# Payment for Order Flow

*Trading & Technical Analysis — Finicade finance glossary*

Payment for order flow is a wholesale market maker paying a broker to route retail orders to it rather than to an exchange. It funds zero-commission trading, so the customer pays through execution quality rather than a fee. Whether that trade is good for the customer is genuinely contested — retail orders often receive price improvement — and it's banned outright in the UK and Canada.

**Also known as:** PFOF, order flow payment

**Related terms:** [Best Execution](https://finicade.com/glossary/best-execution), [High-Frequency Trading](https://finicade.com/glossary/high-frequency-trading), [Market Maker](https://finicade.com/glossary/market-maker), [Conflict of Interest](https://finicade.com/glossary/conflict-of-interest), [Bid-Ask Spread](https://finicade.com/glossary/bid-ask-spread)

Source: https://finicade.com/glossary/payment-for-order-flow