Retail hunger for US options trading in Q3 has spiked further, with payment for order flow from brokers to market makers up by 40% compared with last year. Meanwhile, record highs in equity prices have coincided with a fall in retail trading volume but cash equity payments to retail brokers remained at record highs driven by an increase in payment per share traded.
Retail traders and their brokers have been printing more options trades than ever even as cash equity markets cool: payment for order flow (PFOF) related to options at the main electronic liquidity providers (ELPs) reached US$770 million in Q3, from US$670 million in Q2, +15% compared to the previous quarter, and more than 40% on the previous year. the options clearing corporation (OCC) data show total options volume in the US was 4.2 billion contracts in Q3, up 18% on the second quarter and 34% on the same period the year before.
In contrast, retail cash equity volumes cooled but payments stayed at record highs, with about 283 billion shares routed to ELPs in Q3, down from 306 billion in Q2, and at sharply higher prices.
Total PFOF in Q3 was US$1.1bn
Retail brokers 606s disclosures for Q3 2025 show a very clear break between options and cash equities in our electronic liquidity providers universe composed of Citadel Securities, Dash / IMC, Susquehanna, Wolverine, Jane Street and, historically, Morgan Stanley on the options side; plus Virtu, HRT, Two Sigma Securities, Tower Research, GTS, Jump Trading and others on the cash side.
On the options side, the payment by ELP league table in Q3 is again dominated by Citadel Securities at US$282.3m, up US$40m QoQ for 633.3m contracts traded versus 526.6m contracts traded in Q2. As in previous quarters Dash / IMC payments follow at US$241.9m. Wolverine and Susquehanna expensed US$100.5m and US$92.0m for flow, respectively. Jane Street, while fifth, has been rapidly expanding. They paid US$54.5 million for flows in Q3 when they were not facilitating the activity in 2024 and only spent US$21 million in Q2.
Morgan Stanley having sold its option market making business to Citadel Securities disappears from our ELPs panel.
Pricing for option flows became cheaper for ELPs in Q3. Across all ELP options routes in Q3, the average payment was US$0.426 per contract, a bit lower than Q2’s US$0.438. The quarter’s jump in PFOF is entirely volume-driven.
Jane Street seems to be trying to gain market share as the average they pay retail brokers per-contract rose from US$0.384 in Q2 to US$0.477 in Q3. Citadel, Dash / IMC, Susquehanna, and Wolverine all printed slightly lower per-contract prices than in Q2, but on many more option contracts traded.
On the retail brokers receiving payment side, the beneficiary ranking is similar to previous quarters.
Robinhood got paid US$307.9m for options flows versus Q2 US$265m, up 15.8% on the previous quarter. During its earnings call on 5 November, the app-based retail broker said its market share in options was now 7.4% of all OCC trading versus 6.8% in 2024.
Schwab received US$219.8m, up 12.7% from Q2. Fidelity and E*Trade (part of Morgan Stanley) received respectively US$78m and US$55.6m.
Asian retail brokers Webull and Futu keep growing at a fast clip, highlighting the increased importance of flows from Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere in the region to US market makers. Just in options, Webull received US$51.3m up 23.3% versus previous quarter, while Futu received US$29.3m up 17% compared to the previous quarter.
Webull and Futu disclosed in their second quarter earnings that they had US$122bn of client assets for 24.9 million users, and US$116bn of client assets for 27.1 million registered users, respectively. Funded accounts represented 15 to 20% of their registered users.
Robinhood’s clients still command the most sought-after flows with payment per contract attracting US$0.534 this quarter, a bit lower than in the second quarter when they were at US$0.560. Schwab flows were remunerated at US$0.385 versus US$0.399 in the second quarter of 2025.
Cash equities: volume down, prices up
Retail traders were far less inclined in Q3 to trade cash securities, but the flows associated were far more expensive for ELPs to acquire.
PFOF on stocks were US$380.4 million, up from US$339.8 million in Q2 and up from US$193.5 million a year earlier. Only 283.3 billion shares were routed to ELPs according to 606 disclosures from S3. This is down from 305.8 billion in Q2 but still well above the 158.7 billion shares routed in Q3 2024.
Average payment on cash equities rose to US$0.134 per one hundred shares in Q3, from US$0.111 in Q2 and US$0.122 a year earlier. Citadel Securities also dominates payment in cash securities at US$123.1m in Q3 versus Q2: US$114.3m.
Virtu was the second biggest payer at US$88.7m up from US$74.1m in Q2. During its third quarter earnings’ call on 29 October, John Molluso, CEO, acknowledging slower cash business said: “Yes, those indicators were down, the volumes and volatility as well as the 605 reports showed declining activity, but we’re very happy about how we performed.”
Jane Street, Hudson River Trading, Susquehanna, and Two Sigma Securities followed with payments in Q3 at US$65.1m, US$49.9m, US$40.9m, US$12.3m respectively
Virtu and Jane Street paid up the most per hundred shares of flows at 14.2 cents per one hundred shares versus 11.2 cents in the second quarter for virtu and 15 cents versus 11.7 cents in the second quarter for Jane Street.
Schwab was the largest cash equity broker receiving US$182.0m in the third quarter, for 154.7bn shares traded, followed by Robinhood at US$93.2m for 51bn shares traded. They were tailed by E*Trade, Webull and Futu receiving US$47.8m, US$25.8m and US$14.5m, respectively.
Robinhood’s average equity PFOF rate jumped to about 18.3 cents per one hundred shares from about 12.8 cents in the second quarter. This was the single largest broker-level price increase. E*Trade, Webull and Futu all showed smaller but still notable step-ups in price of 1.3 to 2 cents per one hundred shares.
Schwab and Robinhood declined to comment on the reasons for these price increases for flows in cash equities.
As shown in our data visualisation below the main market makers / ELPs and retail brokers are as dependent on each other as in previous quarters.
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