Interactive Brokers’ Metrics Make Weak Start to the Year

Electronic brokerage segment at Interactive Brokers LLC (NASDAQ:IBKR), which deals with clearance and settlement of trades for individual and institutional clients globally, has showed weak performance in January.
During January 2019, total client DARTs came in at 851,000, a fall of -11 percent month-over-month from ‎953,000‎ in . On a year-on-year basis, Interactive Brokers also saw a weak volume in its DARTs with January’s figure dipping approximately 6 percent relative to 903,000 reported in January 2018.

In terms of equity balance in customers’ accounts during January 2019, the figure totaled $139.2 billion, an increase of 3.7 percent year-on-year from $134 billion. In addition, Interactive Brokers managed to best its December 2018 equivalent, having notched a gain of 8 percent from $128.4 billion in the prior month.
Interactive Brokers’ ending client margin loan balances came in at $23.8 billion in January 2019, down 12 percent from ‎$26.9 billion in December 2018. Across a yearly interval, the figure moved lower by 21.0 percent when weighed against ‎$30.1 billion in January 2018.
Mixed financial results
Business highlights, according to the company’s press release, also showed that a total of 607,000 customer accounts were active at IB during January 2019. The figure was higher by 1.0 percent month-on-month when compared to December 2018 (‎598,200 ‎accounts), and 22.0 percent higher from 496,700 accounts a year ago.
On average, in January 2019 Interactive Brokers charged clients commission fees of $3.57 per order, including exchange, clearing and regulatory fees, with the key products metrics coming out at $2.17 for stocks, $4.85 for equity options and $6.00 for futures orders.
Earlier last month, Interactive Brokers posted for 2018 with the company’s net revenues for Q4 amounting to $492 million, lower by five percent compared with $515 million in the same period last year. Income before tax totaled $309 million, down 15 percent year-over-year from $364 million in Q4 2017.
The drop in net revenue was primarily due to an $18 million reversal on the company’s currency diversification strategy, which swung from a $6 million gain in Q4 2017 to a $12 million loss in 2018.