> brokers were not in some way able to earn that money by providing value. If that were the case they would not exist and money would flow elsewhere. Plenty of

> brokers were not in some way able to earn that money by providing value. If that were the case they would not exist and money would flow elsewhere. Plenty of people use phones to scam money. I would not say calling up grandma and looting her account counts as 'providing value' so much as taking it. It probably helps if free market types recall that trading fees were set by the exchanges themselves until 1975: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mayday.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mayday.asp. Competition in this space did not meaningfully exist.