Among all the other things I've learned on SO, getting better fills has been one of them. I use IB and TOS, fillls are about the same. I almost never get into SO trades at the open for the official price, but I don't chase very much, not over 1% at first. If I really want into the trade, I may chase a little more the next day. Usually the price comes back to the official but sometimes not, I'm not in the BABA trade and I thought it would be a good one, but by the time I was willing to chase more than 1%, it was too late, might still come back. But when I first joined, several people told me they were usually in trades before they became official and that they were doing SO style trades of their own. THAT is what I wanted to do and am doing now. Sometimes I'm in a trade already and the official comes out for a cheaper entry, Aaaacccckkkk!!! But that's still the best way to beat the "better fills" problem. Learn to do your own trades in the SO style and it won't matter if you can match the official trades.
@Mattatut Sounds like you need to really work on allocation and hedging. I've read up a lot on both and if you have a big retirement chunk, you really need to diversify in and out of the market. I cannot put my $ in the market as long positions. I'm a "the wheels are coming off" personality, I can't believe our economic system has survived this long with all the blows it has taken before last year's Corona Zombie Apocalypse much less afterwards. So I'm thinking more like a prepper these days. I have absolutely no faith in any government or organization or group or ideology that we can keep things going as they are, so I try really hard to watch for when the Sword of Damocles will part the restraining hair and down it comes.
Moral of the story, give yourself time, and enjoy the education and community of SO, you'll figure out all the nuances of this kind of trading sooner or later. If I've learned this much, you sure can.