Building off the events of last week and the call for more transparency in our industry, Public.com is ending its participation in Payment for Order Flow and introducing an optional tipping feature. With the help of our clearing firm, Apex, we will route orders directly to exchanges—in turn taking the conflict of interest out of our business model. This decision will better align our incentives with the interests of our community.
How does tipping work?
After you submit an order, you'll be given an opportunity to tip. If you choose to tip, you'll hit the "+" sign until you reach the tip amount you want, then submit the tip. The tip amount will be deducted against your buying power until and if the order is executed and will be returned to buying power if the order is canceled or rejected.
Is tipping required?
Nope! And tipping is totally separate from your order, so it won't change anything about how your order is executed.
How much should I tip?
Whether or not you tip, and how much, is totally up to you. Our minimum tip varies by the dollar value of your order and the maximum tip we accept is 5% of your order amount.
Can I change my tip amount?
Once a tip is submitted with an order, it cannot be changed, though the order itself can still be canceled which would cancel the tip, as well.
Is tipping considered a commission or sales charge for cost basis reporting?
No. Tipping is a separate charge not connected to the execution of an order.
Why did you launch tipping?
The short version: because we think it's a better, more transparent, more aligned way to make money (than payment for order flow, which we've stopped accepting)! Read more about that here
Tipping Terms & Conditions
- Adding a tip to an order on Public is fully optional and is a charge to the Member’s account separate from the execution of orders.
- The customer’s decision to tip or not to tip does not impact the order routing, execution, or any other aspect of the order.
- Tips are submitted as a dollar amount associated with a given order and are deducted from buying power until the order is executed or canceled/rejected.
- In the event of an executed order, the tip will remain deducted from buying power and will be held in the customer’s account as “pending tips”. Pending tips will be deducted from the member’s account on a regular basis.
- In the event of a canceled or rejected order, the tip will be credited back to the buying power of the account.
- If there’s sufficient buying power to execute the transaction but not to fulfill the tip amount, we will still execute the transaction, but will take the tip only to the amount of available buying power.
- Once a tip is submitted with an order, it cannot be changed, though the order itself can still be canceled which would cancel the tip, as well.
- Tips are capped at 5% of the projected transaction amount.
- The tip amount increments are set by the app and tips cannot be made in amounts that don’t conform to the pre-set increments.
- Tips do not constitute a commission for trading.
- Tips are a charge received by Open to the Public Investing Inc and constitute revenue to the firm. They are not received by nor constitute a gift to any person, principal, proprietor, employee, agent or representative of another person
- Tip charges will not appear on trade confirms
- All tipping terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.