Does Firstrade pass regulatory transaction fees to its customers?

Certain regulators impose transaction fees to cover their costs of regulating the brokerage industry. The fees are passed through to customers as part of normal transaction processing. These fees will appear as a line item on your trade confirmation as “FEES” or “TRANS FEE” or “OPTION FEE” depending on your transaction. Please click on the individual links for more details about each fee.

SEC Fee

Under Section 31 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, U.S. national securities exchanges are obligated to pay transaction fees to the SEC based on the volume of securities that are sold on their markets. Exchange rules require their broker-dealer members to pay a share of these fees who, in turn, pass the responsibility of paying the fees to their customers. Only applies to sell transactions and appears on the trade confirmation as: “FEES”. More Information

As of Feb 27,  2023, the SEC Fee rate is $8.00 for every $1,000,000 in sale proceeds

For example: 

Sale Proceeds = $20,000, SEC fee rate = $0.000008 ($8.00 per $1 million in sale proceeds)

Total SEC fee = $0.16 ($20,000 x $0.000008 = $0.16)

Options Regulatory Fee (ORF)

This fee is a customer pass-through exchange fee for all options trades, both buys and sells. It is collected by The Options Clearing Corp on behalf of the U.S. options exchanges regardless of the exchange on which the transaction takes place. Applies to both buys and sells and appears on the trade confirmation as “OPTION FEE”.

As of January 2, 2024, the aggregate rate is $0.02685 per contract.

French Financial Transaction Tax (FTT)

This tax is charged on the purchase of certain French equities, including certain ADRs. More Information