Interactive Brokers Group Reports Brokerage Metrics and Other Financial Information for December 2020, Includes Reg.-NMS Execution Statistics

Rhea-AI Summary

Interactive Brokers Group (Nasdaq: IBKR) reported strong December performance metrics. Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) reached 2,301 thousand, a 198% increase year-over-year. Ending client equity climbed to $288.6 billion, marking a 66% rise. Client margin loan balances increased by 26% to $39.0 billion. Client credit balances also surged 34% to $77.7 billion. Additionally, 1,073 thousand client accounts were noted, a 56% increase year-over-year. Average commission per cleared order was $2.42. The overall trading environment remains robust with a slight loss in government securities impacting quarterly results.

Positive

• DARTs increased by 198% year-over-year.
• Client equity reached $288.6 billion, 66% higher than last year.
• Client margin loan balances rose 26% to $39.0 billion.
• Client credit balances climbed 34% to $77.7 billion.
• 1,073 thousand client accounts, a 56% year-over-year growth.

Negative

• Mark to market loss on U.S. government securities was $0.3 million for the quarter and $4.5 million year-to-date.

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: IBKR) an automated global electronic broker, today reported its Electronic Brokerage monthly performance metrics for December.

Brokerage highlights for the month included:

• 2,301 thousand Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs)¹, 198% higher than prior year and about even with prior month.
• Ending client equity of $288.6 billion, 66% higher than prior year and 7% higher than prior month.
• Ending client margin loan balances of $39.0 billion, 26% higher than prior year and 18% higher than prior month.
• Ending client credit balances of $77.7 billion, including $2.9 billion in insured bank deposit sweeps², 34% higher than prior year and 3% higher than prior month.
• 1,073 thousand client accounts, 56% higher than prior year and 3% higher than prior month.
• 486 annualized average cleared DARTs¹ per client account.
• Average commission per cleared Commissionable Order³ of $2.42 including exchange, clearing and regulatory fees. Key products:

					December 2020			Average Commission per			Average
								Cleared Commissionable Order			Order Size
					Stocks			$1.79			1,970 shares
					Equity Options			$3.68			6.5 contracts
					Futures			$4.25			2.9 contracts

Futures include options on futures. We estimate exchange, clearing and regulatory fees to be 56% of the futures commissions.

Other financial information for Interactive Brokers Group:

• Mark to market on U.S. government securities portfolio⁴ was a loss of $0.3 million for the quarter, and a loss of $4.5 million year to date.
• GLOBAL⁵: The value of the GLOBAL, reported in U.S. dollars, increased by 0.56% in December. Year to date, the value of the GLOBAL increased 1.45%.

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

• In December, IBKR PRO clients’ total cost of executing and clearing U.S. Reg.-NMS stocks through IB was about 3.7 basis points of trade money⁶, as measured against a daily VWAP⁷ benchmark (2.1 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
	Jan '20		Feb '20		Mar '20		Apr '20		May '20		Jun '20		Jul '20		Aug '20		Sep '20		Oct '20		Nov '20		Dec '20		12 Months
#1a - Number of orders
Buys	3.53		4.36		8.15		7.22		6.61		8.47		7.75		7.19		8.12		7.86		9.77		11.49		90.52
Sells	2.84		3.43		6.37		5.64		5.12		6.60		5.95		5.53		6.09		6.01		7.61		8.25		69.44
Total	6.37		7.79		14.52		12.86		11.73		15.07		13.70		12.72		14.21		13.87		17.38		19.74		159.96
#1b - Number of shares purchased or sold
Shares bought	1,663		1,856		3,835		3,530		2,896		4,004		3,376		2,742		2,614		2,834		3,778		4,166		37,292
Shares sold	1,581		1,824		3,698		3,258		2,649		3,779		3,165		2,620		2,512		2,660		3,574		3,824		35,143
Total	3,244		3,679		7,533		6,787		5,544		7,784		6,541		5,361		5,126		5,493		7,352		7,990		72,435
#2 - Trade money including price, commissions and fees
2a Buy money	$71,487		$94,581		$146,660		$121,940		$105,972		$131,186		$119,673		$109,579		$124,497		$110,098		$132,293		$136,858		$1,404,824
2b Sell money	$69,685		$94,073		$149,232		$118,489		$101,705		$126,528		$115,442		$105,936		$122,504		$107,298		$128,291		$130,548		$1,369,731
2c Total	$141,171		$188,654		$295,892		$240,429		$207,677		$257,713		$235,115		$215,515		$247,002		$217,396		$260,584		$267,406		$2,774,555
#3 - Trade value at Daily VWAP
3a Buy value	$71,480		$94,552		$146,684		$121,907		$105,961		$131,167		$119,639		$109,540		$124,425		$110,073		$132,284		$136,867		$1,404,578
3b Sell value	$69,705		$94,117		$149,238		$118,459		$101,741		$126,570		$115,479		$105,953		$122,523		$107,317		$128,297		$130,658		$1,370,057
3c Total	$141,186		$188,669		$295,921		$240,366		$207,702		$257,737		$235,117		$215,494		$246,947		$217,390		$260,581		$267,524		$2,774,635
#4 - Total trade expense, including commissions and fees, relative to Daily VWAP
4a Buys (2a-3a)	$6.2		$28.2		($23.5)		$33.5		$11.0		$18.6		$34.8		$39.0		$72.7		$25.5		$9.1		($9.2)		$245.8
4b Sells (3b-2b)	$20.7		$43.8		$5.2		($29.3)		$36.0		$42.7		$36.7		$17.8		$18.1		$19.1		$6.4		$109.1		$326.2
4c Total trade expense	$27.0		$72.0		($18.3)		$4.2		$47.0		$61.2		$71.5		$56.8		$90.8		$44.5		$15.5		$99.9		$571.9
Trade expense as percentage of trade money
4c/2c	0.019%		0.038%		-0.006%		0.002%		0.023%		0.023%		0.030%		0.026%		0.037%		0.020%		0.006%		0.037%		0.021%
#5 - Trade expense categories
5a Total commissions & fees	$14.3		$16.7		$31.9		$27.8		$24.2		$31.8		$26.8		$23.3		$23.8		$23.9		$29.3		$33.1		$306.9
5b Execution cost (4c-5a)	$12.7		$55.3		($50.2)		($23.6)		$22.8		$29.4		$44.6		$33.5		$67.0		$20.6		($13.9)		$66.8		$265.0
#6 - Trade expense categories as percentage of trade money
Total commissions & fees (5a/2c)	0.010%		0.009%		0.011%		0.012%		0.012%		0.012%		0.011%		0.011%		0.010%		0.011%		0.011%		0.012%		0.011%
Execution cost (5b/2c)	0.009%		0.029%		-0.017%		-0.010%		0.011%		0.011%		0.019%		0.015%		0.027%		0.009%		-0.005%		0.025%		0.010%
Net Expense to IB Clients	0.019%		0.038%		-0.006%		0.002%		0.023%		0.023%		0.030%		0.026%		0.037%		0.020%		0.006%		0.037%		0.021%

The above illustrates that the rolling twelve months’ average all-in cost of an IBKR PRO client U.S. Reg.-NMS stock trade was 2.1 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 and foreign exchange around the clock on over 135 markets in numerous countries and currencies, from a single IBKR Integrated Investment Account to clients worldwide. We service 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. Barron’s ranked Interactive Brokers #1 with 5 out of 5 stars in its February 24, 2020, Best Online Broker Review.

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/20210104005650/en/

FAQ

What were the Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) in December for IBKR?

In December, IBKR reported 2,301 thousand DARTs, which is a 198% increase compared to the previous year.

How much did client equity grow in December for Interactive Brokers?

Ending client equity grew to $288.6 billion, reflecting a 66% increase year-over-year.

What are the current client margin loan balances for IBKR?

Client margin loan balances stood at $39.0 billion, a 26% increase from the previous year.

How many client accounts does IBKR have as of December?

Interactive Brokers reported having 1,073 thousand client accounts, a 56% increase year-over-year.

What was IBKR's average commission per cleared order in December?

The average commission per cleared order was $2.42 for Interactive Brokers in December.