Just Politics

[BullNBear52]

At the same time, critics are correct when they point out the potential for conflicts of interest on the part of the broker, who may be tempted to send trades to a market-maker who offers worse execution pricing (which hurts the investor) but better payment for order flow (which benefits the broker).

Clients should realize though that there is no free lunch. Blaming the market maker when they get to trade for free? Nope.

I really don't see a problem with the practice as long as the broker isn't doing the above. And that should be relatively easy to find out.

My concern is that Robinhood was under capitalized and their clients found out too late. I think they were playing fast and loose with the regs.