> I rely on Matt Levine to explain, more clearly than I could, how brokerages make money You rely on someone who never worked for a brokerage to teach you how

> I rely on Matt Levine to explain, more clearly than I could, how brokerages make money You rely on someone who never worked for a brokerage to teach you how brokerages worked? > and the broker earns interest on that cash and pays you less than it earns This has been standard practice forever. It isn't a secret. Also, with interest rates as low as they are, I don't think it is a move for the interest on the cash sitting in these accounts. > and all the trading stuff is almost irrelevant Irrelevant? The "trading stuff" is data. Trading commissions isn't that important, but the data is very valuable. > I don't think this is about consolidation in the brokerage space because of zero fees. That's right. It isn't about zero fees. It's about data. Trading/investing/customer data. Zero fees is to lure more customers and get more data. Just like Microsoft giving away their OS for "free". Just like google/facebook/etc giving away their services for "free". "Free trades" ( no fee trades ) are about getting more customers, more trades and more data. > I think this is about investment banks getting into the retail space (see Goldman's Apple card). It isn't about getting into retail space. Goldman isn't going open a store in malls around the country and sell t-shirts. Goldman's Apple Card is about data. From wall street to tech to even telcoms... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22375269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22375269 everybody is positioning themselves for the data goldrush. Even nations and regional blocs like the EU are doing so. Whether data has intrinsic valuable or not, who really knows. But those with money and power have decided it has value and we are off to the races.