As the stock market bull run has been on a “tear” since 2009, with the S&P 500 up near 350% from the financial crisis bottom, brokerage commissions have not been so lucky. A Greenwich Associates report notes that the total institutional equity wallet is down 40% since 2009. More recently, commissions are down 13% year over year, extending the difficult brokerage trend and leaving a $1.3 billion hole in brokerage firms commission revenue. A combination of factors has led to the revenue drop, with the good news being the painful trend may be bottoming.


