Interactive Brokers
.jpg){kind=logo} |
|
| Type | Public (NASDAQ: IBKR) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial Services |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Headquarters | Greenwich, Connecticut, USA |
| Key people | Thomas Peterffy (Chairman, CEO, and Founder) |
| Services | Online Brokerage Services, Direct Access Trading |
| Revenue |  US$986.89 Million (2009) |
| Net income | US$36.20 Million (2009) |
| Website | http://www.interactivebrokers.com |
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IB) is an online discount brokerage firm in the United States. The company traces its origin to 1977 when Thomas Peterffy bought a seat on the American Stock Exchange as an individual market maker, and formed T.P. & Co. the following year. Today, the company consists of many subsidiaries around the world, operating on most major stock, futures, bonds, forex, and options exchanges worldwide. The company commenced a public offering on 4 May 2007 under the ticker symbol NASDAQ: IBKR on the Nasdaq exchange.[1]
Barron's Magazine stated in 2009 that Interactive Brokers maintains a position as the least expensive trading venue for investors,[2] and holds the ranking as the #1 Lowest Cost Broker for the fifth straight year.
[edit] Statistics
On its website, IB states that it has consolidated equity capital of over US $4.8 billion, and also states that IB and its affiliates exceed 1,000,000 trades per day and trade 14.1% of the global equity options volume.[3] As of 2004, the firm's clients were making some 500,000 trades per day on various international markets and accounted for 21.4% of the options trading volume of North America. The parent company, Interactive Brokers Group, maintains offices in Chicago, Zug, Montreal, Hong Kong, London and Sydney. IB is regulated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the regulatory policies of all other exchanges on which it trades.[4] The company had revenues of $986.89 million USD and income of $36.20 million USD in the twelve month period ending on December 31, 2009.[5] According to the 1st qtr 2010 report, IB states that they have 140,000 customer accounts and over $16.7 billion in client assets.[6]
In 2007, the company issued 40,000,000 shares or approx. 10% of the capital of Brokers Group LLC in a public offering, at a price of US$30.01 per share. The company's shares trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
[edit] Software
Trader Workstation (abbreviated TWS) is an electronic trading platform built using cross-platform Java desktop application, similar to the company's WebTrader web application, but is extensible through a proprietary API. TWS software prompts to update itself every few weeks, or a .jar file from a consistent URL can be downloaded, which then unpacks to the current version. MobileTrader is a variant intended for personal digital assistants and smartphones.
PaperTrader is a trading platform using Trader Workstation software in a degraded mode, intended either for developers to test a program written for the proprietary Traders Workstation API, or for "paper" traders to experiment with trading in a simulated account, artificially populated with one million dollars, at no cost and with no risk of loss. Any market data subscriptions associated with one's master account are accessible through a paper trading account; a prominent warning appears to remind the user an order is about to be placed in the simulated account.
[edit] References
- ^ Interactive Brokers Group IPO nearing its $500 mln debut - MarketWatch
- ^ Theresa W. Carey, Margin Expands Regardless of Rate, Barron's Magazine, 2009-10-19
- ^ Prime Broker Services – Interactive Brokers
- ^ Interactive Brokers Group Fact Sheet
- ^ Financial data for Interactive Brokers (IBKR)
- ^ Interactive Brokers Group Announces 1Q10 Results – Interactive Brokers
