GREENWICH, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS:IBKR) today announced that it will discontinue options market making activities globally, which are conducted through its Timber Hill companies. The Company expects to phase out these operations substantially over the coming months. The Company intends to continue conducting certain trading activities in stocks and related instruments.
Thomas Peterffy, Chairman and CEO, said, “Having initiated the first automated option market making operation in the mid ’80s, which grew into the largest such business on a global scale over the next 25 years, it’s been painful for me to see it deteriorating in the last few years. But we do not have a choice in this matter. Today retail order-flow is purchased by large order internalizers and joining them would represent a conflict we do not wish to have. On the other hand, providing liquidity to sophisticated, professional synthesizers of short-term fundamental, technical and big data is not a profitable activity.
“We must focus on continuing to build our brokerage platform to empower our customers with first rate execution and account management capabilities at very low cost. This remains our mission, to which we must devote our full attention. In retrospect, 40 years of market making gave us the financial resources and the unique expertise to develop our superior brokerage platform for cost and execution sensitive, professional investors and traders, and to give them the edge to successfully compete in the marketplace.”
Management expects to complete its comprehensive review of facilities and staffing in the near future with the goal of optimizing the deployment of the Company’s resources.
In connection with this shift toward electronic brokerage, we plan to rebalance the composition of currencies in the GLOBAL, a basket of 15 major currencies in which we hold our equity, by increasing the relative weight of the U.S. dollar vs. the other currencies to approximately 70% from its current approximately 47% weight. The new composition will be effective at the close of business on March 31, 2017 and the conversion to the new targeted currency holdings will take place shortly thereafter.
About Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.:
Interactive Brokers
Group affiliates provide automated trade execution and custody of
securities, commodities and foreign exchange around the clock on over
120 markets in numerous countries and currencies from a single IB
Universal AccountSM to customers worldwide. We service
individual investors, hedge funds, proprietary trading groups, financial
advisors and introducing brokers. Our four decades of focus on
technology and automation has enabled us to equip our customers with a
uniquely sophisticated platform to manage their investment portfolios at
extremely low cost relative to the financial services industry. We
strive to provide our customers with advantageous execution prices and
trading, risk and portfolio management tools, research facilities and
investment products, all at unusually low prices, positioning them to
achieve superior returns compared to our competitors.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
The
foregoing information contains certain forward-looking statements that
reflect the Company’s current views with respect to certain current and
future events and financial performance. These forward-looking
statements are and will be, as the case may be, subject to many risks,
uncertainties and factors relating to the Company’s operations and
business environment which may cause the Company’s actual results to be
materially different from any future results, expressed or implied, in
these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements in this
release are based upon information available to the company on the date
of this release. The company does not undertake to publicly update or
revise its forward-looking statements even if experience or future
changes make it clear that any statements expressed or implied therein
will not be realized. Additional information on risk factors that could
potentially affect the Company’s financial results may be found in the
Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
