Interactive Brokers LLC (NASDAQ: IBKR) recorded 2.44 million daily average revenue trades (DARTs) in February 2024, marking a notable increase from the 2.2 million transactions observed in the previous month. This figure represents the highest DARTs reported in two years, indicating an 11 percent monthly surge and a 15 percent year-on-year rise.
In terms of equity balance in customers’ accounts during February, the figure totaled $448.2 billion, which is 36% higher than the previous year and roughly 6 percent relative to the prior month.
Additionally, the ending client margin loan balances stood at $47.4 billion, up 31% from the previous year and 7% higher than January. Interactive Brokers’ client credit balances, including insured bank deposit sweeps, totaled $102.9 billion. This figure is 3% higher than the previous year, but even with prior month.
The number of client accounts continued to grow, reaching 2.69 million, which is 24% higher than the previous year and 2% higher than the previous month. On average, there were 206 annualized cleared DARTs per client account.
The Greenwich, Connecticut-based company also revealed that on average it charged clients commission fees of $3.03 per order in February. This figure includes exchange, clearing and regulatory fees, with the key product metrics coming out as follows:
For stocks, the average order size was 847 shares, with an average commission of $1.81 per order.Equity options saw an average of 6.6 contracts per order, with a commission of $4.01.Futures, including options on futures, averaged 3.2 contracts per order, with a commission of $4.59. Around 56% of the futures commissions are related to exchange, clearing, and regulatory fees.
Interactive Brokers made headlines in November when it obtained a license to engage in virtual asset trading for retail clients. This development is also part of a larger wave of regulatory approvals in the region, with Hashkey historically being the first crypto exchange in Hong Kong to be licensed for retail crypto asset offerings back in August.
Interactive Brokers already offers low-fee cryptocurrency trading for professional investors in Hong Kong. The firm, one of the largest brokerages in the US, opened an early-access waitlist to eligible clients including individuals with over HKD 8 million in assets or institutions with assets greater than HKD 40 million. They are able to trade and custody Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) alongside stocks, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, creating a unified client experience.
