when orders are sent from broker to market makers or to the nasdaq what info is sent?

This is not necessarily true, at least with options. Awhile ago I was listed as a "professional customer" for a quarter due to the number of orders I placed. This designation was included with my orders and often MM's would not trade with me at the same price they would with a customer.

Yes this is different then knowing exactly who is on the other side of a trade, but they do have an interest as to what type of trader is on the other side.

 

why they wouldn't? and did they want to trade with higher price?

 

Apart from knowing that you are a Public Customer (trading account type), they don't know anything else.
So, if you send 2 orders at different times, they won't be able to see that both orders were sent from the same guy. They will see 2 orders coming as Public Customer from the same broker.

 

Are you talking Futures? With PFOF in equities and options, I don’t think there are any regulations.

 

Any US exchange market.
PFOF has nothing to do with what info is sent to exchanges.

 

He asked “broker to MMs”

 

MM don't receive orders directly from broker.

Again, we're talking about US market.

 

So what PFOF is about then?

 

Brokers make sure that the MM firms that are paying for the order flow gets executed against the Public Customer by using different mechanisms in place. MMs trade with Public Customer orders (for which they pay to receive) on the exchanges book. They don't see those orders in a different way than other orders for which they don't pay.

 

Is that a fact or an option?