Price of Order Execution

[no_free_lunch]

I have noticed over the past few days some issues with the price my orders execute at.  It seems to be an issue only for canadian securities.  What I am experiencing is that I put orders in at the listed bid (both for my online broker and yahoo finance which is real-time).  The order doesn't execute.  I then have to move up my order a few cents before I finally get a fill.

 

For example, ALS.to was trading at $11.01-11.02.  I put in a buy order for $11.02, no fill.  Then $11.03, no fill.  Finally at $11.04 I get a fill.  However, when I go back and look, orders were executing between $11.01-$11.02 during that period where I couldn't get a fill. I don't even see any trades as high as $11.04 anywhere near where I purchased.  I know there is something about an order maker but I thought that only applied if I tried to price below the ask.

[Gregmal]

Not sure if this applies to your case, but often times with foreign securities, the broker will have to do currency conversions or cross exchange transactions, in which they mark up your securities. So if you put in an order at say, 11.02, its not going to work, vs 11.04 perhaps that covers the currency exchange, plus the purchasing of the shares(or taking from inventory) and placing an ADR in your account.

[no_free_lunch]

Thanks Gregmal.  In my case i am Canadian, my broker is Canadian, the account is Canadian dollars, etc.

[Hielko]

Are you sure you are looking at real-time bid/ask quotes? Yahoo Finance is 20m delay I think?

[no_free_lunch]

I know, that's what i thought.  But that was hours ago (between 2-3pm Eastern) and when I look at the data for that period I don't see any trades above $11.02. 

[Spekulatius]

I know, that's what i thought.  But that was hours ago (between 2-3pm Eastern) and when I look at the data for that period I don't see any trades above $11.02.

 

So your trades, which executed at 11.04 were not logged. This sounds like your order went on a different exchange that isn’t shown in the yahoo or your Brokers data feed. I would look at your trade ticket to see in what exchange your trade executed and see if there is something unusual.

 

FWIW, I had GTC order execute outside the bid ask spread in some cases (it was below, so no complaint). I think this can occur due to the fragmented nature of the current stock exchanges.

[no_free_lunch]

Thanks for the feedback. I will track the exchange down when j gave a bit more time.