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Payment for order flow doesn’t mean you’re losing good order execution.

Maybe, but do you think a brokerage that has paid for order flow will execute those orders in the investor's best interest?

I'll be honest that I don't have the full picture, but happy to learn something new if it's a different story.

They're required by law to give you execution at the market price or better, see https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/answersbestexhtm.html

Because of this, it's legally forbidden for them to mess with your prices in such a way that you lose anything.

I think people see that these firms make money from selling order flow and as a result assume that they must be losing money somehow. That isn't the case. Some firms (e.g. HFT) are simply willing to pay a little extra for the counterparty to their trade to be a dumb joe instead of another HFT firm. This can lead to both you and the broker winning.

That makes some more sense. I would like to get a better picture of how trading works in terms of exchanges, fees, and agreements though. I'll have to research this.

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