Webull’s Commitment to Execution Quality

Webull understands how important getting the best execution on orders is to our clients. That is why every month we commit to performing a rigorous review of our execution quality data and market venues which we route orders to.  We base our routing decisions solely on the quality of execution a market venue provided during our review, we never base our decisions to route to a market venue based on the rebates we receive from them.

The commitment to our clients and ensuring you are receiving the best execution on orders starts from the top down. We evaluate a few different key metrics to determine how order flow will be routed. Let’s define some of the key metrics: 

• Price Improvement (PI): The gross amount of price improvement received. This is the notional amount of price improvement received from shares executed at a price better than the NBBO. 

   

• Effective/quoted Spread (EQ): The effective spread divided by the quoted spread. An EQ of 100 indicates an order was executed at the bid for a sell order and at the ask for a buy order. An EQ of 0 indicates the order was executed at the midpoint between the bid and ask. This means that the lower the EQ the better. 

• Execution Speed: Time in seconds from when the order was received or routed to trade execution time. 

• Execution Efficiency: This determines how much additional liquidity orders received which may not have been executed had they not received it. For example, if the ask only has 100 shares available at a specified price and you submit an order to buy 200 shares, if you get filled on 200 shares you received 100 shares of additional liquidity.

These are just some of the metrics we consider when evaluating where to route your orders. Our goal remains to provide high quality order execution by rigorously evaluating execution data, identifying opportunities for improvement, utilizing better technology, and improving methods by which orders are analyzed. 

Webull’s Commitment to Transparency

We believe that all traders and investors should have transparency into how your order is executed behind the scenes after you press the submit button. That is why we made the commitment to publicly display our execution quality data on a quarterly basis.

How your orders are routed and filled

Step 01

An equity order is placed.

Step 02

Order is distributed to Market venue or security exchange based on routing allocation. Routing allocations are solely based on execution quality provided.

Market venues consist of liquidity providers and market makers. While securities exchanges are entities registered with the SEC which act as a marketplace for securities transactions among market participants.

*For example, if a market venue A has a 10% allocation, they will receive 1 order out of every 10.

Step 03-A

Marketable:

Includes Market Orders and Marketable Limit orders. These types of orders are considered close to the current market value.

Step 03-B

Non – Marketable:

Includes Limit, Stops, and Stop limit orders which are far away from the current market value.
Order type, size, symbol, and order submission time can all have an effect on execution.

Step 04

Order is filled. Most orders are executed instantly. However, orders that are away from the market or are for a large quantity may take longer.

Retail Execution Quality StatisticsExecution Data* for Q3 2024

*SOURCE: STATISTICS PROVIDED BY S3 MATCHING TECHNOLOGIES. S3 is an independent company and not affiliated with Webull Financial. Statistics displayed represent S&P 500 market orders of various size buckets, excluding orders received during locked, crossed, or fast markets. Individual destination results deemed to be unusual by S3 may be excluded from data. Further information provided on request.

The possibilities of Price Improvement and Liquidity Enhancement

Price Improvement

To better understand what Price Improvement is and how it affects your orders we first need to understand how National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) is quoted and displayed. The NBBO is, under SEC rules, a quote that reports the highest bid price and lowest ask (offered) price in a security, sourced from among all available displayed quotes.

Now that we understand NBBO, let’s talk about how a Price Improvement opportunity can exist.

While the NBBO is the best quote that is displayed publicly, some market participants may choose not to display their orders. If a market participant chooses not to display their order, they have the option of executing their order through a securities exchange or ATS (Alternative Trading System). This allows the order to be posted anonymously and away from publicly displayed quotes. Market venues and liquidity providers are able to access this non-displayed liquidity, for potential price improvement on your orders. Additionally, when executing orders as a market maker, a liquidity provider is often willing to trade at better prices than the NBBO.

You submit an order to buy 100 shares at $5 a share.
NBBO: Bid 4.95 Ask. 5.05
Order filled at $4.95 a share
Price improvement received = (100 shares x 0.05 Price Improvement)

Receiving liquidity enhancement on an order can be beneficial for the execution of that order. Liquidity enhancement is the total eligible shares executed At or Better than the NBBO, divided by the lesser of the # of Shares ordered or the market volume. Here is an example of what liquidity enhancement looks like:

You had 200 Shares that were executed at or better than the NBBO. Market volume was 100 and your order volume was 200. This means that since you were executed for the full 200 shares while the market volume was only 100, you received 2x liquidity enhancement.