That is correct about the exchanges, I saw an article written by one of the solution architects for the platform we use, they showed the difference between Gemini, GDAX, and Coinbase and how GDAX and Coinbase stall the price for 5minutes at a time where Gemini doesn't. The exchanges are definitely not all made from the same idea, from an investing point of view I only know the ones we deal with, because they cross invest and most use the same technology we do, not something the average retail trader will get their hands on. We are all tied under a strict set of customer first rules, basically our fees only come once the investor received their expected returns, if we miss then we make zero and have to get back to watermark which is the investor parity investment, it's doesn't happen but it's always in the back of everyones minds to over achieve. From what I can tell all the coins and investments are fee first, so unless you pick one which is doing well you as the investor will take the loss first.