Interactive Brokers, Inc. (IB) is an American multinational brokerage firm headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

[2] In addition to its headquarters in Greenwich, on the Gold Coast of Connecticut, the company has offices in major financial centers worldwide.

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.

By 1983, Peterffy was sending orders to the floor from his upstairs office; he devised a system to read the data from a Quotron machine by measuring the electric pulses in the wire and decoding them.

The system was designed to centrally price and manage risk on a portfolio of equity derivatives traded in multiple locations around the country.

Peterffy responded by designing a code system for his traders to read colored bars emitted in patterns from the video displays of computers in the booths.

[6] In response, the exchange required the company to turn the screens away from the trading floor, which prompted Peterffy to hire a clerk to communicate with the traders via hand signals.

Peterffy later built miniature radio transmitters into the handhelds and the exchange computers to allow data to automatically flow to them.

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 on the trading floor.

In 1992, Timber Hill began trading at the Swiss Options and Financial Futures Exchange, which merged with DTB in 1998 to become Eurex.

It consisted of an IBM computer that would pull data from a Nasdaq terminal connected to it and carry out trades on a fully automated basis.

Peterffy and his team designed a system with a camera to read the terminal, a computer to decode the visual data, and mechanical fingers to type in the trade orders, which was then accepted by the Nasdaq.

[7]: 17 Interactive Brokers Inc. was incorporated in 1993 as a U.S. broker-dealer, to provide technology developed by Timber Hill for electronic network and trade execution services to customers.

In 1995, Timber Hill France S.A. was incorporated and began making markets at the Marché des Options Négociables de Paris (a subsidiary of Euronext Paris) and the Marché à Terme International de France futures exchange.

[6] In 2000, Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited was formed and Timber Hill became a primary market maker on the International Securities Exchange (ISE).

[10] In 2004, the company introduced direct market access to its customers on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Börse Stuttgart.

In the same year, IB upgraded its account management system and Trader Workstation, adding real-time data including charts, scanners, fundamental analytics, and tools to the platform.

[9][10][17][18] In December 2007, the company acquired FutureTrade Technologies, an integrated electronic equity and option trading service provider.

An IB FYI also can act to automatically suspend a customer's orders before the announcement of major economic events that influence the market.

[25] On April 3, 2014, the company became the first online broker to offer direct access to IEX, a private electronic communication network for trading securities, which was subsequently registered as an exchange.

[30] In October 2017, the company sold its market maker business, Timber Hill, to Two Sigma Investments.

[31][32][33] Milan Galik was appointed chief executive officer of the company in 2019, succeeding founder Thomas Peterffy, who remained as chairman.

[41] In December 2020, the company acquired the retail operations of Folio Investments, including 70,000 accounts, from Goldman Sachs.

[50][51][52] In August 2018, the company was fined $5.5 million over allegations that it broke federal rules on naked short selling.

[53] In August 2020, the company was fined $38 million for failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program and alleged compliance lapses, including failure to report suspicious trades.