The electronic brokerage segment at Interactive Brokers LLC (NASDAQ:IBKR), which deals with clearance and settlement of trades for individual and institutional clients globally, has shown 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 December 2018. On a year-on-year basis, Interactive Brokers also saw a weak volume in its DARTs with January’s figure dipping approximately six 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 eight 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 one 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 for futures orders.
Earlier last month, Interactive Brokers posted mixed financial results 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.
