for the best firm stock, option, and combination prices available at the time of your order, and seeks to immediately execute your order electronically.

Our statistics speak for themselves. Based on independent measurements, the Transaction Auditing Group, Inc., (TAG), a third-party provider of transaction analysis, has determined that Interactive Brokers US stock and options and European stock[1] price executions were significantly better than the industry[2]during the first half of 2010.

What other brokers conveniently leave out
Our results are even more impressive when you consider that other industry-touted statistics don’t give you the whole picture. They only note the percent of orders that saw price-improvement, and conveniently ignore the percent of their orders that were dis-improved or had no improvement. In contrast, our statistics are netted, showing the true bottom-line price improvement including all improved, dis-improved and unimproved amounts.

  • Unlike other smart routers, IB SmartRouting never relinquishes the control of your order. It continuously evaluates fast changing market conditions and dynamically re-routes all or parts of your order seeking to achieve optimal execution and maximize your rebate. 

  • IB SmartRouting represents each leg of a spread order independently and enters each leg at the best possible venue. 

  • IB SmartRouting AutorecoverySM re-routes your US options order in the case of an exchange malfunction, with IB undertaking the risk of double executions.

 

Net Dollar Price Improvement3

Net Dollar Price Improvement Chart

 

Our smart router takes into account transaction costs along with the fee or rebate for taking/adding liquidity when determining where to route your marketable order when the inside market is shared by multiple exchanges. For customers who want even more control of their orders, TWS customers can specify stock and options smart routing strategies for non-marketable orders. For stocks, customers with the Cost Plus pricing structure can elect to have their non-marketable orders routed to:

  • The exchange with the highest rebate
  • The listing exchange on the symbol
  • The highest volume exchange that has a rebate for adding liquidity
  • The highest volume exchange that charges the lowest fee for taking liquidity

For options, customers can choose to send their non-marketable Smart routed orders to the exchange offering the highest
rebate. These routing directives can be set on a per-order basis from the Misc tab of the Order Ticket, or as a global
default setting from the Smart Routing configuration page.

To modify your pricing structure, log into Account Management and from the
Account Administration section select Pricing Structure or call us at 1.919.719.7200.

Notes:
    • 1The TAG statistics for price improvement on IB orders routed to exchanges in Europe include all orders routed for execution during regular trading hours including all market and marketable limit orders and orders near the market (orders having a limit price within one-tenth of a Euro from the quote price at time of order receipt) on stocks listed on the included exchanges during the first half of 2010, weighted by the volume executed on each exchange. The exchanges are XETRA, EURONEXT, CHI-X, WIENER BORSE, TURQUOISE, LONDON and NASDAQ OMX.
    • 2Source: The Transaction Auditing Group (TAG). Industry as a whole for the referenced periods according to TAG.

      About TAG
      Since 1996, TAG has been the leader in independent Best Execution analysis throughout the US and now, Europe. Its products offer comprehensive assessment of execution quality for equities and options, utilizing massive real time market data and archival capabilities with proprietary measurement tools to create standardized and custom reports. TAG provides business intelligence to gain market share, differentiate from competitors, and validate performance.

      For more information visit www.tagaudit.com. The Transaction Auditing Group, Inc. (TAG), an independent company, is not affiliated with Interactive Brokers. The statistics provided by TAG are from sources believed to be reliable, but TAG makes no representation as to the completeness or fitness for any particular purpose. Information produced by TAG is copyrighted and any unauthorized use, duplication, redistribution or disclosure is prohibited.

3Net $ Improvement per Share Definition:
((# of Price Improved Shares * Price Improvement Amount) - (# of Price Disimproved Shares*Price Disimprovement Amount))
Total Number of Executed Shares

The routing flowchart tabs are intended to provide a general description of how orders are processed by IB Smart Routing systems, and do not encompass all of the routing logic employed by those systems. This information is subject to change. Please see IB's Order Routing Disclosure and Order Routing Disclosure for Canadian Stocks, and the related disclaimer for additional information.

  • In addition to IB SmartRouting, we also offer direct routing to your choice of exchanges around the world. See our Exchanges page for more details.

  • Our clearing firm (Interactive Brokers LLC) is a member of NYSE/FINRA/SIPC. Supporting documentation for any claims and statistical information will be provided upon request.

  • The analysis for stocks included all market orders of 100 shares or more up to 10,000 shares.

  • The analysis for options included all market orders with order sizes of 1 to 50 contracts.

  • For instructions on how to exclude specific exchanges from being considered in the order routing flow, see the TWS Users' Guide.

  • For a list of the destinations included in the Smart routing algorithm, hold your mouse over the Information balloon in the Exchange field of a TWS market data line.

 

s5box

S5 Register

*
*
*
*
*
*

Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.


Learn more about retirement planning by visiting some of the links below:

Roth IRAs

SEP IRAs

SIMPLE IRAs

Traditional IRAs

Qualified Plans

Rollover IRAs

Find out how Place Trade can help you get the most out of your college planning by visiting some of the links below:


Coverdell ESAs

529 College Savings Plans

UGMA/UTMA Accounts