How PFOF Affects Wisconsin Investors
Wisconsin's manufacturing and dairy economy has a large working-class retail investor population. Griffin's significant political investment in Wisconsin — including to Senator Ron Johnson of the Senate Banking Committee — raises serious questions about regulatory capture.
The Scale in Wisconsin
Wisconsin has an estimated 1.1 million Wisconsin 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.
Wisconsin's financial hub in Milwaukee has sophisticated financial professionals who understand these dynamics. But most Wisconsin retail investors — those in Madison, Green Bay 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 Wisconsin
Kenneth Griffin has given more than $5.75 million in Wisconsin-linked political contributions. His key recipients include former Governor Scott Walker, Senator Ron Johnson — who sits on the Senate Banking Committee — 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 Wisconsin.
- Scott Walker (R-WI Governor) — $500,000 (2018, Wisconsin Governor)
- Ron Johnson (R-WI Senate) — $250,000 (2022, U.S. Senate)
- Republican Governors Association — $5,000,000 (2022, Federal Super PAC)
What Wisconsin Regulators Could Do
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and the Wisconsin DFI Division of Securities have authority under the Wisconsin Uniform Securities Law (Wis. Stat. Ch. 551) to investigate broker-dealer conflicts. Given Griffin's donations to Wisconsin Banking Committee members, the AG's independence is particularly valuable.
What Wisconsin Investors Can Do Now
Wisconsin retail investors who believe they have been harmed by PFOF-driven execution quality degradation can take several steps:
- File a complaint with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Securities at https://www.wdfi.org/securities
- File a complaint with the Wisconsin Attorney General at https://www.doj.state.wi.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