Stock brokerage fees are going to zero.  How can that be?  They are selling you order information to Market Makers who, under regulation, are allowed to front-run the trading collecting profits from the spread between the bid and ask prices.  Market Making is not new; it has been going on anyway.  Now, instead of it being inhouse with your broker, it will be happening exclusively with their contractor who pays the broker for the privilege, reducing inhouse operating costs (where such existed inhouse).

Market Markers are supposed to provide stability to markets, but I've never liked the idea as I am too much an open-market/free-market kind'a person.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketmaker.asp

Discount brokerage Charles Schwab Corp said on Tuesday it is eliminating commissions for online trading of stocks, ETFs and options listed on U.S. or Canadian exchanges. Schwab’s latest move is likely to have a knock-on effect across the sector, forcing rivals to follow suit and eliminate commissions, experts warned.
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The decision marks an inflection point for online brokers, as newer, nimbler rivals such as Menlo Park, California-based startup brokerage Robinhood have been capturing market share in recent years by offering commission-free stock trades.

The firms are able to offer the free trading by selling their customers’ orders to so-called wholesale market makers, such as Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial, which aim to make a profit on the spread between the bid and the offer on the shares.
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“Stocks commissions long ago stopped being a primary revenue item for Schwab, dropping to 8 per cent of revenues last year and currently under 5 per cent. Net interest income from customer deposits and asset management fees are far more important,” added [director of financial institutions research at Argus Research Stephen] Biggar in an email to Reuters.

Schwab made $139 million from selling its customers’ orders in 2018, up 22 per cent from the previous year, according to a regulatory filing.

TD Ameritrade was paid $458 million for customer orders in its last fiscal year, up from $320 million the year before, according to a filing.

GlobeandMail.com