Questionable execution at Scottrade

October 15th, 2015, 02:20 AM

I had a protective buy to cover stop limit order for my stock that was filled right at the market opening. The statement shows it got executed at 9:30:00. The problem is that despite being filled at a price within my stop limit window, the stock didn�t come even close to that level during those seconds. Looking at the intraday chart using 1 sec time intervals I see the stock was more than $1.5 away from the execution price. I complained and the customer service guy said that the one second chart only shows transactions at the end of each second, not what might have happened within that second, therefore the chart may still show prices quite away from my execution price.

That�s one thing. The other thing is the bid - ask spreads they show before the market opening are outrageously wide. As the opening comes closer, they tend to get narrower, but some stocks still have wide spreads until market starts. I knew this may jeopardize my limit orders, but still had few GTC orders in place. After that event, I stopped entering orders before the opening and all are just for the day.

Has anybody else had experiences like this? What�s your advice?

Thank you,
Corto

October 15th, 2015, 01:39 PM

What's the ticker and the exact date time? I can check my database and see what I show.

Mike

October 15th, 2015, 01:54 PM

PBYI executed on 10/02/2015 at 9:30:00 at $76.84.

Thanks,
Corto

October 15th, 2015, 01:58 PM

Corto

PBYI executed on 10/02/2015 at 9:30:00 at $76.84.

Thanks,
Corto

Here is every trade on Oct 2 2015 between 9:29:00 and 9:30:59 (1 minute 59 second window). You can also see the current bid/ask.

Your trade is the third one.

Code

MariaDB [ticks]> select * from `PBYI` where `Date` between '2015-10-02 09:29:00' and '2015-10-02 09:30:59';
+-------------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--------+--------------+-------------------+-----------------+
| Date                    | Last     | LastSize | Bid      | Ask      | TickID | BasisForLast | TradeMarketCenter | TradeConditions |
+-------------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--------+--------------+-------------------+-----------------+
| 2015-10-02 09:30:01.613 | 75.69000 |     1868 | 74.83000 | 76.95000 |   7882 | C            |                 7 | 8A              |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:02.816 | 76.70000 |        3 | 74.85000 | 76.95000 |   8241 | O            |                 7 | 87              |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:03.322 | 76.84000 |       50 | 74.85000 | 76.95000 |   8317 | O            |                19 | 87              |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:04.438 | 75.90000 |        3 | 74.85000 | 76.95000 |   8438 | O            |                19 | 87              |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:04.708 | 76.81500 |       97 | 74.85000 | 76.95000 |   8459 | O            |                19 | 87              |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:05.498 | 76.81500 |        3 | 74.85000 | 76.95000 |   8590 | O            |                19 | 87              |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:05.513 | 76.90000 |       11 | 74.85000 | 76.95000 |   8592 | O            |                19 | 87              |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:16.285 | 75.86000 |        9 | 74.86000 | 76.86000 |  10590 | O            |                19 | 87              |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:17.190 | 75.12000 |        4 | 74.86000 | 76.85000 |  10730 | O            |                 7 | 3D87            |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:17.592 | 75.12000 |        4 | 74.86000 | 76.84000 |  10799 | O            |                 7 | 3D87            |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:17.593 | 75.12000 |        4 | 74.86000 | 76.84000 |  10801 | O            |                 7 | 3D87            |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:17.593 | 75.12000 |        4 | 74.86000 | 76.84000 |  10803 | O            |                 7 | 3D87            |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:18.384 | 75.40000 |        2 | 75.18000 | 76.86000 |  10888 | O            |                 7 | 3D87            |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:18.384 | 75.40000 |       10 | 75.18000 | 76.86000 |  10889 | O            |                 7 | 3D87            |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:18.658 | 75.40000 |        3 | 75.18000 | 76.86000 |  10911 | O            |                 7 | 3D87            |
| 2015-10-02 09:30:18.712 | 75.40000 |        2 | 75.18000 | 76.86000 |  10913 | O            |                 7 | 3D87            |
+-------------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--------+--------------+-------------------+-----------------+
16 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Mike

October 15th, 2015, 02:00 PM

Corto

Has anybody else had experiences like this? What�s your advice?

Your broker is likely selling its order flow, to make money on you. You should not use market orders if you want good fills.

Mike

October 15th, 2015, 02:19 PM

How come I could not see any transaction at those prices when I looked on the broker�s charting interface set for 1 sec? I cannot use those fine settings anymore to show you as it�s two far back, but the following day I could still do it and grabbed a screen shot and emailed to them, but they replied with the explanation I mentioned.

Regarding market orders, I have not noticed any problems so far; orders were filled quite decently.

October 15th, 2015, 02:26 PM

Corto

How come I could not see any transaction at those prices when I looked on the broker�s charting interface set for 1 sec? I cannot use those fine settings anymore to show you as it�s two far back, but the following day I could still do it and grabbed a screen shot and emailed to them, but they replied with the explanation I mentioned.

Regarding market orders, I have not noticed any problems so far; orders were filled quite decently.

You'd have to ask your broker. I provided you the exact timestamps of all trades.

Mike

October 15th, 2015, 05:09 PM

I'm totally impressed lol!!! Great work.

That's my contribution to this thread.

Otherwise, good luck sir

Questionable execution at Scottrade

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Questionable execution at Scottrade