Ever since Charles Schwab launched the first real discount brokerage in 1974, the trend has been toward lower and lower trading commissions and fees, culminating in 2019 when virtually every major retail broker switched to zero-commission trading.
Earlier this year, that appeared to be going in reverse after Fidelity Investments announced plans to introduce a $100 "surcharge" on certain ETF trades. It wasn't, strictly speaking, a trading commission, but for all intents and purposes, it might have been considered one.
