San Diego Investor Alert

Citadel Securities and San Diego Investors: Payment for Order Flow in Your City

Retail investors in San Diego, California — like investors across the country — route their stock orders to Citadel Securities through payment for order flow arrangements at major discount brokers. San Diego military and biotech create large professional retail investor community.

San Diego's Retail Investor Landscape

San Diego is West-based financial community. Local retail investors — from professionals and business owners to working families saving for retirement — use discount brokers that route orders to Citadel Securities through PFOF arrangements. These investors receive marginally inferior execution prices on each trade compared to what competitive exchange routing would provide.

How PFOF Affects San Diego Investors

When a San Diego resident places a stock order on Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, Schwab, or Webull, that order is routed to Citadel Securities through PFOF. Citadel executes the trade, capturing a spread, and pays the broker a per-share fee. The net result for the San Diego investor: a slightly worse execution price compared to what a competitive exchange-routed order would achieve.

What San Diego Investors Can Do

Access your broker's SEC Rule 606 report to see how your orders are routed
Consider switching to Fidelity (no PFOF for equity orders) or Interactive Brokers direct routing
File a complaint with the California securities regulator
Contact the California Attorney General

Related Coverage

Support Independent Accountability Journalism

The Ethics Reporter is the only independent news organization systematically tracking how Kenneth Griffin's political spending relates to the regulatory environment that protects Citadel Securities' business model. This reporting serves retail investors across every state in the country.

We are reader-funded and accept no money from financial industry advertisers. If this reporting is valuable — if you believe retail investors deserve transparency about who controls their trades — please support us.

Reader Supported

This journalism is free because readers like you make it possible.

We don't have corporate advertisers. We don't take money from law firms. Every investigation you read here is funded entirely by readers. Even $1 keeps us going.

Join 47 readers who donated this month

47% toward our monthly goal of 100 supporters

Secure checkout via Stripe. Cancel your monthly gift anytime.

← Back to Citadel Investigation Hub