IBKR ATS Orders

Customers can direct U.S. stock orders to the IBKR ATS destination to add liquidity. Orders directed to IBKR ATS are automatically tagged as "not held" orders, and are posted in IBKR's order book where they are eligible to trade against incoming SmartRouted orders that are marketable against them.

A variety of order types are available for posting liquidity in IBKR ATS, including Pegged-to-Midpoint, Pegged-to-Best, Relative/Pegged-to-Primary, and Pegged-to-Market, as well as priced limit orders.

Pegged-to-Midpoint orders directed to IBKR ATS are unique in the industry as they allow for positive and negative offsets, with rounding instructions for when the effective price falls on a whole or half minimum tick increment. This allows for greater customization of your order and allows it to compete more effectively with other Pegged-to-Midpoint orders that are resting in the IBKR ATS.

Also unique in the industry, Pegged-to-Best orders allow for directed orders to IBKR ATS to compete not only with the prevailing NBBO, but also with other orders resting in the IBKR ATS, up to the NBBO midpoint.

Direct IBKR ATS routing can be used in conjunction with a number of IB ALGOS such as Accumulate/Distribute, along with the order types described above. Find out more about the Accumulate/Distribute algo.

Directed liquidity-adding orders to IBKR ATS whose effective price would match or cross the opposite side NBBO are repriced to be 1 minimum tick increment away (less aggressive) from the opposite side, except for Pegged-to-Midpoint orders with positive offsets when the NBBO spread is one cent, in which case the order would be repriced to the NBBO midpoint.

All orders directed to the IBKR ATS can be specified to rest in IBKR ATS for a fixed period of time, after which they will be rerouted as a SMART order.

Directed orders to add liquidity to IBKR ATS may also specify a minimum quantity that indicates the minimum size contra side order that the directed order is allowed to interact with. For example, a customer may direct a liquidity-adding order for 10,000 shares with a minimum quantity of 1,000 shares. In this case, only Smart Routed orders with a size greater than or equal to 1,000 shares will be allowed to trade against the directed liquidity adding order.