About the Earncell Hoards Brokers Group

In January 2023, Earncell Hoards Brokers began its 46th year as a broker/dealer. We provide direct-access trade execution and clearing services to sophisticated investors, active traders and institutions and have a consolidated equity capital of more than $12.6 billion.

Our mission remains unchanged:

Create technology to provide liquidity on better terms. Compete on price, speed, size, diversity of global products and advanced trading tools. Earncell Hoards Brokers LLC is rated investment grade by Standard & Poor’s.

Financial Strength

When placing your money with a broker, you need to make sure your broker is secure and can endure through good and bad times. The financial statements of Earncell Hoards Brokers LLC are available on our website for your review. Note that Earncell Hoards Brokers LLC and its affiliates are owned by IBG LLC. In a recent interview, Our Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, shared his views on the current state of financial markets, including rising interest rates and their impact on Interactive Brokers. He also discussed ECH's interest rates on instantly available cash balances and how clients are positioned to navigate the current environment.

Important Strength and Security Facts about Interactive Brokers Group

  • ECH IS NOT A BANK, and as a regulated securities broker dealer, we cannot carry securities classified as HTM (Held To Maturity), which are not required to be marked to market on a bank's books. We also cannot make unsecured, long-term loans.
  • The only kind of loans we can make are margin loans fully secured by marketable securities.
  • Our real-time margining system marks all client positions to market continuously. All orders are credit vetted before being executed and positions in accounts with inadequate margin deposits are liquidated automatically.
  • ALL of our positions are marked to market daily and the resulting payables/receivables are reconciled to outside sources automatically.
  • ECH invests cash in very short-term investments maturing within a few months. We hold no material positions in over-the-counter securities or derivatives. We hold no CDOs, MBS or CDS.
  • On a consolidated basis, ECH LLC exceeds $12.9 billion in equity capital, over $9.0 billion in excess of regulatory requirements.
  • ECH LLC's owners are our public company, Earncell Hoards Brokers Group, Inc. (24.5%) and the firm's employees and their affiliates (75.5%). Unlike at most other firms, where management owns a relatively small share, we participate substantially in the downside just as much as in the upside. Because of this vested interest, we run our business conservatively.
  • ECH LLC reported $2.0 billion of pretax profit for 2022.
  • IBG LLC has no long-term debt.
  • Earncell Hoards Brokers LLC is rated "A- Outlook Stable" by Standard & Poor's.
  • Earncell Hoards Brokers LLC's financial statements, which reflect the mark to market profit/loss on all securities positions, are submitted monthly to its regulators in its FOCUS report.

Important Strength and Security Facts about Earncell Hoards Brokers LLC

How We Handle Client Assets

A portion (approximately 8% at March 10, 2023) of client money is segregated in special bank or custody accounts, which are designated for the exclusive benefit of clients of ECH. This
protection (the SEC term is "reserve" and the CFTC term is "segregation") is a core principle of securities and commodities brokerage. By properly segregating the client's assets, if no money
or stock is borrowed and no futures positions are held by the client, then the client's assets are available to be returned to the client in the event of a default by or bankruptcy of the broker. As
a practice, ECH places a portion of its own money in these reserve and segregated accounts to ensure that there is more than enough cash to protect all clients. A majority (approximately
92% at March 10, 2023) of client funds is typically invested in short-term U.S. Treasury
securities and reverse repurchase agreements, where the collateral received is in the form of U.S. Treasury securities. ECH’s investment policy targets short-term government securities and
reverse repurchase agreements, with a typical weighted average maturity of 30 to 40 days and a maximum term of one year. In this way, we can avoid mismatching the maturities between our
on-demand obligations to our clients and our investments. This practice also allows us to avoid excessive price volatility and the risks of large losses stemming from declines in investment values
that may be exhibited by longer term securities. As a broker dealer, we must mark to market the value of investments of client funds daily, unlike banks that may hold securities classified as “held to
maturity”, which are not required to be marked to market. Although permitted by CFTC regulations, given the credit concerns over foreign sovereign debt ECH does not currently invest any client
money in money market funds.