Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
US automated forex brokerage Interactive Brokers said on Thursday its daily average revenue trades (DARTs) fell to 576,000 in August 2016, which is the lowest so far this year. The last time the broker posted such low trading volume was in December 2014. The figure represents a drop of 22% over the year and 4% month-on-month. In comparison, the monthly DARTS the broker has in the previous seven months ranged between 602,000 and 830,000.
Annualized cleared DARTs per client account also fell in August to their lowest since the beginning of the year to 370, posting a decline of more than 5% from the previous month.
Meanwhile, the number of client accounts Interactive Brokers handled continues to increase and reached record-high 365,300 in August. This represents a slight growth of 1% from July and a jump of 15% from a year earlier.
Despite declining trading volumes, Interactive Brokers’ client credit balances rose to $41.6 billion in August, which is up by a monthly 1% and an annual 17%. Meanwhile, ending client margin loan balances stayed flat on the year at $16.3 billion last month, while posting a slight increase of 1% from July. More details about Interactive Brokers’ monthly metrics since the beginning of 2016 follow:
The broker’s clients paid last month an average commission of $3.77 per cleared order. On The amount included exchange, clearing and regulatory fees, which together account for about 57% of the commission. More data for the commissions the broker’s clients paid in February on the most popular trading instruments follows:
August 2016 | Average commission per cleared client order | Average order size |
Stocks | $2.16 | 1,897 shares |
Equity Options | $5.74 | 8.6 contracts |
Futures | $6.65 | 3.8 contracts |
Connecticut-based Interactive Brokers is a broker and a market maker. Through its numerous subsidiaries, the company offers online automated trading in stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds, contracts for difference (CFDs ) and funds. It serves traders, investors and institutions in over 100 market across the globe. The brokerage has offices in the North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The group companies hold licenses by the relevant authorities in the US and the UK.
As of 1 September, Interactive Brokers discontinued offering leveraged forex trading services to US retail clients with less than $10 million in deposited assets. The move is the result of regulatory restrictions for the retail forex market. Only time will tell how this change will affect the operations of the broker.
