interactive brokers group llc headquarters at one pickwick plaza formerly called timber hill group llc t.p. & co. type public traded as nasdaq ibkr industry financial services founded new york city 1978 ; 38 years ago 1978 1 headquarters greenwich connecticut united states area served worldwide key people thomas peterffy founder chairman & ceo products direct market access to stocks options futures forex bonds etfs and cfds services online brokerage direct access trading revenue us 1.0 billion 2013 2 net income us 417.6 million 2013 2 total assets us 39.0 billion 2014 3 total equity us 5.2 billion 2014 3 number of employees 901 march 2014 website www.interactivebrokers.com interactive brokers group inc. ibg inc. and interactive brokers group llc ibg llc are a corporate group whose subsidiaries are an automated global electronic market maker and broker . it is headquartered in greenwich connecticut and has offices in budapest chicago hong kong london montreal mumbai shanghai saint petersburg sydney tallinn tokyo and zug . the ib group was founded in 1994 by its chairman and ceo thomas peterffy 4 5 and consists of subsidiaries operating on most major stock option futures forex bond etf and cfd exchanges worldwide . on may 3 2007 the company issued 40 000 000 shares approximately 10 percent of the capital of ibg llc in a public offering at a price of us 30.01 per share under the nasdaq ticker symbol ibkr . 6 ibg s largest subsidiary is interactive brokers llc ib a us broker dealer formed in 1993 and the largest us electronic broker based on number of daily average revenue trades . 7 ibg s other major subsidiary is timber hill llc a us market maker formed in 1982 . about 11.5 percent of ibg inc. is public while the remainder is held by employees ; thomas peterffy is the largest shareholder . 8 ib is regulated by the u.s. securities and exchange commission the u.s. financial industry regulatory authority finra the new york stock exchange nyse the u.s. financial services authority sfa and foreign regulatory agencies . 9 the company owns 40 percent of the futures exchange onechicago and is an equity partner and founder of the boston options exchange . contents 1 history 1.1 1977 92 founding and company beginnings 1.2 1993 2000 interactive brokers 1.3 2001 present interactive brokers group 2 subsidiaries 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit 1977 92 founding and company beginnings edit company trading floor in 1977 thomas peterffy left his job designing commodity trading software for mocatta metals and bought a seat on the american stock exchange amex as an individual market maker . the following year he formed his first company named t.p. & co. to expand trading activities to several members under badge number 549 . the firm became the first to use daily printed fair value pricing sheets . in 1979 the company expanded to employ four people three of whom were amex members . in 1982 peterffy renamed t.p. & co. to timber hill inc. ; he named it after a road to a favorite retreat 10 11 p30 1 one of his properties on hutchin hill road in bearsville new york . in 1983 peterffy sought to computerize the option market and he first targeted the chicago board options exchange . 10 at the time brokers still used fair value pricing sheets which were by then updated once or twice a day . in 1983 timber hill created the first handheld computers used for trading which tracked positions and continually re priced options on stocks . 5 however he immediately encountered opposition from the heads of the exchange . when he first brought a 12 inch long by 9 inch wide device to the exchange floor a committee in the exchange told him it was too big . when he shrank the device further the committee stated that no analytic devices were allowed to be used on the exchange floor . effectively blocked from using the cboe he sought to use his devices in other exchanges . 10 also in 1983 timber hill expanded to 12 employees and began trading on the philadelphia stock exchange . 5 in 1984 timber hill began coding a computerized stock index futures and options trading system and in february 1985 timber hill s system and network was brought online . the system was designed to centrally price and manage risk on a portfolio of equity derivatives that are traded in multiple locations around the country . 5 timber hill joined the options clearing corporation in 1984 the new york futures exchange in 1985 the pacific stock exchange and the options division of the nyse the following year . the firm began trading on the chicago mercantile exchange the chicago board of trade and the chicago board of exchange in 1985 . in 1987 timber hill joined the national securities clearing corporation and the depository trust company now merged as the depository trust & clearing corporation . by 1987 timber hill had 67 employees and had become self clearing in equity securities . 5 in 1987 the cboe was about to close down its s & p 500 options market due to the options not attracting trader interest . because of this peterffy pledged that timber hill would make tight markets in the product for a year if the exchange would allow the traders to use handheld computers in the trading pit . the exchange agreed and more traders were attracted by the change in pricing ; today s & p 500 options are the most actively traded index options in the us . 10 in 1990 timber hill deutschland gmbh was incorporated in germany and shortly thereafter began trading equity derivatives at the deutsche terminborse dtb marking the first time that timber hill used one of its trading system on a fully automated exchange . in 1992 timber hill began trading at the swiss options and financial futures exchange which merged with dtb in 1998 to become eurex ; at this time timber hill had 142 employees . 5 1993 2000 interactive brokers edit ib technical operations interactive brokers inc. was incorporated in 1993 as a us broker dealer making timber hill s electronic network and trade execution services available to customers . in 1994 timber hill europe began trading at the european options exchange the om exchange and the london international financial futures and options exchange . also in 1994 timber hill deutschland became a member of the belgium futures and options exchange ib became a member of the new york stock exchange and the timber hill group llc was formed as a holding company of timber hill operations . in 1995 timber hill france s.a. was incorporated and began making markets at the paris traded equity options market and the march terme international de france futures exchange . also in 1995 timber hill hong kong began market making at the hong kong futures exchange ib created its trader workstation for professional customers to access foreign exchanges and ib executed its first trades for public customers . 5 in 1996 timber hill securities hong kong limited was incorporated and began trading at the hong kong stock exchange . in 1997 timber hill australia pty limited was incorporated in australia and timber hill europe began trading in norway and became a member of the austrian derivatives exchange . by 1997 timber hill had 284 employees . in 1998 timber hill canada company was formed and ib began to clear online trades for retail customers connected directly to globex to trade s & p futures . in 1999 ib introduced a smart order routing linkage for multiple listed equity options and ib began to clear online trades for customers trading stocks and equity derivatives through the ib system . 5 also in 1999 goldman sachs attempted to purchase the company and was turned away . 10 by 2000 ib began to clear online trades for customers trading stocks and equity derivatives through the ib system . also in 2000 interactive brokers u.k. limited was formed and timber hill became a primary market maker on the international securities exchange . 5 2001 present interactive brokers group edit in 2001 the corporate name of the timber hill group llc was changed to interactive brokers group llc which at the time handled 200 000 trades per day . 5 in 2002 interactive brokers along with the bourse de montr al and the boston stock exchange created the boston options exchange . also in 2002 ib introduced mobile trader and an application programming interface api for customers and developers to integrate their systems with the ib trading system . in 2002 timber hill became the major market maker for the newly introduced us single stock futures . in 2003 interactive brokers expanded execution and clearing services to include canadian stocks equity index options and futures italian index options and futures german equity options japanese index options and futures dutch index options and futures uk equity options and belgian index options and futures . in 2004 ib introduced direct market access to its customers on the frankfurt and stuttgart exchanges . ib upgraded its account management platform including a new release of trader workstation real time charts scanners fundamental analytics booktrader optiontrader and advisor account trade allocations . in 2005 ib released idealpro now ideal fx . in 2006 the ib options intelligent report was launched to report on unusual concentrations of trading interests and changing levels of uncertainty in the option markets . also during that year ibg took stakes in onechicago the ise stock exchange and the cboe stock exchange . in 2006 interactive brokers became the first to offer penny priced options . 5 on may 3 2007 ibg had its initial public offering and sold 40 million shares at 30.01 per share . 5 the shares sold represented approximately 10 percent of the interest in ibg llc . currently about 13.6 percent of the company is publicly held while the remainder is held by employees . thomas peterffy is the largest shareholder of ibg holdings . also in 2007 a real time portfolio margin platform was introduced for customers trading multiple asset classes ; this provided increased leverage with real time risk management . as well exchanges for physicals were launched for customers to have a market determined aaa rated financing alternative to randomly set broker rates . in 2008 ib released the ib risk navigatorsm . also in 2008 several trading algorithms were introduced to the trader workstation including the accumulate distribute algo which allows traders to slice larger orders into smaller non uniform increments and release them at random intervals over time to help achieve best price execution for large volume orders . 5 in 2009 ib launched the itws trading app and the portfolio analyst tool . in 2011 ib released ibis capital introduction for hedge funds stock yield enhancement and mobiletws for ipad . as well interactive brokers became the largest online us broker as measured by daily average revenue trades . 5 during the occupy wall street protests of 2011 2012 ib ran a series of controversial television advertisements with the catchphrase join the 1 % . 12 in 2012 ib began offering wealth manager and money manager accounts and opened the fully electronic money manager marketplace . ib also released the tws mosaic trading interface and the tax optimizer for managing capital gains losses in that year . 5 in 2013 ib released the probability lab and traders insight tools . also in 2013 ib integrated ib fyi automated portfolio relevant notifications into the tws providing information such as shares becoming available for borrowing and options that may be exercised to obtain declared dividends . 5 on april 3 2014 interactive brokers became the first online broker to offer direct access to iex . 7 subsidiaries edit interactive brokers group subsidiaries include 5 brokerage interactive brokers llc