Is it possible to put a restriction on payment for an order flow without placing a restriction on the payment of the order flow?
That question has been raised by a series of changes to stock market rules set out by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler this week. Neither of them is a direct prohibition of order flow, or payment for PFOF, which is heated debate practice Retail brokerages such as Robinhood Markets or Charles Schwab send customer orders to market-making firms such as Citadel Securities or Virtu Financial and collect payments from those firms in return.