Brean Capital, a boutique investment bank, is closing most of its equities business, the latest sign that it’s hard for all but the biggest banks to make money trading stocks. The NY-based firm is firing 35 people, leaving about 150 employees.  

CEO Rob Fine said the only part of its equities unit that will continue is the financial-institutions group, which covers bank stocks, adding that Brean’s bond-trading business has grown over the last 4 years to the point that it was more significant than equities.

Stock trading has become less profitable as competition from high-speed firms has driven down transaction costs to just a few pennies a share. CRT Capital Group, a PE backed brokerage, closed last year after struggling to wrest trading business from large Wall Street banks in the years since the financial crisis.

Brean’s decision is “indicative of what’s happening at most smaller firms,” said Richard Lipstein, managing director of New York-based recruiting company Gilbert Tweed Int’l. “They’re having trouble making money in the equity business.”