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Best Price for Options using SmartRoutingSM

Option traders who use SmartRouting can see which exchange(s) are offering the best bid and ask price. This information is displayed in the Bid Exch and Ask Exch fields on the Market Data line. Each exchange is represented by a single alpha character as defined in the table below. If multiple exchanges show an identical "Best" price offering, then multiple alpha characters are displayed. For example, if "ACP" is displayed in the Bid Exch column of a market data line, it means that AMEX, CBOE, and PSE are all offering the identical highest bid price (shown in the Bid Price column) for the option. Valid exchange abbreviations are:

Acronym

Exchange

A

AMEX

B

BOX

C

CBOE

I

ISE

P

PSE

X

PHLX

BT

BATS

W

CBOE2

Exchange abbreviations are always displayed in yellow. The Bid Price and Ask Price, Bid Size and Ask Size colors convey the following information:

Color

Description

yellowtext.jpg 

YELLOW indicates no change in price or size.

greentext.jpg 

GREEN indicates an upward movement in price or size.

orangetext.jpg 

ORANGE (or red) indicates a downward movement in price or size.

purpletext.jpg 

PURPLE indicates that the best price is not executing automatically at any of the exchanges displayed.

SmartRouting does not guarantee that your order will execute at the best displayed price. We display prices in purple to illustrate that some exchanges are not automatically executing at the best price, and that your order might execute at a different price. However, the availability of automatic execution updates with every tick.

Note: ISE always executes automatically, but may not always be offering the best price and may slow down their execution times in a fast market.

For more details on order routing and Smart Order routing, see the Customer Agreement on the IB website.