Quote from laputa:
I just finished reading the prospectus... and it's a great read. IB is a breed of its own, and I think we can learn much from this prospectus even if not investing...
From the prospectus, it is quite obvious the brokerage business is booming... and it is very likely it will continue to do so. As an IB customer myself, I can tell how much more it is than a typical online brokerage... it is like a self service prime brokerage and I have no doubt it will only gain market share in the future...
What really worries me is it's market making business. 77% of revenue comes from Timber Hill... and it seems the margin in that business is shrinking due to tighter spread and competitors catching up in technology development... everytime we hear record profit from goldman sachs "prop trading" operation, it's market share lost to them... and they're creating all these dark pools these days, potentially keeping liquidity from leaking out of their own circles...
And the whole thing looks too much like Thomas Petterfly wanting to cash out... dunno if it's his age or something else...
If IB is a purely brokerage business, I would bet heavy in this stock... but now it's bundled with Timber Hill... although it's a money machine at the moment, it doesn't look too good in the future... especially there aren't much more markets to expand into now that they're already operating in 60 exchanges worldwide...
hmm...