Negotiated Brokerage Commissions and the Individual Investor

The elimination in 1975 of fixed minimum brokerage commission rates for agency transactions in equity securities was one of the more highly publicized events in the still-ongoing process of the deregulation of American financial markets. While, prior to that time, commission rates on large stock transactions—that were executed primarily for institutions—had become increasingly subject to negotiation, individual investors effectively faced an industry-wide fixed price schedule for the vast majority of their transactions. At the insistence of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the privilege of negotiation on commission rates was extended to securities trades of all sizes as of May 1, 1975, a date the brokerage industry only half-humorously dubbed “Mayday†.