Interactive Brokers is an automated global broker. It holds and services accounts for hedge funds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, registered investment advisors, proprietary trading groups, introducing brokers and individual investors. Customers trade stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, mutual funds, precious metals and forecast contracts on electronic exchanges around the world, and can trade some cryptocurrencies through outside providers.
The company earns money from its brokerage and market making activities, and its revenue depends on trading volume and on interest rate levels. It built its own software to automate broker-dealer work, and says this makes it one of the lowest cost providers of broker services. Its roots are in a market making business that its chairman, Thomas Peterffy, started on the American Stock Exchange in 1977.
Its main offices are in Greenwich, Connecticut and Chicago, with offices in Canada, Europe, Dubai, India, China, Japan, Singapore and Australia. It had 3,182 employees at the end of 2025. The listed company, IBG, Inc., is a holding company that owns a minority share of IBG LLC, which runs the businesses.