order distance value (SB question)

Thaumaturgus

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Hi, I am very new to SB, and I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on this exchange:

Me to SB Company:

I was wondering what was the reason for the restriction on entering limit orders at a level inside the spread. I noticed this when trying to enter a limit order over the weekend at Friday's closing price.

I don't have those numbers to hand now, but to take a current example (during market hours), the "mid" price (per your quote) for Microsoft is 23.88, and a "buy" order cannot be placed between 23.75 and 24.01.


SB Company to me:
For orders each market has an order distance value which is the distance from the current market price that an order can be placed. We do try to ensure that the order distance value that we quote is relatively tight.

Explanation accepted, but what I am having trouble understanding is why the SB company imposes this restriction. After all, with a conventional broker there would be nothing out of the ordinary about placing a limit order, either at the mid price during market hours or at the closing price of the previous session after the market has closed.

Any takers? I have omitted the name of the SB Company because I don't really want responses of the form "Because SB Company are a bunch of shysters". I'm sure there must be a business-related reason for this policy and it would help me understand SB better if I knew what it was.

Thanks in advance.
 
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