It's a cycle, like global warming and everything else.
Maybe a longer cycle, but a cycle.
There was this period of discovery where people were experimenting with trading via discount brokerages etc... Once those fees reached a low level and the critical mass came forward, it peaked. There aren't many new speculators coming into the game on the retail side - most will probably be from Asia from now on.
The other thing that's more obvious with commodity volume rising and equity volume falling is the continued lies by corporations. I had grocery stocks in the early 2000's that got cut in half overnight when lies were discovered. That was the last straw for me. Now I only deal in indexes and broad based stuff, nearly all of which is regulated as commodities.
People got tired of the risk with individual equities. Most of the public has a 401K now...with real money for an actual retirement in the account. You don't have any real percentage of your money in company X because if they lied about something, half your retirement is gone the next morning. Even if company X is in the S&P, your retirement acct doesn't really notice if you're in the index.
