Interactive Brokers Group Reports Brokerage Metrics and Other Financial Information for March 2025, includes Reg.-NMS Execution Statistics

Rhea-AI Summary

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) has released its March 2025 performance metrics, showing significant year-over-year growth across key indicators. The company reported 3.471 million Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs), up 44% from the previous year but down 4% month-over-month.

Key metrics include:

• Client equity reached $573.5 billion (23% YoY increase)
• Margin loan balances stood at $63.7 billion (24% YoY increase)
• Client credit balances totaled $125.2 billion (19% YoY increase)
• Client accounts grew to 3.62 million (32% YoY increase)

The company added 87.7 thousand real accounts in March, with 13.3 thousand accounts being escheated to governmental authorities. Average commission per cleared commissionable order was $2.85. IBKR PRO clients' total cost of executing U.S. Reg.-NMS stocks was approximately 3.3 basis points in March.

Positive

• Strong 44% YoY growth in Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs)
• Significant 32% YoY increase in client accounts to 3.62 million
• 24% YoY growth in margin loan balances to $63.7 billion
• 23% YoY increase in client equity to $573.5 billion
• 19% YoY growth in client credit balances to $125.2 billion

Negative

• 4% MoM decrease in DARTs
• 2% MoM decline in client equity
• 13.3 thousand accounts escheated to governmental authorities

Insights

Financial Analyst

Interactive Brokers' March 2025 performance metrics reveal robust year-over-year growth across key areas, painting a positive picture of expanding market share and financial strength. The 44% YoY increase in DARTs to 3.471 million demonstrates significant trading activity growth, despite a seasonal 4% MoM decline.

The firm's client equity reached $573.5 billion (up 23% YoY), while margin loan balances grew to $63.7 billion (up 24% YoY), indicating that customers are increasingly leveraging IBKR's competitive margin rates. This interest income provides a valuable revenue stream in addition to commission income.

Most impressive is IBKR's client account growth of 32% YoY to 3.62 million accounts, with 87,700 net new accounts in March alone (excluding 13,300 escheated accounts). This translates to a monthly growth rate of approximately 2.4%, showcasing IBKR's ability to attract new customers at scale.

The growth metrics demonstrate IBKR's increasing market penetration, particularly as the company maintains competitive pricing with an average commission of just $2.85 per cleared commissionable order. For IBKR PRO clients, the total cost for executing U.S. stocks was just 3.3 basis points in March (3.9 basis points for the trailing twelve months), highlighting IBKR's value proposition of efficient, low-cost execution.

The consistent growth across accounts, client assets, and trading activity suggests IBKR is successfully executing its strategy of attracting both retail and institutional clients with its advanced technology and competitive pricing structure.

GREENWICH, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: IBKR) an automated global electronic broker, today reported its Electronic Brokerage monthly performance metrics for March.

Brokerage highlights for the month included:

• 3.471 million Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs)¹, 44% higher than prior year and 4% lower than prior month.
• Ending client equity of $573.5 billion, 23% higher than prior year and 2% lower than prior month.
• Ending client margin loan balances of $63.7 billion, 24% higher than prior year and about even with prior month.
• Ending client credit balances of $125.2 billion, including $4.9 billion in insured bank deposit sweeps², 19% higher than prior year and 1% higher than prior month.
• 3.62 million client accounts, 32% higher than prior year and 2% higher than prior month.
  • The real account growth in March was 87.7 thousand accounts vs the calculated change in accounts of 74.4 thousand. The difference is attributable to 13.3 thousand accounts that were escheated to governmental authorities, as required by law.
• 211 annualized average cleared DARTs¹ per client account.
• Average commission per cleared Commissionable Order³ of $2.85 including exchange, clearing and regulatory fees. Key products:

March 2025

Average

Average Commission per

Order Size

Cleared Commissionable Order

Stocks

959 shares

$2.17

Equity Options

6.4 contracts

$3.89

Futures

2.8 contracts

$3.90

Futures include options on futures. We estimate exchange, clearing and regulatory fees to be 57% of the futures commissions.

Other financial information for Interactive Brokers Group:

• Mark to market on U.S. government securities portfolio⁴ was a gain of $462,000 for the quarter ended March 31^st.
• GLOBAL⁵: The value of the GLOBAL, reported in U.S. dollars, increased by 0.61% in March and increased by 0.75% for the quarter ended March 31^st.

In the interest of transparency, we quantify our IBKR PRO clients’ all-in cost of trade execution below.

For the full multimedia release with graph see link:

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/MonthlyMetrics

• Average U.S. Reg-NMS stock trade was $20,834 in March (dividing 2c by 1a in table below).
• In March, IBKR PRO clients’ total cost of executing and clearing U.S. Reg.-NMS stocks through IB was about 3.3 basis points of trade money⁶, as, measured against a daily VWAP⁷ benchmark (3.9 basis points net cost for the rolling twelve months).

IBKR PRO Clients' Reg.-NMS Stock Trading Expense Detail
All amounts are in millions, except %
																										Previous
		Apr '24		May '24		Jun '24		Jul '24		Aug '24		Sep '24		Oct '24		Nov '24		Dec '24		Jan '25		Feb '25		Mar '25		12 Months
#1a - Number of orders
Buys		8.36		8.80		8.07		10.09		9.84		8.38		10.93		11.40		13.32		12.74		12.40		12.19		126.52
Sells		6.21		6.67		5.83		7.55		7.53		6.54		8.33		8.62		9.66		8.97		9.08		8.71		93.70
Total		14.57		15.47		13.90		17.64		17.37		14.92		19.26		20.02		22.98		21.71		21.48		20.90		220.22
#1b - Number of shares purchased or sold
Shares bought		3,387		4,712		3,305		3,855		4,154		3,614		4,645		4,744		5,517		5,223		4,946		5,047		53,149
Shares sold		3,190		4,374		3,100		3,767		3,960		3,436		4,390		4,497		5,232		4,868		4,738		4,804		50,356
Total		6,577		9,087		6,405		7,622		8,114		7,050		9,035		9,241		10,749		10,090		9,683		9,851		103,504
#2 - Trade money including price, commissions and fees
2a Buy money		$161,619		$170,762		$151,903		$189,920		$182,908		$155,758		$190,627		$204,300		$214,806		$208,418		$200,026		$216,767		$2,247,813
2b Sell money		$165,541		$169,343		$147,514		$191,745		$186,274		$154,825		$188,444		$201,932		$215,520		$203,359		$204,689		$218,670		$2,247,856
2c Total		$327,160		$340,105		$299,417		$381,664		$369,182		$310,583		$379,071		$406,232		$430,326		$411,778		$404,715		$435,437		$4,495,670
#3 - Trade value at Daily VWAP
3a Buy value		$161,534		$170,686		$151,684		$189,851		$182,849		$155,692		$190,537		$204,249		$214,660		$208,258		$199,957		$216,676		$2,246,632
3b Sell value		$165,602		$169,379		$147,417		$191,812		$186,440		$154,890		$188,493		$201,995		$215,621		$203,305		$204,744		$218,725		$2,248,424
3c Total		$327,135		$340,066		$299,101		$381,663		$369,289		$310,582		$379,030		$406,243		$430,281		$411,563		$404,702		$435,401		$4,495,056
#4 - Total trade expense, including commissions and fees, relative to Daily VWAP
4a Buys (2a-3a)		$85.1		$75.4		$219.1		$68.8		$58.6		$66.6		$90.7		$51.4		$145.7		$160.6		$68.5		$90.6		$1,181.0
4b Sells (3b-2b)		$60.7		$36.0		($97.1)		$67.5		$166.0		$65.7		$49.6		$62.3		$100.9		($54.3)		$55.2		$55.2		$567.8
4c Total trade expense		$145.8		$111.4		$122.0		$136.3		$224.6		$132.3		$140.3		$113.8		$246.6		$106.4		$123.7		$145.8		$1,748.8
Trade expense as percentage of trade money
4c/2c		0.045%		0.033%		0.041%		0.036%		0.061%		0.043%		0.037%		0.028%		0.057%		0.026%		0.031%		0.033%		0.039%
#5 - Trade expense categories
5a Total commissions & fees		$28.8		$36.1		$30.4		$37.1		$38.1		$33.2		$41.9		$43.5		$47.4		$46.2		$45.5		$45.7		$473.9
5b Execution cost (4c-5a)		$117.0		$75.4		$91.6		$99.2		$186.5		$99.1		$98.4		$70.3		$199.2		$60.2		$78.2		$100.0		$1,275.1
#6 - Trade expense categories as percentage of trade money
Total commissions & fees (5a/2c)		0.009%		0.011%		0.010%		0.010%		0.010%		0.011%		0.011%		0.011%		0.011%		0.011%		0.011%		0.010%		0.011%
Execution cost (5b/2c)		0.036%		0.022%		0.031%		0.026%		0.051%		0.032%		0.026%		0.017%		0.046%		0.015%		0.020%		0.023%		0.028%
Net Expense to IB Clients		0.045%		0.033%		0.041%		0.036%		0.061%		0.043%		0.037%		0.028%		0.057%		0.026%		0.031%		0.033%		0.039%

The above illustrates that the rolling twelve months’ average all-in cost of an IBKR PRO client U.S. Reg.-NMS stock trade was 3.9 basis points.

________________
Note 1: Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) – customer orders divided by the number of trading days in the period.

Note 2: FDIC insured client bank deposit sweep program balances with participating banks. These deposits are not reported in the Company’s statement of financial condition.

Note 3: Commissionable Order – a customer order that generates commissions.

Note 4: Mark to market gains and losses on investments in U.S. government securities and associated hedges are included in Other Income. In the general course of business, we hold these investments to maturity. As a result, accumulated mark to market gains or losses should converge to zero at maturity. Accounting conventions require broker-dealers, unlike banks, to mark all investments to market.

Note 5: In connection with our currency diversification strategy, we have determined to base our net worth in GLOBALs, a basket of 10 major currencies in which we hold our equity. The total effect of the currency diversification strategy is reported in Comprehensive Income and the components are reported in (1) Other Income and (2) Other Comprehensive Income (“OCI”) on the balance sheet. The effect of the GLOBAL on our comprehensive income can be estimated by multiplying the total equity for the period by the change in the U.S. dollar value of the GLOBAL during the same period.

Note 6: Trade money is the total amount of money clients spent or received, including all commissions and fees.

Note 7: Consistent with the clients’ trading activity, the computed VWAP benchmark includes extended trading hours.

_________________

More information, including historical results for each of the above metrics, can be found on the investor relations page of the Company’s corporate web site, www.interactivebrokers.com/ir.

About Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.:

Interactive Brokers Group affiliates provide automated trade execution and custody of securities, commodities, foreign exchange, and forecast contracts around the clock on over 160 markets in numerous countries and currencies, from a single unified platform to clients worldwide. We serve individual investors, hedge funds, proprietary trading groups, financial advisors and introducing brokers. Our four decades of focus on technology and automation has enabled us to equip our clients with a uniquely sophisticated platform to manage their investment portfolios. We strive to provide our clients with advantageous execution prices and trading, risk and portfolio management tools, research facilities and investment products, all at low or no cost, positioning them to achieve superior returns on investments. Interactive Brokers has consistently earned recognition as a top broker, garnering multiple awards and accolades from respected industry sources such as Barron’s, Investopedia, Stockbrokers.com, and many others.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

The foregoing information contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views with respect to certain current and future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are and will be, as the case may be, subject to many risks, uncertainties and factors relating to the company's operations and business environment which may cause the company's actual results to be materially different from any future results, expressed or implied, in these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to the company on the date of this release. The company does not undertake to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it clear that any statements expressed or implied therein will not be realized. Additional information on risk factors that could potentially affect the company's financial results may be found in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250401695554/en/

Contacts for Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.: media@ibkr.com

Source: Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.

FAQ

What was Interactive Brokers' (IBKR) client equity growth in March 2025?

IBKR's client equity reached $573.5 billion, representing a 23% increase year-over-year, though showing a 2% decrease from the previous month.

How many new accounts did IBKR add in March 2025?

IBKR added 87.7 thousand real accounts in March 2025, with 13.3 thousand accounts being escheated to governmental authorities.

What was IBKR's Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) performance in March 2025?

IBKR reported 3.471 million DARTs, showing a 44% increase year-over-year but a 4% decrease from the previous month.

What were IBKR's margin loan balances in March 2025?

Margin loan balances reached $63.7 billion, showing a 24% increase year-over-year and remaining stable compared to the previous month.

What was the average commission per cleared order for IBKR in March 2025?

The average commission per cleared commissionable order was $2.85, including exchange, clearing and regulatory fees.