2008-02-18 Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR) Q4 2007 Earnings Call Transcript
Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ:IBKR) Q4 2007 Earnings Call January 24, 2008 5:30 PM ET
Executives
Alexander M. Ioffe - Chief Financial Officer, Electronic Brokerage
Thomas Peterffy - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President
Paul J. Brody - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, Secretary and Director
Analysts
Niamh Alexander - KBW
Edward Ditmire - Fox-Pitt Kelton
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
Jen Bullard - SFG
Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill
Michael Mackey – Kingdon Capital
K.C. Ambrecht - Millennium
James Ellman - Seacliff
Operator
主持人
Good day everyone and welcome to the Interactive Brokers Group fourth quarter financial results conference call. Today’s conference is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I’d like to turn the conference over to Mr. Alex Ioffe, Chief Financial Officer of Electronic Brokerage.
大家好，欢迎参加Interactive Brokers Group第四季度财务业绩电话会议。今天的会议正在录音。现在，为了进行开场致辞和介绍，我将会议交给Electronic Brokerage的首席财务官Alex Ioffe先生。
Alexander M. Ioffe
Thank you for joining us today for our fourth quarter and 2007 year-end conference call. After remarks reviewing our performance by Thomas Peterffy, our Chairman and Paul Brody, group CFO, we will be happy to answer questions.
感谢各位今天参加我们的第四季度及2007年年终电话会议。在Thomas Peterffy董事长和集团首席财务官Paul Brody对我们业绩进行点评之后，我们将很高兴回答大家的问题。
At this time I would like to remind everyone that today’s call may include forward-looking statements. These statements represent the company’s belief regarding future events that by their nature are uncertain and outside of the company’s control. The company’s actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from what is indicated in these forward-looking statements.
在此，我想提醒各位，今天的电话会议可能包含前瞻性陈述。这些陈述代表了公司对于未来事件的看法，而这些事件本质上是不确定且超出公司控制范围的。公司的实际业绩和财务状况可能与这些前瞻性陈述所指示的情况存在差异，甚至可能存在重大差异。
For discussion of some of the risks and factors that could affect the company’s future results, please see the description of risk factors in our filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I would also direct you to read the forward-looking disclaimers in our quarterly earnings release.
关于可能影响公司未来业绩的一些风险和因素的讨论，请参阅我们向美国证券交易委员会提交的文件中对风险因素的描述。我还建议您阅读我们季度财报中的前瞻性免责声明。
Now, to Thomas Peterffy.
现在，把话筒交给Thomas Peterffy。
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
Hello everybody. The $0.46 per share earnings for the fourth quarter were in line with our expectations. After a quiet October, business picked up in November and early December, before it came to the usual holiday doldrums at the end of the year.
大家好。第四季度每股0.46美元的收益符合我们的预期。经历了一个平静的十月后，十一月和十二月初业务开始回暖，随后在年底迎来了通常的节日萧条期。
I will first talk about Market Making. For the fourth quarter our Market Making contract volume increased by the 34%, and our profits per contract increased by approximately 7% relative to the prior year.
我将首先谈谈做市业务。在第四季度，我们的做市合约量增长了34%，而每份合约的利润相比去年大约提高了7%。
During the same period, worldwide exchange traded option volume increased by 48%. While our trading volumes and profits increased, our market share dropped by about one percentage point. This is the result of several events.
在同期，全球交易所交易的期权成交量增长了48%。虽然我们的交易量和利润都有所上升，但我们的市场份额下降了大约一个百分点。这是由几个事件共同导致的。
Early in the quarter, we became concerned with heightened clearinghouse counterpart risk. By this I mean that if a member of OCC or a foreign clearing house were to become insolvent and unable to meet margin requirements, the clearing house would need to liquidate that member’s positions.
在季度初，我们开始担心清算所对手风险的上升。我的意思是，如果OCC或某个外国清算所的成员发生资不抵债，无法满足保证金要求，那么该清算所将需要清算该成员的仓位。
As we witnessed during the ‘87 crash, those liquidations could occur at any price and those prices tend to become more unreasonable for longer-term options. The remaining open positions are then marked to similarly unreasonable prices.
正如我们在1987年股灾中所见，这些清算可能以任何价格进行，而且这些价格往往对于长期期权来说更不合理。剩余的未平仓头寸也会被标记为同样不合理的价格。
Accordingly, it is not good to have open positions, especially short open positions, in long-dated options. And we decided to provide less liquidity for those options in order to avoid building up large positions in long-term contracts. We are continuing with this defensive strategy at the present time, so that is one factor.
因此，对于长期期权来说，持有未平仓头寸，尤其是空头头寸，并不理想。我们决定为这些期权提供较少的流动性，以避免在长期合约中建立大额仓位。我们目前仍在执行这一防御策略，这便是其中一个因素。
2007年下半年，美国次贷市场开始出现问题，2008年3月，贝尔斯登（Bear Stearns）濒临破产，2008年9月，雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）宣布破产，股票市场大幅度振动，IBKR在经营上已经有所警惕。
Another factor is that in the United States, at the beginning of the quarter, 22 additional option classes began to trade in pennies, joining the already existing (13?) classes. The resulting high-growth volumes affects both of our systems and the exchanges’ systems.
另一个因素是，在美国，本季度初有22个新的期权类别开始以便士交易，加入了原有的（13个？）类别。由此产生的高速增长的交易量影响了我们的系统以及交易所的系统。
Some exchanges begun to have update speed issues and the ISC started to charge for quote updates over certain limits. In response, we stopped quoting high-delta options, which require frequent updates.
一些交易所开始出现更新速度问题，而ISC也开始对超过一定限制的报价更新收取费用。对此，我们停止了高Delta期权的报价，因为它们需要频繁更新。
The high quote traffic also pointed out certain bottlenecks in our systems, and they have taken us several weeks to correct. Even today we have some minor lingering inefficiencies that we have identified and we are still working on.
高频率的报价流量也暴露了我们系统中的一些瓶颈，我们花了几周时间来解决这些问题。即使到今天，我们仍发现一些小的、尚未完全解决的低效问题，并正在持续改进。
The tighter markets also helped us realize and track down some imprecisions in our pricing. Correcting these has had beneficial effects on our profit per contract in the later part of the quarter, not only in the penny classes, but also in the remaining nickel classes and in the non-U.S. markets.
更紧张的市场环境也帮助我们发现并查明了定价中的一些不精确之处。纠正这些问题对我们季度后期的每份合约利润产生了积极影响，不仅体现在便士级别的期权上，也体现在剩余的镍级期权和非美国市场中。
We are now very comfortable with our penny quoting, although as I said, a few smaller known problems still remain to be corrected. All in all, the expansion of the penny classes has had a beneficial impact on our Market Making systems.
我们现在对便士报价非常自信，尽管正如我所说，仍有一些小问题需要解决。总体而言，便士类别的扩展对我们的做市系统产生了积极影响。
In brokerage we had impressive growth. Year-on-year for the quarter, the number of accounts were up by 24%, customer equity was up by 44%, and cleared DARTs were up by 64%. We have been able to attract accounts with larger equity and these accounts do more trades per equity dollar for whatever currency they are denominated.
在经纪业务方面，我们实现了令人印象深刻的增长。与去年同期相比，本季度账户数量增长了24%，客户权益增长了44%，清算的DART交易增长了64%。我们成功吸引了拥有更大权益的账户，并且这些账户每单位权益（无论以何种货币计价）进行的交易更多。
We are clearly succeeding in getting more professional and institutional trader customers. We have improved our brokerage platform in many different ways in the course of the quarter, but one of the most outstanding improvements was the addition of our Risk Navigator at the end of the year.
显然，我们在吸引更多专业和机构交易者客户方面取得了成功。我们在本季度以多种方式改进了我们的经纪平台，但其中最突出的改进之一是在年末推出了我们的风险导航器。
This is the ultimate portfolio analysis tool; it is similar to one that is well-known by portfolio managers and is available of the yearly fee of $500,000 or is free to anyone who has an account with us.
这是终极投资组合分析工具；它类似于投资组合经理们非常熟悉的一款工具，该工具通常年费高达50万美元，而对于拥有我们账户的任何人来说，它都是免费的。
It is a real-time risk management platform covering multiple asset classes around the globe. It is unified across all products and locations. It provides for easy identification of risk exposure by starting at the portfolio level and drilling down into successively greater detail within multiple report views.
这是一款涵盖全球多种资产类别的实时风险管理平台。它在所有产品和地点之间实现了统一管理。通过从投资组合层面开始，并在多个报告视图中逐步深入细节，它能够轻松识别风险敞口。
You can view Exposure, Value at Risk, Delta, Gamma, Vega, and Theta, as well as profit and loss and position quantity measures for different portfolio views. Reports are updated every 10 seconds and immediately whenever a position changes. What-if scenarios let the user hypothetically modify positions to see how changes in the portfolio will affect the risk summary. It is a fantastic risk management tool.
您可以查看不同投资组合视图下的敞口、风险价值（VaR）、Delta、Gamma、Vega和Theta，以及盈亏和头寸数量指标。报告每10秒更新一次，并在仓位变动时立即更新。假设情景分析功能允许用户在假设修改仓位后观察投资组合变化如何影响风险汇总。这是一款出色的风险管理工具。
On a different front, we have closed on the FutureTrade acquisition at the end of the year. If you do not remember, FutureTrade is an execution-only platform preferred by many hedge funds. They have about 40 software developers; we expect to be able to integrate the software and the employees with our organization in the next two to four months.
在另一个方面，我们在年末完成了对FutureTrade的收购。如果您还记得的话，FutureTrade是一家执行交易平台，受到许多对冲基金的青睐。他们拥有大约40名软件开发人员；我们预计将在未来两到四个月内将其软件和员工整合进我们的组织。
In general, our prospects are excellent for the coming year. Our existing technology and our expansion plans are sound. Many of our competitors are wounded. In the coming year, we are going to focus on hiring talented programmers and continuing to build out our systems to new markets, new products, and new functionalities.
总体而言，我们对来年的前景非常看好。我们现有的技术和扩张计划都很扎实。我们的许多竞争对手已经受创。在来年，我们将重点招聘优秀的程序员，并继续将我们的系统拓展到新市场、新产品和新功能上。
I will ask now Paul Brody, our CFO, to get into the numbers in detail.
现在我将请我们的首席财务官Paul Brody详细解读相关数据。
Paul J. Brody
Thank you, Thomas. And quite a number of numbers we have for you. Thanks for joining the call. I will review the summary results. And then we’ll discuss the segments before we take questions.
谢谢你，托马斯。我们为大家准备了相当多的数据。感谢各位参加电话会议。我将先回顾摘要结果，然后我们再讨论各个业务板块，之后接受提问。
As Thomas mentioned, earnings for the quarter were roughly in line with our expectations. As you can see in the numbers, our automated systems allowed us to keep our expenses low and our profit margins relatively high.
正如托马斯所提，本季度的收益大致符合我们的预期。正如数据所显示，我们的自动化系统使我们能够保持低成本和相对较高的利润率。
Our acquisition of FutureTrade Technologies and its wholly-owned subsidiary FutureTrade Securities was consummated in December. We believe this to be an excellent opportunity to integrate our worldwide brokerage services with the trading technology FutureTrade has developed to specifically service an institutional customer base.
我们于十二月完成了对FutureTrade Technologies及其全资子公司FutureTrade Securities的收购。我们认为这是一个极好的机会，可以将我们的全球经纪服务与FutureTrade专门为机构客户开发的交易技术相整合。
Turning to our operating data, average daily trade volume reached 808,000 trades per day in the quarter, up 49% from the fourth quarter of 2006. Market Making trade volume was up 43% and options contract volume was up 34% compared to the fourth quarter of ‘06.
转向我们的运营数据，本季度的平均每日交易量达到808,000笔，较2006年第四季度增长了49%。做市交易量增长了43%，而期权合约量则比2006年第四季度增长了34%。
In Electronic Brokerage, total customer DARTs were up 54% and cleared customer DARTs were up 64% from the year-ago quarter. These numbers reflect our continuing emphasize on servicing customers who clear and carry their positions and cash with us.
在电子经纪业务方面，总客户DART数量较去年同期增长了54%，而清算客户DART数量增长了64%。这些数据反映出我们持续重视为那些在我们平台上清算并持有头寸和现金的客户提供服务。
Net revenues were $397.5 million, up 36% quarter-over-quarter − that’s the fourth quarter of ‘07 versus ‘06. Trading gains were $249.8 million, up 44% in the same period in the ‘06.
净收入为3.975亿美元，环比增长36%——这是2007年第四季度与2006年第四季度的对比。交易收益为2.498亿美元，较2006年同期增长44%。
Commissions and execution fees were $75 million, up 62%. Net interest income was $49.6 million, down 6% from the fourth quarter of ‘06 and I’ll explain this fluctuation in more detail as it relates to our business segment.
佣金及执行费为7500万美元，增长了62%。净利息收入为4960万美元，比2006年第四季度下降了6%，我将就这一波动与我们的业务板块相关性作进一步说明。
Non-interest expenses were $128.8 million, down 2% quarter-over-quarter, driven in part by lower payment for order flow expenses and also by a reduction in legal fees than in the prior period were associated with our IPO.
非利息费用为1.288亿美元，环比下降2%，部分原因是订单流支付费用的降低以及与我们首次公开募股相关的法律费用比上一时期减少。
Compensation expenses were $26.1 million, about level with the fourth quarter of ‘06, reflecting in-part the phase-in of expenses related to our employee stock incentive plan. Compensation expenses also do not reflect the addition of 70 new FutureTrade staff beginning in the middle of December, most of whom are software developers or related technical staff.
薪酬费用为2610万美元，与2006年第四季度大致持平，这部分反映了与我们员工股票激励计划相关费用的逐步计提。薪酬费用中也未包含从十二月中旬开始加入的70名FutureTrade新员工，其中大多数是软件开发人员或相关技术人员。
As a percentage of net revenues, total non-interest expenses were 32% and out of this number, execution and clearing expense accounted for 20% and compensation expense accounted for 7%.
占净收入的比例来看，总非利息费用为32%，其中执行和清算费用占20%，而薪酬费用占7%。
At year-end 2007, our total headcount before the FutureTrade acquisition was 609; that is an increase of 15% from the prior year-end. Pre-tax income was $268.7 million, up 66% from the same period last year.
截至2007年年末，在FutureTrade收购之前，我们的员工总数为609人，比上一年年末增长了15%。税前收入为2.687亿美元，比去年同期增长了66%。
And between the segments, Market Making represented 76% of pre-tax income and Brokerage represented 23% with the remaining 1% in corporate-end eliminations. These proportions compare to 87% for Market Making and 13% for Brokerage in the fourth quarter ‘06, a clear indication of the growth rate in our brokerage business and the diversification of our sources of revenue.
在各个板块中，做市业务占税前收入的76%，经纪业务占23%，其余1%为公司内部消除项目。与2006年第四季度做市业务87%和经纪业务13%的比例相比，这清楚地表明了我们经纪业务的增长率以及收入来源的多样化。
Our overall pre-tax profit margin was 67.6% as compared to 55.1% in the fourth quarter of 2006 and holding fairly steady with a 69.2% in the third quarter of ‘07. Market Making pre-tax margin was 73.2% up from 65.2% in the year ago quarter.
我们的总体税前利润率为67.6%，而2006年第四季度为55.1%，并与2007年第三季度的69.2%保持相对稳定。做市业务的税前利润率为73.2%，高于去年同期的65.2%。
Brokerage pre-tax profit margin grew to 52.5%, up significantly from 25.9% a year ago. This is a clear demonstration of the scalability of our automated platform.
经纪业务的税前利润率增长至52.5%，远高于去年同期的25.9%。这清楚地证明了我们自动化平台的可扩展性。
For the full year, we are in pro forma pre-tax income of $931.6 million on net revenue of $1.468 billon as compared to 2006, on pro forma pre-tax income was $761.4 million on net revenue of $1.252 billion. 2007 full-year pro forma pre-tax profit margin was 63.5% up from 60.8% in 2006.
全年来看，我们的按既定会计处理的税前收入为9.316亿美元，净收入为14.68亿美元，而2006年的按既定会计处理税前收入为7.614亿美元，净收入为12.52亿美元。2007年全年的按既定会计处理税前利润率为63.5%，高于2006年的60.8%。
Diluted earnings per share were $0.46 for the quarter as compared to $0.29 on a pro forma basis for the fourth quarter of ‘06, and for the full-year 2007, pro forma diluted earnings per share were $1.59 as compared to $1.22 for the 2006 full-year.
本季度摊薄后每股收益为0.46美元，而2006年第四季度按既定会计处理为0.29美元；2007年全年的按既定会计处理摊薄后每股收益为1.59美元，而2006年全年的为1.22美元。
Our balance sheet remains highly liquid. Our long-term debt-to-equity at the year-end was 13.1%, up somewhat from the 10.7% at year-end 2006. And we continue to maintain excess regulatory capital in our broker dealer companies around the world.
我们的资产负债表依然非常流动。截至2007年年末，长期债务与股本比率为13.1%，较2006年年末的10.7%有所上升。我们在全球的经纪交易商公司中继续保持充足的监管资本。
Our consolidated equity capital at December 31, 2007 was $3.52 billon as compared to $2.80 billion at year-end 2006, an increase of $721 million or 25.7%.
截至2007年12月31日，我们的合并股本为35.2亿美元，而2006年年末为28亿美元，增长了7.21亿美元，约为25.7%。
I’ll turn now to the segments starting with Market Making. Trading gains for the fourth quarter of ‘07 were $247.1 million, up 38.5% quarter-over-quarter. Net interest income from Market Making was $26.2 million, a decrease of 23% quarter-over-quarter.
接下来我将介绍各板块，首先是做市业务。2007年第四季度的交易收益为2.471亿美元，环比增长38.5%。做市业务的净利息收入为2620万美元，环比下降了23%。
This was in part due to additional borrowing costs during the periods of credit tightening, but also the integration of our trading and securities lending systems can produce profits in the form of either trading gains or interest and it is somewhat arbitrary as to which line item they fall under.
这部分原因是信用收紧期间额外的借贷成本，但同时我们交易和证券借贷系统的整合能够以交易收益或利息的形式产生利润，具体归入哪个项目在一定程度上是随意的。
Net revenues from Market Making were $279 million, up 29.6% from the fourth quarter of ‘06. Despite higher trading volumes, the variable cost of execution and clearing, our largest expense category, making up 70% of non-interest expenses, that rose only 2% from the fourth quarter of ‘06 to $52.4 million.
做市业务的净收入为2.79亿美元，较2006年第四季度增长了29.6%。尽管交易量增加，但执行和清算的变动成本——我们最大的费用类别，占非利息费用的70%——仅较2006年第四季度上涨了2%，达到5240万美元。
This in part reflects the reduction in exchange-mandated payment for order flow program rates on options traded in pennies. In addition, greater options volume was executed on exchanges using the maker-taker model whereas as a market maker we are paid for providing liquidity instead of paying exchange fees.
这部分反映了以便士计价交易期权的交易所强制订单流支付计划费率的降低。此外，更多期权交易量在采用“做市者-接单者”模式的交易所执行，而作为做市商，我们是因提供流动性而获得报酬，而非支付交易所费用。
Pre-tax income from Market Making was $204.2 million up 45.4% quarter-over-quarter. And for the full-year 2007, pro forma pre-tax income from Market Making was $719.8 million, up 8.6% over the prior year.
做市业务的税前收入为2.042亿美元，环比增长45.4%。而2007年全年的按既定会计处理做市业务税前收入为7.198亿美元，较上一年增长了8.6%。
Turning to Electronic Brokerage. Record trade volumes drove Brokerage operations in the fourth quarter. Customer accounts grew by 24% over the total at year-end 2006 and by nearly 6% in the fourth quarter.
转向电子经纪业务。创纪录的交易量推动了第四季度的经纪业务运营。客户账户较2006年年末总数增长了24%，而第四季度单季增长近6%。
Total customer DARTs grew to 307,000, 54% over the fourth quarter of ‘06 and a 13% increase sequentially. Our cleared customer DART, which generate direct revenue for the Brokerage business, grew to 259,000, that is 64% increase quarter-over-quarter and 13% sequentially.
总客户DART数量增至307,000笔，比2006年第四季度增长了54%，环比增长13%。我们的清算客户DART（为经纪业务直接创造收入）增至259,000笔，即环比增长64%，环比增长13%。
In addition the average number of orders or DARTs per account on an annualized basis was 701, up 34% over the 2006 period reflecting our success in attracting larger, more active customers.
此外，每个账户的年化订单或DART平均数量为701笔，较2006年增长了34%，这反映了我们在吸引更大、更活跃客户方面的成功。
Customer equity grew to $8.8 billion, up 44% from the fourth quarter of ‘06 and up 6% sequentially. The higher trade volumes drove revenue from commissions and execution fees to a record $75 million, an increase of 61% quarter-over-quarter and 8% sequentially.
客户权益增长至88亿美元，较2006年第四季度增长了44%，环比增长6%。更高的交易量推动了佣金和执行费收入创下7500万美元的新高，环比增长61%，环比增长8%。
Net interest income rose to $23.2 million up 37% from the fourth quarter of ‘06 and up 6% sequentially. Because the interest rates we pay and charge to our customers are pegged to benchmark rates, net interest income in our Brokerage business is primarily a function of the growing customer cash and margin loan balances.
净利息收入上升至2320万美元，比2006年第四季度增长37%，环比增长6%。由于我们支付和向客户收取的利率均与基准利率挂钩，经纪业务中的净利息收入主要取决于客户现金和保证金贷款余额的增长。
Net revenues from Brokerage were $118.2 million for the quarter, up 45% from the fourth quarter of ‘06 and up 6% sequentially. As with our Market Making segment, execution and clearing fees account for the majority about, in this case, 48% of our non-interest expenses and brokerage.
经纪业务本季度的净收入为1.182亿美元，比2006年第四季度增长了45%，环比增长6%。与我们的做市业务板块一样，执行和清算费用在本案例中占据了非利息费用和经纪费用的大部分，约为48%。
Despite the increase in trade volume, these variable costs declined to $27.2 million for the quarter, down 13% quarter-over-quarter and 5% sequentially. We continue to benefit from the shift away from payment for order flow customers and to commission-paying customers.
尽管交易量有所增加，这些变动成本本季度降至2720万美元，环比下降13%，环比下降5%。我们持续受益于客户从订单流支付转向支付佣金的趋势。
Pre-tax income from Electronic Brokerage was $62.1 million for the quarter, up 194.3% quarter-over-quarter and up 10% sequentially. For the full year 2007, pro forma pre-tax income from Brokerage was $197.9 million, up 100.7% over the prior year.
电子经纪业务的税前收入为6210万美元，本季度环比增长194.3%，环比增长10%。而2007年全年的按既定会计处理经纪业务税前收入为1.979亿美元，比上一年增长了100.7%。
And now I’ll turn the conference back over to our moderator and we can take some questions. Thank you.
现在，我将把会议交还给主持人，随后我们开始提问环节。谢谢大家。
Operator
主持人
(Operator Instructions)
（主持人指示）
We’ll take our first question from Niamh Alexander - KBW.
我们将首先接受来自KBW的Niamh Alexander提问。
Niamh Alexander - KBW
I’d like to go back to your comments earlier, Thomas, about the counterparty caution that caused you maybe not to trade as actively in the Market Making operation? Can you expand a little bit on that, was it one particular counter party that you were concerned about or was it some clearinghouse risk?
托马斯，我想回到你早先提到的关于对手方风险警惕的问题，这让你们可能没有在做市业务中进行积极交易。你能详细说明一下吗？你担心的是某个特定的对手方，还是某种清算所风险？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
My worry is that if one of the clearinghouse members is unable to come up with the margin, and as you know, there are several clearinghouse members among them there are many smaller ones. If they are unable to come up with the margin, the clearinghouse just comes into the market and closes out the position at any price that they are offered.
我担心的是，如果某个清算所成员无法凑足保证金，而如你所知，清算所成员中有许多较小的机构，如果他们无法凑足保证金，清算所就会进入市场，并以任何能获得的价格平仓。
And this happened in ‘87 and we know what havoc that can wreck in the market and in the closing prices. So what happens then is that, long expiration options can be marked up to very crazy prices, which then can reflect back on the holders of those long positions and then the next guy can come up with the margin, it can develop into a domino effect.
而这种情况在87年就发生过，我们知道这会给市场和收盘价格带来多大的混乱。结果就是，长期到期的期权可能会被标出非常离谱的价格，这又会影响那些持有长期头寸的人，然后下一个人可能也会因为无法凑足保证金而受到牵连，这会形成多米诺效应。
So in a situation like that, you want to be sure that you don’t have any large positions out there and for that matter, you can provide maybe some liquidity at that time.
因此，在这种情况下，你必须确保自己没有持有任何大额头寸，同时在必要时也能提供一定的流动性。
Niamh Alexander - KBW
Okay. And just to be clear, you are no longer as concerned about that particular clearing member?
好的。请问，明确一点，你不再特别担心某个特定的清算成员了吗？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
I didn’t say anything about a particular clearing member; I said that my fear is general. There is not one particular clearing member I am worried about. It is general and my fear is just the same as it’s been for the last three months. So we are still not providing liquidity for options further out than the six months.
我并没有针对某个特定的清算成员发表意见；我说的是我的担忧是普遍性的。我并不担心某个特定的清算成员。这种担忧是普遍存在的，而且过去三个月一直如此。所以我们仍然不为超过六个月期限的期权提供流动性。
Niamh Alexander - KBW
Okay. Thanks for clarifying that. And then if I could just move on to the customer trading activity, and we saw some really strong volume in the brokerage business, congratulations. And can you help me understand if there was any mix shift in customers if maybe some more of the institutional customers participated, if there was any unusual activity in the professional customer through the quarter?
好的，谢谢你的澄清。接下来我想谈谈客户交易活动，我们看到经纪业务的交易量非常强劲，恭喜你们。能否帮我了解一下，客户构成是否发生了变化，比如更多机构客户参与，或者专业客户在本季度是否出现了任何异常活动？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
There was no unusual activity; there is a steady shifting in our customer base from the less professional towards the more professional; from the smaller accounts to the larger accounts; from the less frequently trading accounts to the more frequently trading accounts.
没有异常活动；我们的客户群正稳步从不那么专业的向更专业的转变，从小账户向大账户转变，从交易频率较低的账户向交易频率较高的账户转变。
Niamh Alexander - KBW
Okay. That’s helpful. And I will ask one question to Paul on the numbers if I may. And can you help us understand the FutureTrade just on some financial implications for our model here? How should we think about it, and initially neutral and modeling from headcount and the number you have given us?
好的。这很有帮助。如果可以的话，我想向Paul提出一个关于数据的问题。能否请你帮我们理解一下FutureTrade的情况，对我们模型的一些财务影响如何？我们应该如何看待它，从你们提供的员工人数等数据来看，初步是中性的模型吗？
Paul J. Brody
Yes, I think that’s accurate. We don’t expect it to be immediately accretive; we think that the benefits will come as we are able to integrate their operations and their software with our own platform. And we think that we can probably accomplish that over the next two to four months.
是的，我认为这是准确的。我们不指望它能立即产生正面效应；我们认为好处会在我们将他们的运营和软件与我们自身平台整合后逐步显现。我们预计可以在接下来的两到四个月内完成这一整合。
Operator
主持人
We will take over next question from Edward Ditmire - Fox-Pitt Kelton.
我们将接下来由 Edward Ditmire - Fox-Pitt Kelton 提出下一个问题。
Edward Ditmire - Fox-Pitt Kelton
Congratulations on a good quarter. Can you walk us through a little bit the interest rate sensitivity of the Market Making units, net interest revenue?
祝贺你们取得了一个好季度。能否请你解释一下做市部门净利息收入对利率变化的敏感性？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
Yes. Generally the Market Making unit tends to prefer high interest rates rather than low ones. The reason for that is that many of the trades the Making unit does are really interest trades in the sense that they are combination trades where you tend to buy something that pays off at a certain time and certain others things that pays off at an earlier time or at a later time. So many of the trades basically are investments of money for a certain period of time.
是的。通常，做市部门更倾向于高利率而非低利率。原因在于，做市部门进行的许多交易实际上都是与利息相关的交易——它们是组合交易，即你往往会买入某个在某一时间支付回报的产品，同时买入或卖出另一些在较早或较晚时间支付回报的产品。因此，很多交易基本上就是一段时期内的资金投资。
Now when interest rates are higher, let’s say when they are 10%, people don’t worry about 20, 30 basis points. When they are at 2%, people worry about 20 or 30 basis points because it’s a larger component of the whole.
当利率较高时，比如说10%，人们不会太在意20或30个基点的变动；而当利率处于2%时，人们会担心20或30个基点的波动，因为这在整体中占比更大。
So generally, times of higher interest rates the market is sloppier and therefore the Market Making unit tends to make more money. But this is a very minor part of the Market Making, so I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on it.
所以通常在高利率时期，市场表现得比较松散，因此做市部门往往能赚更多的钱。但这仅是做市业务中的一个很小部分，所以我不会过于强调这一点。
Edward Ditmire - Fox-Pitt Kelton
Could you update us on during the fourth quarter what the competitive dynamic was, specifically within the penny quoted options and I am thinking more about the battle over for (inaudible) liquidity between traditional market makers and competitors that are not market makers?
请问你能否更新一下第四季度的竞争态势，尤其是在以便士报价的期权领域？我更多的是在想，传统做市商与非做市商之间为（听不清）流动性展开的竞争情况如何？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
It’s not so clearly visible. Let me get into generally how our market share has evolved over the quarter. And in the fourth quarter of ‘06 our market share for market making rose 11.3% in the U.S. And it rose in the fourth quarter of ‘07 it was 10.36%. So we have lost almost an entire percentage point in Market Making.
这并不十分明显。让我来简单介绍一下我们本季度市场份额的变化情况。在2006年第四季度，我们在美国的做市业务市场份额达到了11.3%，而在2007年第四季度则为10.36%。所以我们的做市业务市场份额几乎下降了整整一个百分点。
As I have explained previously, some of the increased volume in the industry, from ‘06 to ‘07, for the fourth quarter, is dividend plays and interest put plays and the ISE estimates that these interest and dividend plays represented 5.3% of the total industry volume.
正如我之前所解释的，从2006年到2007年第四季度，行业内部分交易量的增加来自于分红策略和利率看跌策略，而ISE估计这些利率和分红策略占整个行业交易量的5.3%。
Now the total industry volume in the U.S. went up 53.8% year-on-year for the quarter, but if you took these trades out, it would have gone up only 45%, in other words 8% of this increase goes interest and dividend plays.
现在，美国整个行业的交易量本季度同比增长了53.8%，但如果剔除这些交易，增长率仅为45%，换句话说，这8%的增长属于利率和分红策略的贡献。
Now, there is a new factor that comes into place and that has to do with exchange linkage. When an exchange receives a marketable order, when that exchange is not on the NBBO, it is not allowed to trade through the NBBO, but is supposed to link that order to an exchange where the order can trade at the NBBO.
现在，有一个新因素出现了，那就是交易所间的联动。当一个交易所收到一个可交易的订单时，如果该交易所的报价不是全市场最佳买卖报价（NBBO），则不允许突破NBBO交易，而应将该订单联接到一个能以NBBO进行交易的交易所。
But what in fact happens is that the exchange holds up the order for a short period of time and it shows it to all of its members, saying would anybody care to match the NBBO and then they can trade with this order. If nobody does, then they send the order to the other exchange where the NBBO bids.
但实际上发生的是，交易所会将该订单暂时搁置一小段时间，并将其展示给所有会员，询问是否有人愿意匹配NBBO，然后与该订单进行交易。如果没有人匹配，他们就将订单发送到另一家有NBBO报价的交易所。
Now, many times, by the time they get there the market has changed so therefore it is not good for the customer when this kind of a thing happens. You better have routing to somebody who has a smart router.
现在，很多时候，当订单到达时，市场已发生变化，因此这种情况对客户并不利。最好是将订单路由到拥有智能路由器的那一方。
What happens is that the trade will take place at the away exchange for the account of the first exchange, and then the first exchange, who originally received the order, will trade with the customer order. So therefore the industry will print two trades for one. This gives additional rise in the option volume, which is not real. I do not know how much of this is going on, but there must be some.
结果就是，交易将在“外地”交易所以第一家交易所客户的账户进行，然后最初接收订单的交易所再与该客户订单进行交易。因此，行业内会出现一笔交易打印成两笔的情况，这使得期权交易量看似增加，但这并不是真实的。我不知道这种情况到底有多普遍，但肯定存在一些。
Now, this is especially more prevalent in penny options because the markets are tighter, so it is more likely that any one exchange at any one moment is not at the NBBO while another is, especially since the maker-taker exchanges are likely to quote tighter markets and they are the ones who receive lesser end-customer order flow because they are the new boys on the block.
这种情况在便士期权中尤其普遍，因为市场报价更紧密，所以更可能出现某个交易所某一时刻未处于NBBO，而另一个则处于NBBO的情况，尤其是由于采用“做市者-接单者”模式的交易所往往报价更紧凑，并且由于它们是新进入者，收到的终端客户订单量较少。
Now that I have sufficiently confused everybody with this, let me say that the industry-wide volume went up 53% for the year; the penny volume went up 92%; and the non-penny volume went up 37%. Our profits per contract went up 5.6% in the U.S. year-on-year. For the penny classes, they went down by 59% and for the non-penny classes, they went up by 50%.
既然我已经把大家搞得足够晕头转向，那我来说，整个行业的交易量全年增长了53%；便士期权的交易量增长了92%；而非便士期权的交易量增长了37%。我们在美国每份合约的利润同比增长了5.6%。而便士期权的利润下降了59%，非便士期权的利润则上升了50%。
Now, our market share, as I said, was 11.3% industry-wide at the end of ’06; it went down to 10.36% at the end of ‘07. Our market share in penny options went to 10.94%; at the end of ’06 there were no penny options yet. And our market share on the non-penny options went down to 10% flat from 11.3%.
现在，正如我所说，我们在2006年年底的行业市场份额为11.3%，而在2007年年底下降到10.36%。我们在便士期权中的市场份额达到10.94%；而在2006年年底时还没有便士期权。而我们在非便士期权中的市场份额则从11.3%降至整整10%。
So, the explanation for this is, again, we do not quote deep options in pennies. We do not go far out in either in pennies or in nickels. I have mentioned certain pricing issues that we had with the penny options early in the quarter that was fixed towards the end of the quarter.
所以，解释这一现象的原因是，我们不对远期期权使用便士报价，无论是便士还是镍币，我们都不报价过远。我之前提到过，我们在本季度早期遇到的一些便士期权定价问题在季度末已得到解决。
So, all in all, we have grown substantially for the quarter, relative to the prior year. We have made more profits and we have a better system, so we are happy seeing what we’re seeing. If you ask me about what the competition is doing, I really can’t tell you much about it, because I really have no way of measuring it.
总的来说，与去年同期相比，本季度我们的业务有了显著增长，利润更多，系统也更好，所以我们对目前的表现感到满意。如果你问我竞争对手在做什么，我实在说不出太多，因为我没有办法去衡量这一点。
Operator
主持人
We’ll take our next question from Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill.
接下来我们将接受来自 Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill 的下一个问题。
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
My first question is when you compare the results from the fourth quarter on the Market Making side with the third quarter, at least from my perspective, it looks like volumes are generally similar although your volumes tick down little bit and volatility as measured by the VIX was roughly similar.
我的第一个问题是，当你比较第四季度做市业务的业绩与第三季度的业绩时，从我的角度看，交易量总体上相似，尽管你的交易量略有下降，而由VIX衡量的波动率基本相当。
What would you say would be the main things we miss from the outside perspective as far as why the third quarter was better from a Market Making perspective than the fourth?
你认为从外部角度看，我们遗漏的主要因素是什么，导致第三季度的做市业务表现好于第四季度？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
The third quarter was much more active for us. We had a quiet October. I think the entire industry had a quiet October, although I haven’t seen the monthly figures. November was very active and the beginning of December was active, and the end of December was quiet.
第三季度对我们来说活跃得多。我们经历了一个平静的十月。我认为整个行业的十月都比较平静，尽管我没有看到月度数据。十一月非常活跃，十二月初也活跃，而十二月末则比较平静。
But you remember August? August was a great time when many of our competitors left the marketplace and if you remember, we were saying that there weren’t too many other market makers on some of the heavier days in the market.
但你还记得八月吗？八月是个好时机，当时许多竞争对手退出了市场，如果你还记得，我们曾经说过在市场较为活跃的日子里，没有太多其他做市商。
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
Okay. And then just by comparison, in the fourth quarter was a little more competitive or didn’t have that lack of competition.
好的。相比之下，第四季度的竞争更激烈，或者说竞争没有那么缺乏。
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
That’s correct.
没错。
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
Okay. And then, as we look back historically on your results, when we’ve seen upticks in volume and volatility that is generally the two best things you can hope for, right?
好的。再者，回顾你们的历史业绩，当我们看到交易量和波动率上升时，这通常是你们所期望的两个最佳指标，对吧？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
That is correct. Volumes, by themselves, would be good. Volatility goes either way.
没错。单独来看，交易量本身就是好的。波动率则会有正反两面效应。
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
Okay. And then, in terms of your Market Making now, you said you’re not making markets out in contracts further out than six months, right?
好的。那么关于你们的做市业务，你说过你们不会对超过六个月期限的合约进行做市，对吗？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
We were not in the fourth quarter.
我们在第四季度没有这样做。
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
Okay. Roughly, what percentage of your trading activity was that in the third quarter? Is it less than a quarter of it?
好的。大致上，在第三季度这类交易占你们总交易量的百分比是多少？是不是不到四分之一？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
It’s probably less than a quarter.
大概不到四分之一。
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
Paul, I don’t know if you can just help us understand the trade-off between the interest income and market making gains. I know you’ve tried to explain it. I’m not sure I am catching it. Can you put it in a nutshell again?
Paul，我不知你能否帮我们理解一下利息收入和做市收益之间的权衡。我知道你曾试图解释过，但我不太明白。你能简单概括一下吗？
Paul J. Brody
We’ve talked in the past about how we’ve integrated our trading and securities lending systems and what we mean by that is, as part of our Market Making operation, we trade stock and stock options and you can think of perhaps two sides to a trade.
我们之前讨论过我们如何整合了交易和证券借贷系统，我的意思是，作为做市业务的一部分，我们交易股票和股票期权，你可以把一笔交易分为两个方面。
One being in the traded market, options or stocks, and the other being in the securities lending market, stock borrow or stock loans, and each of those has an implied interest rate; securities lending has an outright interest rate. And as Thomas was talking about before, much of trading is interest rate trading or interest rate related.
一方面是在交易市场中进行的交易，无论是期权还是股票；另一方面是在证券借贷市场中进行的股票借贷或股票贷款，每一方都有一个隐含的利率；证券借贷有一个明确的利率。正如托马斯之前所说，大部分交易都与利率交易或利率相关。
By integrating these systems we are able to capture some profits in the disparity in those markets and which side those profits end up on is somewhat arbitrary. So they may end up showing up as interest income but they may end up showing up as trading profit and which side it falls to doesn’t really matters to us. The system’s operating well and so you may see some fluctuation from period to period because of this kind of interaction.
通过整合这些系统，我们能够从这些市场的差异中捕捉到一些利润，而这些利润最终会归入哪个项目在一定程度上是随意的。所以它们可能会表现为利息收入，也可能表现为交易利润，而最终归入哪个项目对我们来说并不重要。系统运行良好，因此你可能会看到由于这种相互作用而导致的周期性波动。
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
Let me try to give an illustration here. Assume that we buy a stock. We do not like to be long or short stock so when we buy stock we are likely to hedge it; so we bought the stock, we are likely to sell, say a March call and buy a March put, so we are completely hedged.
让我举个例子。假设我们买入一只股票。我们并不喜欢持有或做空股票，所以当我们买入股票时，我们可能会对冲；也就是说，我们买入股票后，可能会卖出一个三月看涨期权并买入一个三月看跌期权，从而完全对冲风险。
Now the way we finance this stock is that we lend it out and we pay interest. So we have an interest expense, but as the option comes due and the stock gets delivered two months later, that differential between the cash price and the March price and demand price come in as trading income. So we have an interest expense on the one side and trading income on the other side.
现在，我们为这只股票融资的方法是将其借出，并支付利息。所以我们有一项利息费用，但当期权到期且股票在两个月后交割时，现金价格与三月价格之间的差额便以交易收入的形式体现出来。因此，我们一方面有利息费用，另一方面有交易收入。
Sell Call和Buy Put之间的差值就是当期的利率，而资金来自股票融资（银行融资），期权价差和银行融资之间应该有价差，再加上做市的点差，名义本金可能非常大，就担心出现系统性的风险。
Now imagine that we do exactly the reverse. Where we sell stock short and we go long in the forward market. Then we receive interest for the borrowed stock and we have an interest income and a trading loss. Did you get the idea?
现在想象一下，我们完全反过来操作。即我们做空股票，同时在远期市场上持多头头寸。那么我们会因借入的股票而获得利息，从而形成利息收入，同时伴随交易亏损。你明白这个意思了吗？
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
I got it now, yes.
我现在明白了。
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
Therefore the three things, trading income, interest income and dividend income are completely interchangeable. So it’s an accounting artifact that we have to separate these three things. But to us, really its one big bowl and in the trading mechanism we are just sloshing all these things back and forth and hope to come up with a profit at the end, and we do.
因此，交易收入、利息收入和股息收入这三者实际上是可以互换的。所以，将这三者分开仅仅是会计上的一个做法。但对我们来说，它们其实就是一个大整体，在交易机制中我们只是来回调配这些收入，最终希望获得利润，而且我们做到了。
Chris Donat - Sandler O’Neill
Okay. And then, so as we think about the world now where companies are cutting dividends, interest rates are lower, does that mean anything necessarily?
好的。那么，考虑到现在公司正在削减股息、利率也较低，这是否必然意味着什么？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
It doesn’t mean much. It means, as I’ve said, it means a little because our people are little bit more careful about that at times at any course. But that’s all.
这并不意味着太多。如我所说，这意味着在某些情况下我们会稍微更加谨慎，但仅此而已。
Operator
主持人
And we will take our next question from Jen Bullard - SFG.
接下来，我们将接受来自 SFG 的 Jen Bullard 的下一个问题。
Jen Bullard - SFG
My first question is, in your Market Making unit, it looks like you traded about 100 million shares of stock a day. Is that hedging for options or is that your Market Making stock or is it some other strategy or maybe a combination?
我的第一个问题是，在你的做市部门，似乎每天大约交易1亿股股票。这是为了对冲期权吗？还是说这是你们的做市股票？或者是其他策略，或者是几种策略的组合？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
The way our system works is that for everything we trade, we make a market. So we make markets for stocks just like we make market for options. Every trade is trying to hedge every other trade. So I don’t know which is hedging which.
我们的系统运作方式是，对于我们交易的每一项，都要做市。我们为股票做市，就像为期权做市一样。每笔交易都是在对冲其他交易。所以我也说不清到底是哪笔在对冲哪笔。
Jen Bullard - SFG
And my second question is do you or can you breakout the percentage of Market Making business in terms of indices versus equity?
我的第二个问题是，你们是否能够或可以将做市业务按指数与股票分别拆分出各自的比例？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
We do not do that and I don’t know if you would include the ETFs in the indexes or in the equity. You will get a very different number, if you include ETFs, I would guess it’s – and this is just a guess − roughly half and half, if you include ETFs in the index side.
我们不这么做，而且我也不确定你是否会把ETF算作指数类还是股票类。如果把ETF算进去，数字会大不相同，我猜大概是各占一半，如果将ETF归入指数那边的话。
Jen Bullard - SFG
And one final question, just on the Market Making volume, does that volume include customer trades that essentially were eroded from Brokerage to Market Making?
最后一个问题，关于做市交易量，这个交易量是否包含了那些实际上是从经纪业务转移到做市业务的客户交易？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
No, we don’t do that. We do not trade with our customers; this is very important that everybody knows. We do not trade with our customers. We have a Chinese Wall, we do not see those customers orders and our brokerage company tries to execute those trades at the best available price on the exchange.
不，我们不会这么做。我们不与客户进行交易；这一点非常重要，大家必须清楚。我们不与客户交易。我们有防火墙，不会接触到那些客户订单，我们的经纪公司会尽力以交易所上最优的价格执行这些交易。
Operator
And we will take over next question from Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill.
主持人
接下来，我们将接受来自 Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill 的下一个问题。
Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill
My question is, how scalable are the systems given the increases in volumes we’re seeing right now?
Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill
我的问题是，鉴于当前交易量的增长，这些系统的可扩展性如何？
Thomas Peterffy
As far as we know, the systems are very, very scalable, but as I have said to you, we did find certain imperfections when the additional penny classes were added and we didn’t know that we would. So we believe our systems to be very scalable but every now and then, sometimes something crops up. The system has gone up to as much as 1.47 million trades a day without any trouble.
托马斯·彼得菲
据我们所知，这些系统非常、非常具有可扩展性，但正如我之前提到的，当增加额外的便士期权类别时，我们确实发现了一些不完美之处，这是我们之前预料不到的。所以我们认为我们的系统非常可扩展，尽管偶尔会出现一些小问题。我们的系统曾在不出现任何问题的情况下日交易量高达147万笔。
Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill
And was that recently or when was that?
Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill
那是最近的情况吗？还是是什么时候的情况？
Thomas Peterffy
You are out of touch. (Laughing)
托马斯·彼得菲
你落伍了。（笑）
Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill
Never mind. I’ll ask another question. You mentioned, volume was a positive indicator and then you also mentioned volatility can be a double-edged sword. Could you explain the impact of higher volatility; potential impacts?
Rich Repetto - Sandler O’Neill
没关系，我再问一个问题。你提到交易量是个积极指标，同时也说过波动率可能是一把双刃剑。你能解释一下较高波动率的影响及其潜在影响吗？
Thomas Peterffy
The reason why we like volatility is because volatility brings volume and we make money out of the volume.
托马斯·彼得菲
我们之所以喜欢波动率，是因为波动率能带来更高的交易量，而我们正是从交易量中获利。
Operator
主持人
We will take our next question from Michael Mackey - Kingdon Capital.
接下来，我们将接受来自 Kingdon Capital 的 Michael Mackey 的下一个问题。
Michael Mackey - Kingdon Capital
We are talking about option volumes and if you look at the industry, I know you aren’t involved, not in the dividend related, which accounted for part of the growth. So if we look sequentially, looking at the OCC website which had option growth up 9% sequentially, so we if take out what was dividend-related maybe it’s 3% growth, you were down about 1% sequentially. Is that all really from pulling back on your counterparty fears?
我们现在谈论的是期权交易量。如果观察整个行业，我知道你们并未参与与分红相关的部分（那部分也促成了增长）。所以，如果按顺序来看，根据 OCC 网站的数据，期权交易量环比增长了 9%，如果剔除分红相关部分，可能只有 3% 的增长，而你们却环比下降了大约 1%。这一切真的都是因为收紧对对手方风险的担忧吗？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
No. Don’t forget not quoting deep options, the high delta options, is a substantial part of that, number one. Number two, I will repeat for the third time that we have discovered some pricing issues in our penny quoting early in the quarter and it took us several weeks to remedy that and while that was going on we had to quote a wider market than we normally would have.
不。首先，请不要忘记，我们没有报价那些远期期权，即高 Delta 期权，这在很大程度上影响了数字。其次，我要第三次重申，我们在本季度早期发现了便士报价中的一些定价问题，花了我们几周时间才解决，在此期间我们不得不比平时报价更宽的价差范围。
Michael Mackey - Kingdon Capital
Is there a way for you, I know this is the tough question, to quantify what that might cost you in the quarter, both of those?
你们是否能对这两方面在本季度可能带来的成本进行量化，我知道这是个棘手的问题？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
I wouldn’t know how to do that, sorry.
抱歉，我不知道该如何计算。
Michael Mackey – Kingdon Capital
What volume growth would have been, you know x, the quoting deep in the money, or the penny issues?
那如果按照深度价内报价或者便士报价的问题，交易量的增长本来会是多少呢？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
We know that our market share sequentially in the penny issues went from 13.6% to 10.9% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. Maybe a third of that, maybe 1% of the 3% was due to that.
我们知道，在便士期权方面，我们的市场份额从第三季度的 13.6%下降到了第四季度的 10.9%。也许其中大约三分之一，也就是大约 3% 中的 1% 就是由此引起的。
Michael Mackey – Kingdon Capital
Okay. And then and not quoting deep in the money?
好的。那么，不报价深度价内期权呢？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
Not quoting the deeps is a significant amount, but I don’t think it cost us much because, quite frankly, what I think what is going on in the market is that people who have a lot of stuff to move come to the penny options first.
不报价深度价内期权确实影响不小，但我认为这并没有给我们带来太大成本。坦率地讲，我认为市场上那些需要处理大量订单的人，通常首先会选择便士期权。
Operator
We go back to Niamh Alexander - KBW.
主持人
我们回到KBW的Niamh Alexander那里。
Niamh Alexander - KBW
I wanted to move on some strategic stuff in the industry, Thomas, if I may. The SEC it looks like moving a little bit more forward, albeit at a glacial pace, in the dollar strike prices. Do you think this could be maybe another catalyst for growth in volume, particularly for institutional investors?
Niamh Alexander - KBW
托马斯，我想谈谈行业中的一些战略性问题。看起来美国证券交易委员会在美元执行价方面正逐步推进，尽管进展缓慢。你认为这是否可能成为推动交易量增长的另一个催化剂，特别是对机构投资者而言？
And then the second question is on portfolio margining. You had a great early start and a lift. Are you seeing customers take advantage of the additional leverage or is the market environment seeing people remain cautious for now?
其次，关于投资组合保证金的问题。你们起步很好，也有所提升。你们是否看到客户利用了额外的杠杆，还是目前市场环境下人们保持谨慎？
Thomas Peterffy
As far as the dollar strikes, I don’t see much economic merit in doing them. I think that going to penny quoting is more beneficial to the customer base and dollar strikes are just going to further increase the quote traffic and I don’t see the economic justification for it.
托马斯·彼得菲
关于美元执行价，我认为这样做并没有多大经济意义。我认为采用便士报价对客户更有利，而美元执行价只会进一步增加报价流量，我看不出其经济上的合理性。
Operator
主持人
We will go next to K.C. Ambrecht - Millennium.
接下来我们将由 K.C. Ambrecht - Millennium 提问。
K.C. Ambrecht - Millennium
Just quickly on the current environment, you have talked a lot about volatility and volumes, January has almost exploded again to October, November, even summer levels. Presumably this has to be a good environment for you. Is that fair with the VIX up here?
简单谈一下当前的市场环境，你们已经讨论了很多关于波动率和交易量的内容，1月份的交易量几乎又恢复到了10月、11月甚至夏季的水平。假设这对你们来说是个好环境，这与当前VIX的高位是否相符？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
October was a very slow month. November was a high volume month. August was a very high volume month, and generally, high volume is good for us.
十月是一个非常平静的月份。十一月的交易量很高。八月的交易量也非常高，总的来说，高交易量对我们有利。
K.C. Ambrecht - Millennium
So January should be off to a good start for the quarter then?
那么1月份应该为本季度带来一个良好的开局，对吗？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
We do not comment on unreported periods. But high-volume months are generally good for us.
对于未公布的时期我们不做评论。但通常，高交易量的月份对我们来说都是有利的。
Operator
主持人
We will go next to Jen Bullard - SFG.
接下来我们将由 SFG 的 Jen Bullard 提问。
Jen Bullard - SFG
Just a follow-up on the Market Making and Brokerage. What I was trying to get at is that the industry standard is to route to yourself if you are on NBBO and so my question is, if you are the best market, does the order from your brokerage unit directly go to your Market Maker unit at that point? Or am I not thinking about it correctly?
关于做市业务和经纪业务，我有个后续问题。我想表达的是，如果你处于全市场最佳买卖报价（NBBO）的位置，行业标准是将订单路由给自己。那么我的问题是，如果你是最优市场，那么你的经纪部门订单是否会直接送到你的做市部门？还是我的理解有误？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
No, no. The order from the brokerage unit always goes to an exchange. There are certain exchanges where we are specialists, so at that time when we see that the exchange, where we are specialists, is just as good as one where we are not specialists, we are going to route to the exchange where we are specialists.
不，不是这样的。经纪部门的订单总是送往交易所。有些交易所我们是专家，因此当我们发现我们作为专家的交易所和非专家交易所一样好时，我们就会将订单路由到我们是专家的那家交易所。
Jen Bullard - SFG
Okay. Thanks, that’s what I was trying to get to. In terms of international versus U.S., do you break out the percentage of your business there and I am also curious of what your outlook is for international go-forward?
好的，谢谢，这正是我想问的。关于国际与美国业务，你们是否有分别统计业务所占比例？另外，我也想了解一下你们对国际市场未来的展望。
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
You have to realize that we run a globally integrated portfolio. So where the profits end up is kind of accidental. So therefore breaking out where the revenues come from would not mean anything and we therefore don’t study that issue. We could look at the volume figures but I tell you we haven’t in the past. Maybe we’ll look at them in the future.
你必须明白，我们运营的是一个全球整合的组合。所以利润最终归属在哪里往往是偶然的。因此，单独拆分收入来源并没有多大意义，我们也不会研究这一问题。我们可以查看交易量数据，但我告诉你，我们过去没有这么做，或许将来会考虑。
Jen Bullard - SFG
Okay and then just in terms of your outlook for where you see more growth, U.S. versus international?
好的，那么对于未来增长，你们认为美国市场和国际市场哪个增长更快？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
It clearly appears that Asia grows faster than the U.S. and the U.S. is growing a little faster than Europe. But you have to be aware that Asia is starting from a very low base. The European growth is not as high as the U.S. growth, mostly because in Europe, over the counter dealing is more prevalent than in the United States because the European exchanges allow over the counter deals to be grossed outside of the regular exchange process.
很明显，亚洲的增长速度快于美国，而美国的增长速度又略快于欧洲。但你必须注意，亚洲起步非常低。欧洲的增长不及美国，主要是因为在欧洲场外交易比美国更为普遍，欧洲的交易所允许场外交易在常规交易流程之外进行。
Operator
主持人
We will go next to James Ellman - Seacliff.
接下来我们将由 James Ellman - Seacliff 提问。
James Ellman - Seacliff
There seems to be some misunderstanding or disagreement out there in the investment community as to this quarter in that while your earnings came in higher than the expectations of the (inaudible) analysts following the company, they were sequentially down from the third quarter. Can you explain why your earnings were down and how much is that just due to just normal seasonality?
投资界似乎对本季度存在一些误解或分歧，认为虽然你们的收益高于跟踪公司的（听不清）分析师预期，但与第三季度相比环比有所下降。请问你能解释一下为何收益下降，以及这其中有多少仅仅是由于正常的季节性因素？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
Earnings were down because the third quarter was a very unusual quarter due to the August events in the marketplace. In the course of August the market fell out of bed and several of our competitors for several days were not active in the market and so there was much, much less competition. Markets were very wide and we have greatly benefited from that market upheaval.
收益下降的原因在于第三季度异常特殊，这主要是由于八月份市场中发生的事件。在八月期间，市场大幅下跌，我们的几位竞争对手有好几天未能活跃交易，因此竞争大大减少。市场价差变得非常宽，而我们从这场市场动荡中获益匪浅。
James Ellman - Seacliff
So, do you say that you didn’t necessarily lose market share in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter or it was more that market share returned to levels commensurate with where they have been, except for that unusual period in August?
那么，你的意思是，在第四季度你们并不一定失去了相较于第三季度的市场份额，而是市场份额恢复到了正常水平，除了八月那段异常时期之外？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
If we look at our quarters year-after-year-after-year, what happened was that our first quarter of ‘07 was roughly in-line, the second quarter was very bad because of the (inaudible) event and besides that it goes as a slow quarter, and even in the first quarter we had some front-running issues.
如果我们按季度逐年比较，2007年第一季度的表现基本符合预期，第二季度由于（听不清）的事件表现非常糟糕，而且整体来说是个平淡的季度，第一季度甚至出现了一些抢先交易的问题。
The third quarter was extremely good and the fourth quarter was roughly where we would have expected the fourth quarter to be. So in this market making business, things are probabilistic that they usually work out the way you expect them but there are fluctuations up and down as we progress quarter-after-quarter-after-quarter.
第三季度表现极佳，而第四季度大致符合我们对第四季度的预期。所以在做市业务中，情况具有一定的概率性，通常会按预期发展，但随着季度的不断推进，总会有起伏波动。
So the fourth quarter was roughly where we had expected it, third quarter was much better, and the second quarter was much worse, and the first quarter was slightly worse. Generally, we would expect our market making year-on-year to grow roughly 15% per year.
因此，第四季度大致符合预期，第三季度表现更好，第二季度则糟糕得多，第一季度稍逊一筹。总体来说，我们预计做市业务的年增长率大约为15%。
This year it grew only 8.3%, that’s not to say that in the future if you ask me where this business is going on the very long-run, I still believe that Market Making will grow 15% per year, and Brokerage will grow 50% a year.
而今年的增长仅为8.3%，这并不意味着未来长期来看，我仍然相信做市业务每年将增长15%，而经纪业务将实现每年50%的增长。
James Ellman - Seacliff
So certainly the models the (inaudible) had presented to investors over the course of recent months had already incorporated the return to a more normal market in the fourth quarter in terms of your competitors versus the third quarter?
那么，最近几个月（听不清）向投资者展示的模型，是否已经将第四季度市场恢复到更正常状态（相对于第三季度的竞争情况）考虑在内？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
That is correct. I don’t know what terms of competitors meant in the sentence, but otherwise I agree with you.
没错。我不清楚那句话中“竞争对手”的具体含义，但除此之外，我同意你的看法。
James Ellman - Seacliff
And could you just comment on your expectations and ability to gain market share in 2008?
你能否谈谈你们对2008年市场份额增长的预期和能力？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
It’s a very difficult issue; I do not know what people are working on. From time-to-time a new competitor arrives on the scene. He generally starts to fight for market share by tighter quotes. It takes them some amount of time, maybe a year, two or three years, to realize that this business is not as easy a business as they thought it would be.
这是一个非常棘手的问题；我不知道别人具体在做什么。不时会有新的竞争者出现，他们通常通过提供更紧的报价来争夺市场份额。他们可能需要一两年甚至三年的时间才能意识到，这项业务并不像他们预想的那样容易。
So over the years, we have seen competitors come and go and we have seen price wars. When they happen, I do not know. There are rumors about one of the big firms just decided that they are going to get into this business, it’s probably going to take them a year to get ready and then a year or two to decide that it’s not really for them.
多年来，我们见识了竞争对手的来来去去，也经历过价格战。发生这种情况时，我真的不知道会怎样。有传闻称某家大公司刚刚决定进入这一业务领域，但他们可能需要一年时间准备，然后再花一两年时间发现这并不适合他们.
Operator
主持人
We will take a question from Edward Ditmire - Fox-Pitt Kelton.
接下来，我们将接受来自 Edward Ditmire - Fox-Pitt Kelton 的提问。
Edward Ditmire - Fox-Pitt Kelton
I have one follow-up question. A number of the public brokers in the options space are quite insistent that the payment for order flow trends are very stable while at Interactive you seem to believe very, very firmly that the payment for order flow is declining. Can you reconcile this? Is there two different models going on with the traditional options exchanges and the maker-taker model and is there room for both?
我有一个后续问题。在期权领域，一些上市经纪商坚持认为订单流支付趋势非常稳定，而在 Interactive，你们似乎坚信订单流支付正在下降。你能调和这一差异吗？传统期权交易所和做市者-接单者模式是否存在两种不同的模式，并且两者是否都有市场空间？
Thomas Peterffy
托马斯·彼得菲
There is certainly room for both. I think that this entire issue will be clarified after the CBOE has gone public. The CBOE is trying to hold on to market share and they are trying to represent to the world that they are really a smart router and if you send your order through the CBOE you don’t need a smart router because we either will execute at the NBBO or we’ll reroute it to the exchange where the NBBO is, but the fact is that the away exchange, especially the maker-taker exchange, is charged to execute that order. Yes, because the maker gets the payment.
当然，两者都有市场空间。我认为在 CBOE 上市后，这整个问题将会得到澄清。CBOE 正在努力保持其市场份额，并试图向外界证明自己实际上是一个智能路由器；如果你通过 CBOE 发送订单，你就不需要智能路由器，因为我们要么在 NBBO（全市场最佳买卖报价）上执行订单，要么将其重定向至拥有 NBBO 的交易所，但事实是，执行订单时，尤其在做市者-接单者模式下，外部交易所会被收取费用，因为做市者会获得支付。
The CBOE takes upon itself to make that payment and it also pays to the broker that routed the order to each. So it is becoming quite expensive for the CBOE to continue this strategy but for the time being they seem to be doing it now, but they do also, to discourage some of this business, handle it not very smoothly.
CBOE 自行承担这一支付，并且还支付给将订单路由到各交易所的经纪商。因此，CBOE 继续这种策略的成本变得相当高，但目前他们似乎仍在这么做，不过为了抑制部分业务，他们的处理方式也不是非常顺畅。
So that maybe not too many people who are really sophisticated will take advantage of the CBOE as a supposed smart router, but that the general brokerage firms who execute for unsophisticated customers and that’s what your data must be coming from. They basically are willing to live with it.
因此，可能并不会有太多真正精明的交易者利用 CBOE 作为所谓的智能路由器，而更多的是一般经纪公司为那些不够精明的客户执行订单——这也正是你们数据所反映的。他们基本上愿意接受这种状况。
Operator
主持人
And that does conclude our question-and-answer session. At this time I like to turn everything back over to you Mr. Ioffe for any additional or closing remarks.
我们的问答环节到此结束。现在，我将把话筒交还给 Ioffe 先生，请您做最后的补充或结束语。
Alexander M. Ioffe
We would like to thank you for participating today. This call will be available for replay on our website and again thank you for your time. Take care.
感谢大家今天的参与。本次电话会议的录音将在我们的网站上提供回放，再次感谢您的时间。保重。
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