Interactive Brokers LLC (IB) is an American multinational brokerage firm. It operates the largest electronic trading platform in the United States by number of transactions with average daily revenue. The company trades stocks, options, futures, EFPs, futures, forex, bonds and funds. Since most major brokers have reduced their stock commissions to $0, Interactive Brokers has gone from one of the cheapest brokers to relatively expensive for its Pro offering when it comes to trading. Interactive Brokers` pricing structure is quite complex. There are three types of commissions on U.S. stocks. In 1983, Peterffy attempted to computerize the options market, and he first targeted the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). [7] At that time, dealers still used fair value price sheets, which were previously updated once or twice a day. In 1983, Timber Hill developed the first handheld computers for retail.

As Peterffy explained in a 2016 interview, battery-powered devices had touchscreens on which the user could enter a stock price, and they generated recommended option prices,[9][10] and they continually tracked positions and revalued stock options. [11] However, he immediately encountered resistance from the exchange`s leaders. When he first brought a 12-inch (30 cm) by 9-inch (23 cm) wide (23 cm) device to the purse, a scholarship committee told him it was too big. When reducing the size of the device, the committee said no analyzers could be used on the stock exchange floor. Since he was effectively prevented from using the CBOE, he tried to use his devices on other exchanges. [7] Interactive Brokers Group has nine directors, including Thomas Peterffy, Chairman of the Board, who is the largest shareholder who can elect board members. [1] (page 24) The company employs 1,649 people; 1,365 of them hold shares in the company. [1] (page 17) Interactive Brokers employs computer programmers and IT staff. Programmers are five to one superior to other employees.

[7] Approximately nine percent of employees work in legal or compliance departments. [40] Interactive Brokers` trading experience stands out among all brokers once you join TWS. TWS allows you to set order goals for each asset class and set keyboard shortcuts for quick order submission. Tasks can be deployed for later execution, individually or in batches. You can set a date and time for the transfer of an order, or configure a complex conditional order that is activated when certain conditions are met, such as a previous order execution or an index that reaches a certain value. The possibilities for entering orders are virtually unlimited. You can even connect an app to place automated trades with TWS or subscribe to third-party trading signals. The fees and commissions listed above are visible to clients, but there are other ways brokers make money that you can`t see. It is the largest subsidiary of the brokerage group Interactive Brokers Group, Inc., which was founded by President Thomas Peterffy, an early innovator in computer-assisted trading.

IB is operated by the United States. Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, New York Stock Exchange, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, National Futures Association, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other self-regulatory organizations. The Company is a provider of fully disclosed, omnibus and undisclosed brokerage accounts[Note 1] and provides correspondence clearing services to 200 introducing brokers worldwide. The firm manages 607,000 client brokerage accounts with a client capital of $128.4 billion. Interactive Brokers Group owns 40% of OneChicago and is a financial partner and founder of the Boston Options Exchange. Interactive Brokers is headquartered at 163,510 square feet (15,191 m2) in downtown Greenwich, Connecticut. [1] (page 36) Traders and programmers work in units with multiple monitors and more overhead, while several network engineers occupy an area around the clock, six days a week. [6] The company also leases offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., West Palm Beach, Montreal, Vancouver, Boston, San Francisco, Secaucus, Zug, London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Tallinn, Budapest, St. Petersburg, Vaduz, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. [44] (page 34) More than half of the company`s customers live outside the United States in about 200 countries. [44] (page 15) If you have purchased a particular stock over time, you can select the tax lot when closing part of the position or set an account-wide standard for selecting tax bundles (e.g., average cost, last in, first out, etc.). The Tax Optimizer tool allows a client to match specific lots on a business basis and maximize tax efficiency by previewing the profits and losses of each available scenario.

The tax-free matching scenarios are last in, first out (LIFO), first in, first out (FIFO), maximizing long-term losses, maximizing short-term losses, maximizing long-term profit, maximizing short-term profit, and highest costs. You can also set an account-wide standard for dividend reinvestment. IBKR offers the Trader`s Diary in TWS, a note-taking feature that allows you to record and save trading notes and ideas related to any product. Traders` Journal also offers the ability to save a screenshot of any screen in TWS, including charts, as part of a note. Clients can attach notes to trades and also set up charts to display both orders and executed trades. It is one of the most comprehensive trading journals available from any broker. The original organization became a market maker in 1977 as T.P. & Co., and was renamed Timber Hill Inc. in 1982. It was the first to use fair value price sheets on a trading floor in 1979 and the first to use handheld computers for trading in 1983. In 1987, Peterffy also created the first fully automated algorithmic trading system to automatically create orders and submit them to a market. Between 1993 and 1994, the Interactive Brokers Group was formed and the subsidiary Interactive Brokers LLC was created to control electronic brokerage and separate it from Timber Hill, which performs market making.

In 2014, Interactive Brokers became the first online broker to offer direct access to IEX, a private forum for securities trading. Currently, about 16.6% of the company is public, while the rest is owned by employees and their subsidiaries. Thomas Peterffy is the largest shareholder.