Yes, and it's declining rapidly and is not the case anymore. Further, Wall Street has completely wrote off this division and gives them no value for it beyond book value. Trust me on this one. The company is ALL about the broker these days.
Ok, it was just spaculation on my part (I want to see their 3 quarter results, if market making will beat brokerage for the quarter, if yes it will be a red flag in my eyes). The other option is that these people are just STUPID and have no clue about their costumers concerns, they could have given a 1 month notice without any risk.
Investors hate trading businesses. That's why so many of them trade at PE's of 4 or 5. The revenues aren't considered stable and recurring enough. Whereas, brokerage commissions are riskless (as long as you liquidate dangerous accounts ) and generally recurring.
Correct. It's a fantastic business. Sticky and very profitable. But if this rule goes into effect, my entire account will be transferred by the end of October. I've already started the process of looking at prime brokers. Sad, I really like IB too.
Let me start by saying I feel IB is an excellent firm offering an excellent product that many traders enjoy using, but is not right for everyone. In my opinion, IB is a trading firm (Timberhill), that has a brokerage arm to make money, reduce the over head for the trading arm, and provide order flow to Timberhill at the lowest cost. There is nothing wrong with any of this, but to me, it appears the trading arm is their primary focus. I would want my broker to put my needs first. As a share holder of IB, understand that Thomas Peterffy controls the Class B voting stock and 86% of the company. The following is from their annual report: -------------------------------- Control by Thomas Peterffy of a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock may give rise to conflicts of interests and could discourage a change of control that other stockholders may favor, which could negatively affect our stock price, and adversely affect stockholders in other ways. Thomas Peterffy, our founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and his affiliates beneficially own approximately 86% of the economic interests and all of the voting interests in IBG Holdings LLC, which owns all of our Class B common stock, representing approximately 89.2% of the combined voting power of all classes of our voting stock. As a result, Mr. Peterffy has the ability to elect all of the members of our board of directors and thereby to control our management and affairs, including determinations with respect to acquisitions, dispositions, material expansions or contractions of our business, entry into new lines of business, borrowings, issuances of common stock or other securities, and the declaration and payment of dividends on our common stock. In addition, Mr. Peterffy is able to determine the outcome of all matters requiring stockholder approval and will be able to cause or prevent a change of control of our company or a change in the composition of our board of directors and could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of our company. The concentration of ownership could discourage potential takeover attempts that other stockholders may favor and could deprive stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their common stock as part of a sale of our company and this may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. Moreover, because of Mr. Peterffyâs substantial ownership, we are eligible to be and are, treated as a ââcontrolled companyââ for purposes of the NASDAQ Marketplace Rules. As a result, we are not be required by NASDAQ to have a majority of independent directors or to maintain Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees composed entirely of independent directors to continue to list the shares of our common stock on The NASDAQ Global Select Market (ââNASDAQ GSââ). Our Compensation Committee is comprised of Messrs. Thomas Peterffy (Chairman of the Compensation Committee) and Earl H. Nemser (our Vice Chairman). Mr. Peterffyâs membership on the Compensation Committee may give rise to conflicts of interests in that Mr. Peterffy is able to influence all matters relating to executive compensation, including his own compensation.
All you have to do is listen to the last conference call and you will see TP is totally focused on the broker side of the business. He doesn't care about the market making side. He says they need the market making side for the technology to grow the broker side. I am also an IBKR shareholder.