Throughout the world, financial intermediaries can be split into two groups:

◦ brokers: they connect buyers with sellers. Trades can only be completed if the brokers find a buyer for each seller, and vice versa. Brokers work on commission.

◦ market makers: when securities are sold to an investor, market makers buy them at a given price and try simultaneously or subsequently to sell them at a higher price. Their earnings are thus the difference between the sell price and the buy price.

In your view, is the price difference earned by market makers logically equal to, higher than or lower than the commissions earned by brokers?