Hard Dollars are cash fees or payments made by an investor or customer to a brokerage firm in return for their services. They are also known as commission, and they vary depending on the size of the order and the type of security. The most common way to pay hard dollars is through a per-share fee, which is assessed when you buy or sell stocks.For example, if you want to purchase 100 shares of IBM stock at $100 per share, your total cost would be $10,000 (100 shares x $100). However, if you bought those same 100 shares using a discount broker that charged a flat rate commission of $5 per trade instead of a per-share fee, your total cost would be only $500 (5% of 10k). So it's important to understand how hard dollar fees work before investing so you can find the best deal for yourself.
