Icebergs
Iceberg orders help traders work larger orders when conditions are not ideal to reveal the entire order to the market. An iceberg order is an order containing both hidden and displayed liquidity.
This feature allows Participating Organizations, Members and investors to "book" their entire order - gaining convenience and assured participation - while only displaying a portion of the size in market information and trading terminal displays.
Benefits to Using Icebergs
- Safety – traders can limit information that is exposed to the market in order to protect against detection of their large interest
- Convenience - submitting the entire order at once relieves the trader of the task of submitting several portions and watching to see when they are filled
- Participation - having the entire order booked ensures the order's full balance is available to participate with any liquidity which enters the book
Moreover, Iceberg orders committed to TMX in pursuit of the above benefits also increase book liquidity and decrease price volatility.
How it Works
Traders may enter a large order of several thousand shares, but indicate how much to "disclose" publically, which may be as few as 100 shares or 1 board lot. Only the disclosed portion of the large order will be displayed to traders and the public, but all shares, up to the entire balance, are eligible to trade at any time after all other disclosed volume at the same price.
As the disclosed portion of the order is filled, volume from the hidden portion automatically replenishes the disclosed portion. If the disclosed portion is only partially filled, the remaining disclosed volume remains booked until fully executed, at which point the system will automatically replenish the volume to the original disclosed portion, repeating as necessary until the entire balance is traded. When an Iceberg order refreshes, it receives a new time-stamp, allowing other same-price orders an opportunity to move up in the time queue.
For more information, please see the Order Types and Functionality Guide or contact your TMX Account Manager.