Pearl “Polly” Adler, of Russian-Jewish origin and born in 1899, was sent by her parents to the US in 1913 to escape the increasing pogroms in Imperial Russia. By 1920 she was procuring prostitutes to work at brothels in New York City.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission deregulated the securities industry in 1975. The public reason was that the “Old Boy’s Club” and fixed commission rates did not address the needs of retail customers. That was not true. There was fierce competition. Trade*Plus was the first consumer-oriented online trading application in 1985. That was soon followed by the “Black Monday” crash in 1987.