After the Trade is Made by David Weiss

Provides a bit more details on the back office work (clearing / settling) at a broker/dealer company. The first half of the book is an overview of the various products (equities, bonds, options, futures, etc.) traded, and TheMoneyMarketStigum has better coverage of that.

The federal government taxes sell transactions in the form of a .0039 regulatory fee for every $100 of first money or fraction thereof. The tax is applicable only to sales of securities on national securities exchanges and the NASDAQ.

-- The Trade-Processing System

Apparently, we already have a tax on financial transactions. I didn't see this mentioned a year ago in any of the anti-finance discussions bandied around.