1. IBKR's DARTs increased by 4% year-over-year, but fell 21% from last month. 2. Client equity reached $779.9 billion, up 37% year-over-year. 3. Client margin loan balances rose 40% from last year, totaling $90.2 billion. 4. Number of client accounts jumped 32% to 4.4 million compared to last year. 5. IBKR's average commission per cleared order stood at $2.57.
FAQ
Why Bullish?
The significant growth in client equity and account numbers suggests healthy business expansion, although a drop in DARTs may deter investor optimism.
How important is it?
The metrics provided directly indicate IBKR's operational health, which is crucial for investor sentiment.
Why Short Term?
Immediate market reactions are likely driven by recent performance metrics; long-term impacts will depend on future growth and retention strategies.
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR) an automated global electronic broker, today reported its Electronic Brokerage monthly performance metrics for December.
Brokerage highlights for the month included:
- 3.384 million Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs)1, 4% higher than prior year and 21% lower than prior month.
- Ending client equity of $779.9 billion, 37% higher than prior year and 1% higher than prior month.
- Ending client margin loan balances of $90.2 billion, 40% higher than prior year and 8% higher than prior month.
- Ending client credit balances of $160.1 billion, including $6.4 billion in insured bank deposit sweeps2, 34% higher than prior year and 4% higher than prior month.
- 4.399 million client accounts, 32% higher than prior year and 2% higher than prior month.
- 166 annualized average cleared DARTs1 per client account.
- Average commission per cleared Commissionable Order3 of $2.57 including exchange, clearing and regulatory fees. Key products:
| December 2025 | Average | Average Commission per |
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| Order Size | Cleared Commissionable Order |
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| Stocks | 829 shares | $1.85 |
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| Equity Options | 6.6 contracts | $3.69 |
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| Futures | 3.0 contracts | $4.05 |
Futures include options on futures. We estimate exchange, clearing and regulatory fees to be 59% of the futures commissions.
Other financial information for Interactive Brokers Group:
- Mark to market on U.S. government securities portfolio4 was a gain of $0.6 million for the quarter, and a gain of $1.2 million for the year ended December 31st.
- GLOBAL5: The value of the GLOBAL, reported in U.S. dollars, increased by 0.28% in December and increased by 2.049% for the year to date.
In the interest of transparency, we quantify our IBKR PRO clients' all-in cost of trade execution below.
For the full multimedia release with graph see link:
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/MonthlyMetrics
- Average U.S. Reg-NMS stock trade was $22,608 in December (dividing 2c by 1a in table below).
- In December, IBKR PRO clients' total cost of executing and clearing U.S. Reg.-NMS stocks through IB was about 3.0 basis points of trade money6, as, measured against a daily VWAP7 benchmark (2.6 basis points net cost for the rolling twelve months).
| IBKR PRO Clients' Reg.-NMS Stock Trading Expense Detail | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All amounts are in millions, except % | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Previous |
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Jan '25 |
Feb '25 |
Mar '25 |
Apr '25 |
May '25 |
June '25 |
July '25 |
Aug '25 |
Sep '25 |
Oct '25 |
Nov '25 |
Dec '25 |
12 Months |
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| #1a - Number of orders | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Buys | 12.74 |
12.40 |
12.19 |
13.79 |
12.15 |
12.36 |
13.94 |
13.28 |
14.80 |
19.06 |
13.73 |
11.92 |
162.36 |
||||||||||||||
| Sells | 8.97 |
9.08 |
8.71 |
10.16 |
9.49 |
9.57 |
10.51 |
9.75 |
11.09 |
14.10 |
9.80 |
8.74 |
119.97 |
||||||||||||||
| Total | 21.71 |
21.48 |
20.90 |
23.95 |
21.65 |
21.94 |
24.45 |
23.03 |
25.89 |
33.16 |
23.54 |
20.66 |
282.33 |
||||||||||||||
| #1b - Number of shares purchased or sold | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shares bought | 5,223 |
4,946 |
5,047 |
6,008 |
5,659 |
5,422 |
6,915 |
5,755 |
6,343 |
8,692 |
5,535 |
4,959 |
70,502 |
||||||||||||||
| Shares sold | 4,868 |
4,738 |
4,804 |
5,850 |
5,212 |
5,100 |
6,444 |
5,493 |
6,025 |
8,226 |
5,329 |
4,633 |
66,720 |
||||||||||||||
| Total | 10,090 |
9,683 |
9,851 |
11,858 |
10,871 |
10,522 |
13,358 |
11,247 |
12,368 |
16,918 |
10,864 |
9,592 |
137,223 |
||||||||||||||
| #2 - Trade money including price, commissions and fees | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2a Buy money | $208,418 |
$200,026 |
$216,767 |
$254,062 |
$222,977 |
$222,050 |
$242,089 |
$243,723 |
$269,595 |
$346,785 |
$269,238 |
$235,591 |
$2,931,320 |
||||||||||||||
| 2b Sell money | $203,359 |
$204,689 |
$218,670 |
$259,783 |
$219,486 |
$219,444 |
$237,255 |
$238,138 |
$263,885 |
$340,246 |
$266,447 |
$231,495 |
$2,902,898 |
||||||||||||||
| 2c Total | $411,778 |
$404,715 |
$435,437 |
$513,845 |
$442,463 |
$441,494 |
$479,345 |
$481,861 |
$533,479 |
$687,031 |
$535,685 |
$467,087 |
$5,834,218 |
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| #3 - Trade value at Daily VWAP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3a Buy value | $208,258 |
$199,957 |
$216,676 |
$254,052 |
$223,005 |
$222,033 |
$241,994 |
$243,696 |
$269,551 |
$346,696 |
$269,135 |
$235,484 |
$2,930,538 |
||||||||||||||
| 3b Sell value | $203,305 |
$204,744 |
$218,725 |
$259,985 |
$219,608 |
$219,540 |
$237,248 |
$238,200 |
$263,939 |
$340,324 |
$266,503 |
$231,527 |
$2,903,649 |
||||||||||||||
| 3c Total | $411,563 |
$404,702 |
$435,401 |
$514,038 |
$442,613 |
$441,573 |
$479,242 |
$481,896 |
$533,490 |
$687,020 |
$535,638 |
$467,010 |
$5,834,187 |
||||||||||||||
| #4 - Total trade expense, including commissions and fees, relative to Daily VWAP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4a Buys (2a-3a) | $160.6 |
$68.5 |
$90.6 |
$9.6 |
($28.0) |
$17.0 |
$95.3 |
$26.8 |
$43.3 |
$89.0 |
$102.5 |
$107.4 |
$782.5 |
||||||||||||||
| 4b Sells (3b-2b) | ($54.3) |
$55.2 |
$55.2 |
$202.8 |
$122.0 |
$96.5 |
($7.6) |
$61.6 |
$54.2 |
$78.2 |
$56.1 |
$31.2 |
$751.1 |
||||||||||||||
| 4c Total trade expense | $106.4 |
$123.7 |
$145.8 |
$212.4 |
$94.0 |
$113.5 |
$87.7 |
$88.3 |
$97.5 |
$167.2 |
$158.6 |
$138.6 |
$1,533.6 |
||||||||||||||
| Trade expense as percentage of trade money | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4c/2c | 0.026% |
0.031% |
0.033% |
0.041% |
0.021% |
0.026% |
0.018% |
0.018% |
0.018% |
0.024% |
0.030% |
0.030% |
0.026% |
||||||||||||||
| #5 - Trade expense categories | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5a Total commissions & fees | $46.2 |
$45.5 |
$45.7 |
$52.7 |
$44.5 |
$41.5 |
$51.4 |
$46.4 |
$51.0 |
$69.2 |
$46.1 |
$39.2 |
$579.4 |
||||||||||||||
| 5b Execution cost (4c-5a) | $60.2 |
$78.2 |
$100.0 |
$159.7 |
$49.5 |
$72.0 |
$36.3 |
$41.9 |
$46.5 |
$97.9 |
$112.5 |
$99.4 |
$954.1 |
||||||||||||||
| #6 - Trade expense categories as percentage of trade money | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total commissions & fees (5a/2c) | 0.011% |
0.011% |
0.010% |
0.010% |
0.010% |
0.010% |
0.010% |
0.010% |
0.010% |
0.010% |
0.009% |
0.009% |
0.010% |
||||||||||||||
| Execution cost (5b/2c) | 0.015% |
0.020% |
0.023% |
0.031% |
0.011% |
0.016% |
0.008% |
0.008% |
0.008% |
0.014% |
0.021% |
0.021% |
0.016% |
||||||||||||||
| Net Expense to IB Clients | 0.026% |
0.031% |
0.033% |
0.041% |
0.021% |
0.026% |
0.018% |
0.018% |
0.018% |
0.024% |
0.030% |
0.030% |
0.026% |
||||||||||||||
The above illustrates that the rolling twelve months' average all-in cost of an IBKR PRO client U.S. Reg.-NMS stock trade was 2.6 basis points.
________________ |
Note 1: Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) – customer orders divided by the number of trading days in the period.
Note 2: FDIC insured client bank deposit sweep program balances with participating banks. These deposits are not reported in the Company's statement of financial condition.
Note 3: Commissionable Order – a customer order that generates commissions.
Note 4: Mark to market gains and losses on investments in U.S. government securities and associated hedges are included in Other Income. In the general course of business, we hold these investments to maturity. As a result, accumulated mark to market gains or losses should converge to zero at maturity. Accounting conventions require broker-dealers, unlike banks, to mark all investments to market.
Note 5: In connection with our currency diversification strategy, we have determined to base our net worth in GLOBALs, a basket of 10 major currencies in which we hold our equity. The total effect of the currency diversification strategy is reported in Comprehensive Income and the components are reported in (1) Other Income and (2) Other Comprehensive Income ("OCI") on the balance sheet. The effect of the GLOBAL on our comprehensive income can be estimated by multiplying the total equity for the period by the change in the U.S. dollar value of the GLOBAL during the same period.
Note 6: Trade money is the total amount of money clients spent or received, including all commissions and fees.
Note 7: Consistent with the clients' trading activity, the computed VWAP benchmark includes extended trading hours.
________________ |
More information, including historical results for each of the above metrics, can be found on the investor relations page of the Company's corporate web site, www.interactivebrokers.com/ir.
About Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.:
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR) is a member of the S&P 500. Its affiliates provide automated trade execution and custody of securities, commodities, foreign exchange, and forecast contracts around the clock on over 160 markets in numerous countries and currencies from a single unified platform to clients worldwide. We serve individual investors, hedge funds, proprietary trading groups, financial advisors and introducing brokers. Our four decades of focus on technology and automation have enabled us to equip our clients with a uniquely sophisticated platform to manage their investment portfolios. We strive to provide our clients with advantageous execution prices and trading, risk and portfolio management tools, research facilities and investment products, all at low or no cost, positioning them to achieve superior returns on investments. Interactive Brokers has consistently earned recognition as a top broker, garnering multiple awards and accolades from respected industry sources such as Barron's, Investopedia, Stockbrokers.com, and many others.
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.
Follow Interactive Brokers on social media:
US and World (except Europe): Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, TikTok
UK and Europe: Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260102619678/en/
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.
Media: Katherine Ewert, media@ibkr.com