| 02 October 2009

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) reported September monthly metrics today and showed improvement across the board. Trading activity is still well below year-ago figures, but the month-over-month numbers have shown improvement, evidence that more active investors are sneaking back into the markets.

Customer DARTs (Daily Average Revenue Trades) are 17% lower than a year ago, but up 6% over August. Total customer accounts are up 19% over a year ago and 2% over August.

We expect to hear from smaller rival TradeStation Securities (TRAD) later today or Monday. Interactive Broker's gains bode well for the firm. Last month we reported that TradeStation hit a new low in customer activity.

Reported highlights for the month:

• 360 thousand Daily Average Revenue Trades(1) (DARTs) in September 2009, up 6% from prior month.
• 646 annualized average cleared DARTs per customer account.
• 127.5 thousand customer accounts, 19% higher than September 2008 and 2% higher than prior month.
• Ending customer equity of $13.4 billion, 43% higher than September 2008 and 6% higher than prior month.
• Ending customer credit balances of $9.8 billion and customer margin loan balances of $2.9 billion.