Interactive Brokers Introduces Flat-Commission, Direct Access, No-Minimum Trading on Aussie Options



    Interactive Brokers (IBKR), the online broker of global futures,
    options and foreign exchange, is pleased to offer direct access
    trading to Australian stocks and options via its award-winning,
    multi-product desktop trading platform, Trader Workstation (TWS).

    The new product offering enables clients to trade ASX-listed
    options on a flat commission structure of $1.88 per contract plus
    exchange fees, with no minimum to trade. It also provides a vast array
    of order types, the ability to make direct quote requests, and direct
    access trading for option spreads.

    Australian stocks are now being offered at a competitive
    commission rate of .08% of trade value, with a $6 trade minimum.
    Interactive Brokers also gives traders the ability to short these
    Australian stocks.

    Interactive Brokers ranks among the top 20 largest U.S. securities
    firms and has been honored by Barron's magazine for its
    high-performance software and low-cost trade structure. Approximately
    20 percent of the world's option volume passes through Interactive
    Brokers every trading day.

    In a statement, Interactive Brokers managing director Steve Kelsey
    said the decision to introduce ASX-listed stocks and options to its
    clients was driven by the company's ongoing desire to offer access to
    liquid derivatives markets globally.

    "The Australian options market is a dynamic, liquid environment in
    which clients are keen to navigate, so it was naturally in our
    interest to make this frontier available through our trading platform
    - but on far more competitive and attractive price terms than the
    market has offered up to now."

    Last month the SEC granted certain classes of the ASX Exchange
    Traded Options Market "no action relief," allowing US investors to
    access the market directly through Interactive Brokers.

    About Interactive Brokers

    Interactive Brokers Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries,
    is an automated global electronic market maker and broker specializing
    in routing orders and executing and processing trades in securities,
    futures and foreign exchange instruments as a member of more than 70
    electronic exchanges and trading venues around the world. The company
    provides professional traders and investors with direct access to
    stocks, options, futures, forex and bonds from a single IB Universal
    Account(SM). Employing proprietary software on electronic exchanges
    worldwide, Interactive Brokers is continuously integrating its
    software with a growing number of exchanges and trading venues into
    one automatically functioning, computerized platform that requires
    minimal human intervention.