Investor Choice & Control

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The new commission-free brokerage business model has resulted in the monetization of their clients - the elimination of commissions has pushed brokers to seek alternate revenue sources. Specifically, this has increased the prevalence and importance of Payment for Order Flow arrangements  and reduced investors’ control over their accounts, trades, and positions. We must give investors the choice to exercise control over the decisions and data that impact their portfolios and costs. Greater control, along with more transparency, will lead to more informed investment decisions and more direct engagement with investments.

key issues

  • Control of Trading Data: Investors own their order and execution data.
  • Control of Stock Lending: Investors have the right to decide whether their securities can be lent out to short sellers. The stock loan function is essential to functioning markets, but shares should NEVER be lent by a broker or intermediary from customer cash accounts without the investor’s explicit permission.
  • Control of Registration: Investors should be able to choose whether their shares are to be held in a brokerage account or in direct registration form in the investor’s own name on the company’s share register.

opportunities for advocacy

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Our top priority right now

FINRA calls the rule protecting your price “time-tested.”

Ten years of enforcing Rule 5310 produced ten paperwork cases and not one dollar returned to a single customer. Now FINRA is asking whether to relax it. Comments are due September 25, 2026, and it takes about two minutes.

Comment to FINRA →

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