A popular American electronic trading platform Interactive Brokers reported single-digit month-over-month (MoM) growth in its daily average revenue trades (DARTs) and client accounts in May. While DARTs grew 5% to 1.86 million, the platform’s client accounts rose 2% to 2.26 million.

However, when compared to the same period last year, DARTs descended 19% while client accounts jumped by the same measure. Interactive Brokers disclosed the figures on Thursday in its brokerage metrics for May 2023.

Despite growing the DARTs from 1.765 million in April, Interactive Broker’s performance last month stands below the 2.055 million trades per day that generated revenue through commissions or fees earlier in March.

Average Commission Drops in May

In terms of other metrics, ending client equity, or the amount of money clients had in their trading accounts at the end of the month, rose 1% MoM to $345.1 billion and picked up 10% compared to the same period last year.

Furthermore, the amount of money owed to the brokerage by clients from leveraged trades also rose 1% to $39.5 billion. However, the ending client margin loan balance slumped 10% year-over-year.

Unlike the ending client equity and margin loan balance, Interactive Broker’s ending client credit balances, or the amount of money clients left in their trading account after all trades have been settled and all fees and charges deducted, decreased 1% to $98.7 billion, which is down from $99.2 billion in the prior month. However, the figure, which includes $2.9 billion in insured bank deposit sweeps, represents a gain of 8% over the balances from the same period a year earlier.

Moreover, Interactive Broker last month generated an average commission of $3.08 per cleared commissionable order, which is a 3% drop from the previous month. The figure includes exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term, clearing Clearing Clearing is a general term that simply means many different things depending on the subject and related industry. Most commonly, this refers to the reciprocal exchange between banks of checks and drafts, and the settlement of the differences, or the total of claims settled at a clearinghouse. In finance and banking, the word clearing has different meanings depending on the more specific business model. Moving checks from the bank where they were deposited to the bank on which they were drawn. Th Clearing is a general term that simply means many different things depending on the subject and related industry. Most commonly, this refers to the reciprocal exchange between banks of checks and drafts, and the settlement of the differences, or the total of claims settled at a clearinghouse. In finance and banking, the word clearing has different meanings depending on the more specific business model. Moving checks from the bank where they were deposited to the bank on which they were drawn. Th Read this Term and regulatory fees.

Giving a breakdown of its commissions across classes, the brokerage explained that it turned out $1.95 commission from an average of 1,013 shares, $4.43 from an average of 6.6 equity options contracts and $4.36 from an average of 3.3 futures contracts.

“Futures include options on futures,” Interactive Brokers said in the report. “We estimate exchange, clearing and regulatory fees to be 57% of the futures commissions.”

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