> Payment for order flow is still kosher in many circumstances; there's no clear duty to go to the people offering it and demand price improvement instead. But what you definitely can’t do is accept a worse deal (or stop trying to find better deals) in order to protect your payment for order flow revenue stream.
This seems like a distinction without a difference. If you accept any payment for order flow you're always implicitly rejecting a hypothetical alternate arrangement where you agree to give up all PFOF in exchange for better price improvement.
This seems like a distinction without a difference. If you accept any payment for order flow you're always implicitly rejecting a hypothetical alternate arrangement where you agree to give up all PFOF in exchange for better price improvement.