I&#x27;m not a fan of payment for order flow. The problem is that it lets HFTs pick off the uninformed orders, leaving the orders that actually reach the exchange more &quot;toxic&quot;. This lowers the incentive for others to rest orders on the Central Limit Order Book, harming price discovery. So while in the short term no one is harmed, the long-run consequences could be bad.<p>With that said, yeah, the NYT piece is terrible.