盈透董事长致全体股东的一封信

2020年2月10日

尊敬的股东：

随着时间推移，我们的股东队伍也在不断变化，定期对公司概况进行介绍有助于您了解我们的历史、我们当前的处境以及我们对未来的预期。

四十三年前，我拿着20万美元在美国证券交易所的期权交易大厅创立了盈透证券。一路走来，除了1991年和1992年的小规模亏损让我们没能完全覆盖日常开支外，公司每年都有盈利。今天，我们的权益资本已超过80亿美元，全部都来自股息分配后的留存收益；而我们的市值也已达到230亿美元。

二十世纪九十年代，随着美国乃至全球范围的公开叫价交易所开始转向电子化，我们搭建了自己的电子化经纪平台，这样我们和我们的场内交易员同行便得以继续开展交易活动。

我们最初的客户便是那些专业交易员，交易是他们的主要收入来源，他们所必需的便是最佳成交执行、零托管费用、极低的融资融券利率以及闲置现金和借出股票方面较高的利息回报。

我们客户中有许多是国际套利交易者，因此我们又在我们的平台上加入了全球交易与投资的功能。

这些客户中有一部分后来转战对冲基金，要我们搭建适合于复杂对冲基金的交易工具，从而开启了一个全新的客户群。此外，为了将自己与其他主经纪商区分开来，我们开发出一系列新技术，如实时在线显示特定股票的借贷利率以及可行的债券买卖报价。

另一群客户则决定集中资源组成自营交易集团，使用的是为共同基金创建的高级功能。

还有一群客户走进了资金管理行业，成立了投资顾问企业。这一客户群体则需要完全不同的账户结构、自动化的投资组合创建功能以及分配和再平衡工具，我们都一一为其搭建。

自始至终，我们的宗旨都是：为一个客户搭建的工具必须对所有客户免费开放。这也是为什么今天我们平台上的每位客户，大到大型机构、小到单个个人 ，都能够使用我们从最简单到最复杂的所有研究和投资工具。

虽然我们不会像主经纪和RIA托管对手公司一样提供资本引荐，但我们认为功能更全的平台、加上更优的执行价格和更低的费用成本便能助力我们的客户超越同行。优秀的业绩便是最好的推荐。

至于近期经济前景，我相信前路依然坦荡，然而这可能会受到新型冠状病毒和选举之年政治动荡的影响。有人讨厌川普，有人喜欢他，有人态度尚不鲜明。对于市场观察者来说，将总统的个性放到一边，问题在于是否能够通过任命秉持自由市场理念的法官和监管人员，以确保未来经济能够实现继续增长。

选民是希望官员对民众生活施以更多监管和政府调控，还是希望放松监管、给予民众更多个人自由？这是美国人十一月份将面临的问题，他们的答案将对全球市场产生长久深刻的影响。

（以下为英文原文）

February 10, 2020

Dear Shareholders:

As your ranks change over the years, a periodic overview of the Company may be helpful to understand where we have come from, where we are today and what we see for the future.

Forty three years ago, I started Interactive Brokers on the options trading floor of the American Stock Exchange with $200,000 of capital. Over that time period, with the exception of small losses in 1991 and 1992, when we could not quite cover overhead, the company has been profitable every year. Today our equity capital exceeds $8 billion, all from retained earnings after dividends, and our market value is $23 billion.

As open outcry exchanges in the U.S. and worldwide began to go electronic in the 1990s, we built our electronic brokerage platform so that we, along with our fellow floor traders, would be able to carry on with our trading activities.

Our initial clients were the professional traders whose trading activity was their main source of income, which necessitated the very best possible executions, with zero custodial charges, very low interest rates on margin loans and borrowed shares, and high interest rates paid on idle cash and shares lent.

Many of our clients were international arbitrageurs, so we incorporated the ability to trade and invest in products globally onto our platform.

Some of these clients then moved on to hedge funds and asked us to build the trading tools needed by sophisticated hedge funds, opening up a new client base. In addition, to distinguish ourselves from other prime brokers, we developed technology like online, real time displays of our loan and borrow rates for specific shares and actionable bids and offers for bonds.

Another group of clients decided to pool their resources to form proprietary trading groups, and used the sophisticated features created for hedge funds.

Yet another group went into the money management business by forming Investment Advisory businesses. This group needed different account structures, automated portfolio building, and allocation and rebalancing tools which we built for them.

All along, our strategy has been that whatever we build for one client must be available to all, at no charge. That is the reason why today, everyone on our platform, from large institutions to a single individual, has the ability to use all of our research and investment tools, from the simplest to the most complex.

While we do not provide capital introduction like our prime broker and RIA custodian competitors, we maintain that providing a more versatile platform, with better execution prices and lower costs, allows all of our clients to outperform their peers. Superior performance is the best recommendation.

As to the immediate economic outlook, I see smooth sailing ahead, though this may be interrupted by the coronavirus and potential election year political turbulence. Some people hate Trump, some like him and many do not know just what to think. The question for market observers is whether the President’s personality can be put aside to ensure that future economic growth, through the appointments of judges and regulators with free market convictions, can continue.

Do voters want officials to favor more regulation and government control over their lives, or do they want less regulation and individual freedom? That is the question Americans will answer in November and their answer will reverberate through the markets all around the world.

Sincerely,

Thomas Peterffy

Chairman