Traders Magazine By Jeff Bacidore, Founder and President, The Bacidore Group LLC As with Gamestop, I hesitated to write a payment for order flow post given that so much has been written about this already. But since it is a topic that comes up often, I thought I would share my take. To me, there are two key issues. First, when a broker receives a payment, where does that payment go? And second, with so much volume being diverted off the exchanges, is market quality (e.g., the NBBO) negatively impacted by payment for order flow arrangements. The former is about whether the benefits of payment for order flow ultimately accrue to retail traders or to their intermediaries. The latter question is about how all end investors – retail, institutional, etc. – are impacted by payment for order flow, or more generally, by the diversion of retail orders off-exchange.