After this weekend, U.S. government fees on securities sales will quadruple.
Don’t panic. The charges are small. Very small.
For decades, the Securities and Exchange Commission has secured some funding for its regulatory activities from trading fees paid by brokers and exchanges. The rates of these SEC fees are adjusted periodically, as national trading volumes rise and fall. On Saturday, May 14, the fee jumped from $5.10 to $22.90 per million dollars of securities sold.
Put another way, that amounts to 2.3 cents per $1,000 of a securities sale. That wouldn’t change most traders’ plans. The rate is recalculated every year, or sometimes semiannually, and has varied over the years from one cent to four cents per $1,000 of securities sold. Trading volumes were robust in 2021, so the agency only needed a fee of $5.10 per million bucks traded. Volumes have thinned this year.
More:
www.marketwatch.com/articles/sec-trading-transaction-fees-51652556909?mod=mw_quote_news