Missouri Investor Alert

Citadel Securities and Missouri Investors: What You Need to Know

Payment for order flow — the practice by which Citadel Securities pays discount brokers for exclusive access to retail order flow — affects an estimated 1.1 million Missouri retail investors. Here is what Missouri residents need to know.

How PFOF Affects Missouri Investors

Missouri retail investors in St. Louis and Kansas City financial centers face the same PFOF-driven conflicts as national investors, with limited state regulatory enforcement.

The Scale in Missouri

Missouri has an estimated 1.1 million Missouri retail investors. Each of these investors who uses a PFOF-dependent discount broker — Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, Charles Schwab, or Webull — is routing their orders to Citadel Securities without their knowledge or consent. Citadel captures a spread on each of these trades, generating revenue that flows back to Kenneth Griffin while providing retail investors with marginally inferior execution prices compared to what competitive exchange routing would provide.

Missouri's financial hub in Kansas City has sophisticated financial professionals who understand these dynamics. But most Missouri retail investors — those in St. Louis, Springfield and throughout the state — are unaware that their "free" trades are funded by a practice that systematically extracts value from them.

Kenneth Griffin's Political Investment in Missouri

Kenneth Griffin has given contributions to Missouri political figures and national Republican organizations. His key recipients include former Governor Eric Greitens and the Republican Governors Association. This political investment creates a documented relationship between the CEO of America's dominant retail market maker and the political figures responsible for overseeing financial regulation in Missouri.

Eric Greitens (R-MO Governor) — $50,000 (2016, Missouri Governor)
Republican Governors Association — $500,000 (2022, Federal Super PAC)

What Missouri Regulators Could Do

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and the Missouri Securities Division have authority under the Missouri Securities Act of 2003 (RSMo §409.1-101 et seq.) to investigate market maker conflicts.

What Missouri Investors Can Do Now

Missouri retail investors who believe they have been harmed by PFOF-driven execution quality degradation can take several steps:

File a complaint with the Missouri Secretary of State, Securities Division at https://www.sos.mo.gov/securities
File a complaint with the Missouri Attorney General at https://ago.mo.gov
File a complaint with the SEC at sec.gov/tcr
File a complaint with FINRA at finra.org
Consider switching to a broker that does not use PFOF, such as Fidelity or Interactive Brokers direct routing

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