How PFOF Affects Virginia Investors
Virginia has the largest population of federal government employees and contractors in the nation — many of whom invest through Thrift Savings Plan-adjacent brokers and retail platforms subject to PFOF. The Northern Virginia tech corridor also houses sophisticated retail investors who deserve better execution.
The Scale in Virginia
Virginia has an estimated 1.7 million Virginia retail investors — including significant federal government employee investor population. 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.
Virginia's financial hub in Fairfax has sophisticated financial professionals who understand these dynamics. But most Virginia retail investors — those in Arlington, Richmond 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 Virginia
Kenneth Griffin has given more than $5.1 million in Virginia-linked political contributions. His key recipients include Governor Glenn Youngkin and the Republican Governors Association that invested in Virginia's 2021 race. 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 Virginia.
- Glenn Youngkin (R-VA Governor) — $100,000 (2021, Virginia Governor)
- Republican Governors Association — $5,000,000 (2022, Federal Super PAC)
What Virginia Regulators Could Do
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and the Virginia SCC Division of Securities have broad authority under the Virginia Securities Act (Va. Code Ann. §13.1-501 et seq.) to investigate broker-dealer conflicts affecting Virginia investors.
What Virginia Investors Can Do Now
Virginia retail investors who believe they have been harmed by PFOF-driven execution quality degradation can take several steps:
- File a complaint with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, Division of Securities and Retail Franchising at https://www.scc.virginia.gov/pages/Securities
- File a complaint with the Virginia Attorney General at https://www.oag.state.va.us
- 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