Daytrading and Dark Pools - Electric Boogaloo

So this is a pretty interesting article on the inner workings of major market makers and their relationship to the market:

Special Report: For Wall Street, dumb money pays

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101217/ts_nm/us_mark…

In particular, securities regulators are taking a closer look at the arrangement in which five large wholesalers -- trading firm Knight Capital Group Inc, hedge fund Citadel, banks UBS AG and Citigroup Inc, and E*Trade's smaller market making division -- are on the other side of virtually all marketable U.S. stock trades by individuals.

The five firms effectively have a first look at the vast majority of "buy now" and "sell now" orders that come from individuals' living rooms, basements and cell phones. According to several estimates, such trading translates into some 10 percent of overall U.S. cash equity volumes.

The May "flash crash," in which mass confusion led big market makers to pull back at the worst possible time, undermined some of the faith that market makers help to insulate individual traders. And the crash, it turns out, came just as concerns over off-exchange trading grew.

"I'd say major payment for order flow changes would be down the road," said Chris Nagy, managing director of order routing at brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp, a big pay-for-flow player because it runs the top U.S. online trading platform. "It's a symptom of the market structure that we have today."

In addition to regulatory changes, the industry is poised to become a lot more competitive as more firms seek to grab a piece of the action.

Would be interested in hearing some thoughts on this. Are the likes of Citadel and Knight Capital in for rough weather as their special monopsony is broken? Are regulators going to clean up dark pools and lead us to a new golden age of more enlightened trading or will business as usual reign supreme?