Interactive Brokers

Infobox_Company
company_name = Interactive Brokers LLC

company_type = Public (nasdaq|IBKR)
location_city = Greenwich, Connecticut
foundation = 1977
location_country = USA
key_people = Thomas Peterffy (Chairman, CEO, and Founder)
| industry = Financial Services
services = Online Brokerage Services, Direct Access Trading
revenue = 1.6 billion USD
homepage = http://www.interactivebrokers.com

Interactive Brokers LLC (official abbrev IB) is a United States-based discount online brokerage firm, operating on most major worldwide stock, futures, bonds, forex, and options exchanges. For 30 years IB has been building direct access trading technology that delivers to professionals worldwide. On its website, IB states that it has consolidated equity capital of over US $3.5 billion, and also states that IB and its affiliates exceed 700,000 trades per day and trade 14.1% of the global equity options volume. [ [http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/smart.php?ib_entity=llc Highlights ] ] The chief executive officer is Thomas Peterffy.

History

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, Switzerland, 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. [ [http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/about/factSheet2004.php?ib_entity=llc Interactive Brokers Group Fact Sheet ] ] The company had revenues of $1.6 billion USD and income of $734 million USD in the twelve month period ending in August, 2006. [ [http://www.ipohome.com/common/ipoprofile.asp?ticker=IBKR IPOhome - IPO Company Profile for Interactive Brokers (IBKR) ] ] According to the 1st qtr 2008 report, IB states that they have 99,000 customer accounts and over $9.2 billion in client assets. [ [http://www.interactivebrokers.com/download/Q1_08_earnings_release.pdf ] ]

In 2006 Interactive Brokers filed paperwork with the SEC for an Initial Public Offering on the Nasdaq exchange. The company began trading publicly on May 4, 2007 under the ticker symbol nasdaq|IBKR. [ [http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/interactive-brokers-group-ipo-nearing/story.aspx?guid=%7BF7722DD7-ADA2-4004-8071-6D07EC67FA3C%7D Interactive Brokers Group IPO nearing its $500 mln debut - MarketWatch ] ]

oftware

Their "Trader Workstation" (abbreviated TWS) is a cross-platform Java desktop application, similar to their "WebTrader" web application, but is extensible through a proprietary API. A variant intended for personal digital assistants and smartphones also exists, called "MobileTrader".

"PaperTrader" is a slightly simplified version of Trader Workstation targeting developers and papertraders. Papertraders can use it to experiment with trading for free in a virtual marketplace, while developers use it to test programs written around for the Traders Workstation API.

References