Like most stockbrokers in the UK, we do execute orders through the RSP network. Here’s how that works -
Non-order book trading
Private investors trade shares through stockbrokers. Brokers typically request prices from a number of market makers called RSPs who offer prices in “retail” (relatively small) sized volumes.
The price supplied to you by a broker is the best price they have been quoted by the RSPs they deal with. These, in turn, are based on the price available on the London Stock Exchange’s order books. Traditionally, you can only trade via your broker at the price supplied by an RSP and unexecuted limit orders are warehoused by the broker and not displayed to the entire market.
quote from the London Stock Echange’s website
When it comes to best execution, we’re required by the regulator to provide that for our users which means -
Best execution is a standard which takes into account a number of factors including price, certainty of settlement and speed. But fundamentally, it means we do our utmost to get you the best available price on the market at the time.
quote from this blog post
As we explained in today’s blog post -
Sometimes trades can get rejected because the price quotes we get back from the market makers aren’t good enough based on the observable prices against big orders on the LSE order book.
This is part of our commitment to best execution, a regulatory requirement for execution-only brokers.
So hopefully this isn’t a cause for concern.
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