I consider this to be a big deal.  Most people don&#x27;t realize that retail orders( orders from an ordinary person) almost never reach an exchange.<p>Funds like Citadel and KCG pay the banks and brokerages( Schwab, Vanguard, etc) hunderes of millions per year to get their order flow.  Here&#x27;s a reuters article about Schawb&#x27;s pay for order flow:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;schwab-ceo-proposal-idUSL1N0O12EC20140515" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;schwab-ceo-proposal-idUSL1N0O...</a><p>&gt; Trading companies, including market makers such as UBS , KCG Holdings and hedge fund Citadel LLC, are willing to compete for retail investors&#x27; orders because they are considered &quot;dumb money&quot; that shows the professionals where markets are headed.<p>&gt; In reporting first-quarter earnings last month, Schwab said that it expects to earn about $100 million this year from selling client orders, the first time it gave out a specific number, and higher than the estimate it had given a few weeks earlier to Reuters.<p>and here is the breakdown of their order flow:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.schwab.com&#x2F;public&#x2F;schwab&#x2F;nn&#x2F;legal_compliance&#x2F;important_notices&#x2F;order_routing.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.schwab.com&#x2F;public&#x2F;schwab&#x2F;nn&#x2F;legal_compliance&#x2F;imp...</a><p>The funds then get a free look at these orders where if they are beneficial to them they can fill the order, or if they aren&#x27;t, then they can pass the order onto an exchange.<p>If you thought flash orders were bad, these are much worse and flash orders were discontinued years ago.<p>If you thought HFT funds were bad then consider atleast HFT funds have to put their orders out to the market and take the risk that they&#x27;ll get rolled over when the market moves.  ie they put their money where their mouth is and they compete every day on a level play ground with the rest of the market makers.<p>These internalizers often hold orders up for up to a second, before they choose to fill them or let them go and when you consider that the IEX delay of 350 micro seconds, not milliseconds, is considered contentious you get a good idea of just how scummy things have gotten.<p>in an unrelated piece of news Reuters today wrote a piece showing the top paid hedge fund managers.  Citadel&#x27;s founder Ken Griffin can in first, taking home 1.7 Billion last year.  This is really the DOJ taking on the biggest players on wall street.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-hedgefunds-compensation-idUSKCN0Y11D1?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=businessNews&amp;utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FbusinessNews+%28Business+News%29" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-hedgefunds-compensation-id...</a>