Defenders of PFOF have claimed that retail brokers who route to high-speed traders (in exchange for PFOF) provide better price execution for investors and that it’s a net positive, despite creating an inherent misalignment between these platforms and their customers, and despite public evidence to the contrary. PFOF and excessive off-exchange trading persist because so many trading platforms rely on the revenue it generates, essentially productizing their clients. Such an approach would also consider exchange rebates and access fees, intelligent tick sizes, an order-by-order best execution standard, incentives to reduce fragmentation of markets (e.g., ending the subsidization of exchanges with SIP revenue), and ensuring that the NBBO properly reflects all supply and demand in the market. While there is no silver bullet to fixing markets, we believe that a holistic approach can solve many problems. The SEC needs to take action to change the current market structure, rejuvenate the price discovery process, incentivize diversity and competition, and simplify our markets. Included in this, we need regulatory intervention to repair a system that results in inferior execution quality for retail and institutional investors, and that has damaged markets and widened spreads for all participants. We are writing to urge you to address PFOF and the disparities in market structure that lead to excessive off-exchange trading as a top priority, and propose a rule that will truly reform our markets, not simply result in more disclosure. The segmentation of retail order flow away from lit markets means less competition and materially wider spreads as exchange toxicity increases. PFOF creates an intractable conflict-of-interest for brokers whose financial incentives are placed at odds with their duty of best execution.
These companies face little competition and amass greater market power, as two of these firms are responsible for a huge share of trading, both on-exchange and off. Gaps created by the lack of meaningful competition, transparency and simplicity have resulted in billions of dollars in annual Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) made from high-speed trading firms to brokers, while these firms generate multiples of this in revenue. But as more people earnestly participate in the markets than ever before, the opacity and complexity of markets has left them concerned that: markets are not adequately providing price discovery that too much power is concentrated in too few firms and that they cannot trust such a complex system that lacks appropriate transparency. Williams will begin serving her jail sentence on Dec.In the last 18 months alone, 25 million new investors joined the stock market, and at their peak, retail investors made up more than 25% of the U.S. Her attorney Joseph King was unavailable for comment. On her release, Williams will serve a supervised probation for five years, is prohibited from owning animals for five years, and must undergo a mental health evaluation. Under the plea deal, Williams agreed to drop her appeal of the animal cruelty charges, and was sentenced to serve 18 months in jail with 90 months suspended, the court representative said
The plea agreement connected to the embezzlement case comes one month after Williams was found guilty of 22 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty for maltreating animals at her farm. Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledge that prosecutors have enough evidence to win a conviction.Īs a result, Williams was sentenced to five years in jail, all of which were suspended.
Under a plea agreement, the other embezzlement charges were dismissed, the representative said. 7, entered an Alford plea and pleaded guilty to one count of felony embezzlement, a representative for the Orange County Circuit Court said.