Electronic brokerage firm Interactive Brokers LLC (NASDAQ:IBKR) said its trading volumes dropped in April from a month earlier, an indication that investor confidence in the financial market is not rebounding yet after having been fairly mixed in the first quarter.
The data shows that the trend of rising accounts number is still in play, though volumes were slightly interrupted. It is not clear whether that will be enough to accelerate the revenue growth after the listed discount broker reported flat growth in revenues for the three months through March 2019.
During April 2019, the number of DARTs were reported at 778,000, a fall of ten percent month-over-month from 867,000 in March 2019. On a year-on-year basis, Interactive Brokers saw a less bleak performance in its DARTs with April’s figure dropping approximately four percent relative to over 812,000 transactions reported in April 2018.
In terms of equity balance in customers’ accounts during April 2019, the figure totaled $151.2 billion, up by two percent on a monthly basis from $47.6 billion the previous month. In addition, Interactive Brokers bested its April 2018 equivalent, having notched a 16 percent advance relative to the figures of the prior year.
Business Highlights
Interactive Brokers’ ending client margin loan balances also came in at $26.7 billion in April 2019, higher five month-on-month from $25.5 billion in March 2019. Across a yearly interval, the figure moved lower by ten percent when weighed against $29.7 billion in April 2018.
Business highlights, according to the company’s press release, also showed that a total of 631,000 customer accounts were active at IB during April 2019. The figure was higher by one percent month-on-month when compared to March 2019 (622.600 accounts), and 20.0 percent higher year-on-year from 525,500 accounts.
On average, in April 2019 Interactive Brokers charged clients commission fees of $3.65 per order, including Exchange , Clearing and regulatory fees, with the key products metrics coming out at $2.39 for stocks, $4.93 for equity options and $6.19 for futures orders.
Earlier today, the UK arm of the Greenwich, Connecticut-based reported its 2018 financial results which showed a year-on-year decline in profits, falling by 18.7 percent from £10.5 million in 2017 to £8.5 million in 2018.
