Interactive Brokers to List its Shares on Nasdaq, Leaves IEX

Automated global electronic broker Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. has announced this Monday that it will be moving the listing of its shares away from IEX exchange back to Nasdaq.

The broker expects that its common stock will commence trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on the 7th of October this year. The announcement comes one year since the company became the inaugural listing on the IEX Exchange.

On IEX, Interactive Brokers’ shares traded under the ticker symbol “IBKR,” the broker said in its statement today that its shares will continue to trade under the same ticker symbol.

Thomas Peterffy, Chairman and Founder of Interactive Brokers, explained the broker’s reasons behind the change by saying: "Last year, we switched to IEX because we believed that their advanced exchange model, including their mid-price orders and crumbling order algorithms, provided the opportunity for substantially better Execution prices for orders routed there.

“We hoped that we would be followed by other listings and, as the exchange gained greater volume, the public investing in those shares would benefit. Unfortunately, IEX exchange could not gain more listings and there were fewer Market Makers trading our stock on IEX than on Nasdaq. We gave it a year and we tried our best, but we now have to accept that, in spite of our good intentions, returning to Nasdaq will be best for our shareholders."

IEX says goodbye to listings business

At the same time, IEX has also announced today that it will be exiting the corporate listings business and will instead focus on its exchange trading operations. According to the Co-Founder and CEO of IEX Group, Brad Katsuyama, the exchange is exiting the listings business as it no longer makes sense, in terms of the company’s strategy and resources.

“Interactive Brokers (IEX: IBKR) Founder and CEO Thomas Peterffy is an industry icon who I have great respect for,” Katsuyama highlighted in a statement released by IEX today.

“And after discussions with him about the future of listings, we jointly made the decision to announce IEX’s exit from the listings business and IBKR’s switch back to Nasdaq. We are extremely grateful that IBKR was our first listing as they were the first retail broker to trade on IEX and will continue to be a leading Member of our exchange.”

By leaving its listings business behind, IEX will be able to streamline its operations and focus more of its time into its trading product pipeline. In the next year, the company expects to launch multiple new products.

Nasdaq welcomes back Interactive Brokers

Adena Friedman, the President and CEO of Nasdaq, said that the exchange was proud to welcome back Interactive Brokers to the family of “the world’s largest and most innovative companies.”

"Rejoining Nasdaq will give Interactive Brokers exposure to the leading indexes in the investment community, insights from our proprietary Market Intelligence Desk, and access to our unparalleled marketing assets. We look forward to working with and supporting Interactive Brokers as it continues to grow," Friedman added.