This post argues that the protocols of the trading platforms used by retail investors are designed to fix users in a consumer position, with no influence in the curse of the markets. Challenging corporate discourses describing these platforms as vectors of transparency in the traditionally opaque world of finance, an analysis of Robinhood’s Payment for Order Flow (and eToro’s closed trading system demonstrates that the very elements making these services understandable for millions of users foreclose their agency as traders.