Direct Market Access (DMA)

Direct market access lets a trader route orders straight to a chosen exchange, ECN, or dark pool instead of letting the broker decide where the order goes. The order you send is the order that hits the venue's book, under the broker's membership and risk checks.

The trade-off against zero-commission retail routing is cost for control. DMA brokers charge per-share commissions, often $0.002-0.005 per share plus venue fees, but in exchange you pick the route, capture maker rebates, and shave latency — the difference between a fill and a miss when a fast-moving stock breaks a level.

Active day traders pair DMA with hotkeys: one keystroke fires a preset order type to a preset venue, no mouse, no smart-router detour.