I trade at a prop firm and get charged NYSE Exchange Fees but a friend who trades at another firm does not. I find this strange as the NYSE specifically states on their website fees/rebates for using DOT. Can anyone shed some light here?
Maybe your friend has an "all in" price per share which already accounts for all that? Some prop shops do that.
A prop firm typically pays between 50 cents and 1 dollar per thousand. Anything more than that is pure profit for the firm. So what may seem low to you is still making money for the firm. All in prices are common practice and actually used to be the standard. Firms also get large discounts on specific stocks from their clearing houses.