Interactive Brokers is an electronic brokerage that provides trading access to stocks, options, futures, currencies and bonds across dozens of exchanges worldwide, built around a highly automated platform rather than the branch networks and financial advisors that traditional brokerages rely on. Its customer base skews toward active traders, financial professionals and international clients who value low costs and broad market access over hand-holding, a different market than firms focused on retail retirement savers. The company earns money through trading commissions, interest on customer cash balances and margin lending, which means its results are sensitive to both trading volume and prevailing interest rates. Interactive Brokers has built a reputation for aggressively low costs and broad global market access, a positioning that has let it grow its account base steadily as trading has become more of a commodity.