www.americandreaming.us/p/mayday
1 correction found
Whatever you traded, a hundred shares or a hundred thousand, you paid the rate the cartel set — without haggling or discount, because no competitor was permitted to offer one.
Large trades were already exempt from fully fixed commissions before May 1, 1975. The SEC had phased in negotiated rates for big orders years earlier, so a 100,000-share trade did not necessarily pay a completely fixed commission right up to May Day.
Full reasoning
This overstates how universal fixed commissions still were by May 1, 1975.
The historical record shows that large orders had already been partially or fully "unfixed" before May Day:
- The SEC Historical Society says the SEC had already ended fixed commissions on transactions above $500,000 in 1972.
- Its broader market-structure history says the SEC's phased approach began in 1971 for orders above $500,000 and continued in 1972 for orders above $300,000.
- Contemporary legal summaries likewise note that the SEC had already allowed a high-dollar breakpoint below which fixed rates could remain, meaning very large institutional trades were not all paying a single non-negotiable schedule until May 1, 1975.
So the article's claim is too absolute. Small investors generally still faced fixed-rate schedules, but very large trades were already subject to negotiated commissions before May Day.
2 sources
- In the Midst of Revolution: The SEC, 1973-1981 (Ending Fixed Commission Rates) | SEC Historical Society
In 1972, the SEC had acted to end fixed commissions on transactions above $500,000.
- Transformation & Regulation: Equities Market Structure, 1934 to 2018 (The Commission and Congress) | SEC Historical Society
a stepped approach which started with an April 1971 mandate to unfix commission rates on orders above $500,000 and continued a year later with unfixing of rates on orders above $300,000.