Well, apparently there is frontrunning and then there is really frontrunning, cf. the link below. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018...ions-selling-users-data-high-frequencstealing
What makes sense is the front-running of the order flow. The list of "brokers" reads like the who-is-who in the High Frequency Trading world.
Front running order flow is also done on Limit orders. They only fill your limit order when HFT has a fill elsewhere for cheaper to pay for the commission to RH ($0.52 per trade according to their disclosure documents) and the fee for the HFT frontrunner. Screwing over customers like it's 1999, just like with the specialists at the NYSE and in the trading pits in the old days, today, the front is now done with HFT.
The difference is that the spreads have narrowed since 1999 when fractions were the norm.Prior to a 2001 ruling by U.S. regulators that required U.S. stock markets use the decimal system, prices and stocks used to be reported in fractions—specifically one-sixteenths " Prior to a 2001 ruling by U.S. regulators that required U.S. stock markets use the decimal system, prices and stocks used to be reported in fractions—specifically one-sixteenths. That's because when the New York Stock Exchange began over 200 years ago, it was based on the Spanish trading system made popular in the 1600s, which was based around fractions, not decimals. In Spain in the 1600s, Spanish investors traded with gold doubloons, which were split in half, quarter or even one-eighth pieces so traders could count them on their fingers—while skipping their thumbs. When the NYSE began, 1/8 of a dollar or 12.5 cents was the spread or the smallest amount a stock could change in value; this was later changed to 6.25 cents or 1/16 of a dollar to accommodate larger trades." plus commissions have collapsed since 1999.
With penny spreads and zero commissions if you can't make money you are in the wrong business. Complaining about front running by hft traders is just an excuse for lack of ability.
%% ROBIN HOOD also has a $50,000 arb dispute,[execution error/dispute/other] ;they settled it for>> $21,000. Actually i never have done business with them but that sounds like peanuts/error with thier volume. Some of the old spreads were a quarter; actually that is the origin of the IBD trading rule- dont quibble over a quarter + miss the move. Hate to cancel an order, but semi liquid ETF was jumping to much;looked like some one was trying to rob me or that trend was much stronger on low /real low volume= that can be the same thing on exit LOL.................................................................................
Yep, there is no free lunch. Market orders get bad fills and limit orders may not get filled at all. A limit order at price X in another broker may get filled but the same limit order at RH may not.
So which is the best zero commission broker eg with the fastest fills? Fidelity do no sell order flow, are they faster?
I do not have any reason to believe that any of the incumbent major brokers is any faster than anyone else, so not selling order flow would be my priority.