About David Friedland
In a September 2024 interview, David Friedland, Managing Director of Asia Pacific Operations at Interactive Brokers, stated that 39% of the firm's clients are based in Asia Pacific and that the company has been in the region since 1995. He said that trading has been "pretty dominant" in US markets, particularly in technology, semiconductors, and AI, and that leveraged ETFs, especially semiconductor ETFs, had seen strong business. Friedland noted that clients tend to trade volatility, and that when volatility picks up, business generally increases. He observed a push toward stock options for hedging or taking advantage of large moves, as well as activity in the futures market. Friedland said he expected volatility to increase as the US election approaches, adding that "generally, business has been strong."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from David Friedland's recent appearances.
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Transcript (4 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
Well over a third of client accounts are in APAC over here. Can you give us some visibility then on trading volumes, what that means for revenue, and broadly building market share in this region in the second half?
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David Friedland0:15
Yeah, absolutely. So it is, we have 39% of our clients are based in Asia Pacific. We've been out here since 1995 and we continue to grow each year. Trading is pretty dominant in the US markets. People tend to trade their home market. Like in Hong Kong, they'll trade Hong Kong and the US. And the US markets have been dominant, particularly as you mentioned the tech names, semiconductors, AI. And in addition to that, a lot of leveraged ETFs, the semiconductor ETFs have done extremely strong business, particularly last week with the selloff.
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Interviewer0:52
David, in terms of leading indicators and flows and traded volumes, is there any indication there that markets are going to get more volatile? Because we're seeing a lot of chop, I've got to say, in the VIX.
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David Friedland1:14
Well, absolutely. I don't know if they become more volatile, but clients tend to trade volatility. So when volatility picks up, business picks up in general. And we've seen that not only in Nvidia and Tesla and other Magnificent Seven stocks, but we're seeing a big push to stock options where clients can take more advantage of the volatility with different strategies, either hedging their individual stock trades or taking advantage of large moves. So we see that. It's also quite busy in the futures market as well, where clients are taking very quick punts on market moves. So we'll see. I don't know if volatility is going to pick up or go down. I imagine we'll see some increase in volatility as the election approaches and there's more uncertainty in the markets. But generally, business has been strong, and that's just a function of what's going on in the world. It's a crazy place right now.
