Why is it so hard to get fills with options when using SMART ? typically, if the market is locked with bid=ask on smart, I get no fill and IB just keeps my order green but does nothing ! So annoying. I wasted 15 cents yesterday that way. What I did was to add new option lines to ISE and AMEX. Then pick the 'best' one manually. I know you can reroute from the 'smart' but if you don't know where to, it's useless. Am I the only one with no execution, while the market is there ? PS : I also tried 'market' instead of limit order. even worse on the 'smart' routing. I got a fill below the bid (I was selling).
You placed an order to sell in a locked market; i.e. market was 5.50 X 5.50 and you sent in a market order and were filled @ 5.40? Not a good idea; probably routed to the next best exchange on the bid @ 5.40. I am not even sure if that is legal, but I wouldn't do it unless I was trying to dump a disaster.
If the market is locked it technically isn't there; your fill ratio on a locked market is typically not that high.
tnt: could imagine the following: if you trade more contracts than auto-ex, or auto-ex on the best exch reflected in SMART is off, ib routes the order to the default exchange (opt: ISE, stock: island), where it will of course sit in the book waiting for nothing.
I doubt if that is the problem; other than the odds of auto being off in a locked market are 10 to 1.
If you are trading size that exceeds the auto limits you probably will get a better fill in the crowd.
...the question is if IB's smart routing would also consider these facts. i would say no. probably "stubborn ISE routing then"
IB's routing doesn't have a lot to do with it; if the market is locked you are trading outside of the standard rules. If you are trading real size; the same applies.
I had this happen twice yesterday as well, and other times this week. I was selling at the ask and the bid was a nickel less. The bid moved up (with autoex) to create a locked market, still no fill. I waited about 5 minutes, then cancelled the order and resubmitted using BEST - it still got routed to another exchange and sat. I then manually typed a new order routing directly to the exchange with autoex on the bid and got filled instantly, size was no problem.