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I'm often asked how to get good fills with IB. So first, it is important to understand that getting good fills is critical in short term trading. Trading is a business. As in any business, prices are involved, and our profitability of success will always depend on our ability to get good fills. Every business revolves around this cost equation.If getting good prices was so easy, there wouldn't be any markets/any business... Before placing a trade, always observe the prices for a while. Here is an example how prices are presented in IB: This is an example of a calendar spread where the mid of the long leg is 11.25 and the short leg 10.25. So the real mid of the spread is 1.00. However, since the bid/ask of the spread is 0.90/1.40, IB presents the mid of the spread as 1.15. This is not correct. Please always calculate the real mid based of the mid of the individual legs. After you observe the mid for a while, place an order slighly below the mid (for buy orders) or slightly above the mid (for sell orders). When you place GTC order, sometimes It doesn't get filled. While if you change it into a limit order (during active market hours), sometimes it gets filled even though the price is same as in GTC. Sometimes just "pausing" the order and resubmitting it would get filled. "Playing" with the order by changing it by 1-2 cents sometimes helps. Changing the order from SMART to specific exchange, for the same price, can work as well.