Interactive Brokers’ fee-generating trades hit 2.3 million in May
Electronic brokerage firm Interactive Brokers LLC (NASDAQ:IBKR) said its trading volumes rose in May, an indication that investor confidence in the financial markets is rebounding after having been fairly mixed over the past few months.
Rising volatility has improved the trading volumes, with May data showing the best monthly reading since March. But it is not clear whether that will be enough to accelerate the revenue growth after the company reported a notable drop in the first quarter, or how it could affect margins for the multi-asset broker and market-maker.
During May 2022, the number of DARTs was reported at 2.3 million transactions, a rise of four percent month-over-month from 2.2 million in April. Over a year-on-year basis, Interactive Brokers saw a slight increase in its DARTs with May’s figure up by two percent relative to 2.25 million reported in May 2021.
In terms of equity balance in customers’ accounts during May 2022, the figure totaled $314.6 billion, down by 10 percent on a monthly basis. Interactive Brokers also failed to best its May 2021 equivalent, having notched a three percent drop relative to the prior year.
Additionally, the discount brokerage has won 42,000 new accounts as volatile markets had seemingly revived interest from retail investors. May’s active accounts increased to 1.89 million, or 2 percent higher from April and 36 percent above the previous year’s figure of 1.38 million accounts. At this pace, Interactive Brokers is set to cross the two million milestone for the first time in the company’s 44-year history.
IBKR had a busy month
Interactive Brokers had been in the news over the past few weeks. Just yesterday, the company rolled out the fractional trading feature for European stocks and ETFs, three years after its initial launch for US securities back in 2019.
The move, geared toward attracting more young clients, eliminates the barriers that many investors face when trying to invest in a diversified portfolio of listed securities. Fractional share trading allows investors to diversify their investment portfolios by spreading their relatively small capital over a broader range of stocks.
TradingView also integrated the US-listed brokerage firm as the latest online trading partner. Interactive Brokers traders will now have direct access to TradingView from their own accounts, which yields many benefits for users in the form of an integrated trading terminal and other suites of tools. With the soft launch, investors will have the ability to trade futures and stocks, with more asset classes launching soon.
