MW Individual-investor ranks are burgeoning, according to Interactive Brokers. Here's what those investors are buying.

By Barbara Kollmeyer

Trading volumes surged in the first quarter, the company says

Interactive Brokers sees a steady stream of retail-account openings.

While retail investors may have shied away from some of the market volatility this year, they've stayed active and added to their numbers, according to results from Interactive Brokers Group.

The global the online brokerage platform $(IBKR)$, known for its lower fees, reported a 32% jump in individual and institutional account growth for the first quarter, in results reported late Tuesday. Total customer daily average revenue trades, or DARTs, reached 3.5 million trades per day, a 24% gain from a year before.

Chairman Thomas Peterffy said that, from the start of the Iran conflict, customers had "reacted proactively. They turned to commodities, oil and gas, agricultural products, and related activities. Of course, the feeling is that, while the headlines may soon subside, the after-effects will linger," he told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday.

Peterffy indicated customers trimmed their equity holdings by a few percentage points to focus more on commodities, even as they showed continued favor to oil-related stocks, though he noted there was no big rush into markets to catch a recent V-shaped bounce in equities.

Read: Traders pile into call options as fear of missing out grows, according to Cboe

Nancy Stuebe, senior director of investor relations at Interactive Brokers, said on an earnings call that overnight trading volumes nearly tripled on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter to 8.1 million trades, up from 2.8 million a year earlier and 6.2 million in the previous quarter.

The company flagged a 19% increase in commissions to $613 million on higher customer trading volumes, which rose 25% in stocks, 20% in futures - to a quarterly record - and 16% for options. Net interest income, a key metric showing what the company earns and the interest it pays out, rose 17% to $904 million, owing to higher average margin loans and credit balances among customers.

CEO Milak Galik commented on the recent elimination by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the pattern-day-trader rule, which prevented investors with less than $25,000 in their margin accounts from making more than four day trades within five business days.

"The regulators are basically replacing an outdated concept of counting trades and an arbitrary equity threshold or account size with a risk-based system," featuring real-time intraday margin requirements alongside an expectation is that this will broaden retail access, increase trading frequency and engagement, and boost liquidity in the markets, Galik said on the earnings call, adding that the move could "speed up the outcomes."

"The disciplined participants who have experienced some well-tried trading methodology will probably end up growing their accounts faster, whereas those that trade in a more haphazard fashion will probably realize their losses faster," he continued.

The brokerage reported earnings of 60 cents per share for the quarter, versus 48 cents a year ago, meeting the consensus forecast of analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue climbed to $1.67 billion from $1.43 billion, just shy of the $1.68 billion analysts had expected. It declared a dividend increase to 8.75 cents from 8 cents per share.

The stock was lower by just less than 2% after Wednesday's open but is up 23% this year and has risen 93% over a 12-month span.

Goldman Sachs analysts led by James Yaro cited a "solid quarter" for Interactive Brokers and a "best-in-class growth algorithm" that's remained intact. Yaro said Goldman expects continued expansion of the company's customer ranks, given how Interactive Brokers continues to invest in account acquisition.

The analysts at Goldman see a 25% increase in new accounts opened annually between 2025 and 2028 and a 13% top-line compound annual growth rate, with small risks from AI cutting into its business and risk stemming from crypto price volatility. "As a result," the analysts said, "IBKR remains a unique asset in the brokerage space, and we reiterate our buy rating."

-Barbara Kollmeyer

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April 22, 2026 09:54 ET (13:54 GMT)

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