Interactive Brokers Group Inc (IBKR) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Interactive Brokers Group First Quarter Financial Results conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised, this call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Nancy Stuebe, Director of IR. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加盈透證券集團第一季度財務業績電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，此電話正在錄音。 （操作員說明）我現在想將會議交給今天的主持人，IR 總監 Nancy Stuebe。請繼續。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Once again, Thomas is on the call, but asked me to present his comments on the business. Also joining us today is Milan Galik, our CEO. After prepared remarks, we will have a Q&A.

下午好，感謝您加入我們的 2022 年第一季度收益電話會議。再一次，Thomas 正在接聽電話，但要求我介紹他對業務的評論。今天加入我們的還有我們的首席執行官 Milan Galik。準備好評論後，我們將進行問答。

As a reminder, today's call may include forward-looking statements, which represent the company's belief regarding future events, which by their nature are not certain and are outside of the company's control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from what is indicated in these forward-looking statements. We ask that you refer to the disclaimers in our press release. You should also review a description of risk factors contained in our financial reports filed with the SEC.

提醒一下，今天的電話可能包括前瞻性陳述，這些陳述代表了公司對未來事件的看法，這些事件本質上是不確定的，並且超出了公司的控制範圍。我們的實際結果和財務狀況可能與這些前瞻性陳述中的內容存在重大差異。我們要求您參考我們新聞稿中的免責聲明。您還應該查看我們提交給 SEC 的財務報告中對風險因素的描述。

The first quarter was one in which the only thing predictable was how unpredictable it would be, except for our continued growth. In the first 3 months of this year, the markets absorbed news on geopolitical issues that included the war in Europe and its impacts, both humanitarian and economic, as well as continuing supply chain issues, product shortages, levels of inflation not seen since the 1970s and the first Fed funds rate hike since 2018 with expectations of many more to come.

第一季度是一個唯一可以預測的事情是它會有多不可預測，除了我們的持續增長。今年前 3 個月，市場吸收了有關地緣政治問題的消息，包括歐洲戰爭及其對人道主義和經濟的影響，以及持續的供應鏈問題、產品短缺、自 1970 年代以來未見的通貨膨脹水平以及自 2018 年以來的首次聯邦基金利率加息，預計還會有更多的加息。

Persistent deficit spending in this country has limited the government's ability to respond to high inflation with high interest rates. As for each 1% rise, interest on U.S. debt increases by $300 billion as it gets refinanced. So inflation is likely to stay with us. Few markets were unaffected by these events, and most market indices worldwide were down in the first quarter.

該國持續的赤字支出限制了政府以高利率應對高通脹的能力。每增加 1%，美國債務的利息就會隨著再融資而增加 3000 億美元。所以通貨膨脹很可能會繼續存在。很少有市場不受這些事件的影響，全球大多數市場指數在第一季度下跌。

Despite this, we are very pleased with how our business performed even with the headwinds we faced in the quarter. We ended the quarter with a record 1,809,000 accounts, a net increase of over 480,000 from last March. We saw account growth in all client segments and all geographic regions, with particular strength, 40% and 48%, in Europe and Asia, which together represent 3/4 of our accounts.

儘管如此，即使我們在本季度面臨逆風，我們仍對我們的業務表現感到非常滿意。我們在本季度結束時擁有創紀錄的 1,809,000 個賬戶，比去年 3 月淨增加了 480,000 多個。我們看到所有客戶群和所有地理區域的客戶都增長了，尤其是在歐洲和亞洲，分別增長了 40% 和 48%，合計占我們客戶的 3/4。

As our client base grows, DARTs have risen as well. In the first quarter, our DARTs were over 2.5 million, the second highest in our company's history. Volumes were up particularly this quarter in futures and options, products which carry a higher commission. Though in the case of futures, they also carry a higher cost, with 56% of futures commissions taken up by exchange, clearing and regulatory fees likely due to a lack of competition in the largest futures market in the U.S.

隨著我們客戶群的增長，DARTs 也在增加。第一季度，我們的 DART 超過 250 萬，是我們公司歷史上第二高的。本季度交易量增加，尤其是佣金較高的期貨和期權產品。儘管就期貨而言，它們的成本也更高，56% 的期貨佣金由交易所、清算和監管費用承擔，這可能是由於美國最大的期貨市場缺乏競爭。

Higher DARTs led to commission revenues rising to $349 million, also the second highest in company history, behind only the unusually active trading period last year. As I mentioned on our fourth quarter call, options volumes continue to be strong. In the first quarter, in the U.S., listed options volume for the industry saw average daily volume of over 42 million contracts, a record.

更高的 DART 導致佣金收入上升至 3.49 億美元，也是公司歷史上的第二高，僅次於去年異常活躍的交易期。正如我在第四季度電話會議中提到的，期權交易量繼續強勁。第一季度，在美國，該行業的上市期權交易量日均交易量超過 4200 萬份合約，創歷史新高。

In an unpredictable environment, vertical option spreads give traders the ability to take on a very specific and limited risk/reward profile for a specific period of time. This appeals to many traders looking to invest in companies whose business and prospects they believe in at less cost than if they had to buy those shares outright.

在不可預測的環境中，垂直期權價差使交易者能夠在特定時間段內承擔非常具體且有限的風險/回報狀況。這吸引了許多希望以低於直接購買這些股票的成本投資於他們相信其業務和前景的公司的交易者。

While in 2022 the impact of the coronavirus has faded, the resulting reliance by the public on electronic communications, meeting from a distance and gathering and sharing ideas in larger asynchronous groups, including groups of investors, remains. The net effect of this trend, as far as IBKR and the online brokerage industry is concerned, is that even millennials and less technologically oriented people have become more friendly with online activities.

雖然到 2022 年，冠狀病毒的影響已經消退，但由此產生的公眾對電子通信、遠距離會議以及在更大的異步群體（包括投資者群體）中收集和分享想法的依賴仍然存在。就IBKR和在線經紀行業而言，這一趨勢的最終結果是，即使是千禧一代和不太注重技術的人也對在線活動更加友好。

As you may know, the average age of our customers is 42. Unexpectedly, this opens up a new segment of potential customers for us, 50 and above, wealthier people. Most of these people have their investments managed by advisers on the conventional wealth management platforms of the larger brokers. Now that they are at ease with online activities, many of them would like to be able to see their accounts live, online and sometimes would even like to do a trade by themselves and see it landing in their accounts.

您可能知道，我們客戶的平均年齡是 42 歲。沒想到，這為我們 50 歲及以上的富裕人群開闢了新的潛在客戶群。這些人中的大多數人的投資由大型經紀人的傳統財富管理平台上的顧問管理。現在他們對在線活動感到輕鬆，他們中的許多人希望能夠在線查看他們的賬戶，有時甚至希望自己進行交易並看到它登陸他們的賬戶。

At Interactive Brokers, this is something they can do. Our task is to let them know that so that they would ask their advisers to move their accounts to IBKR. Interactive Brokers has become better at enabling our customers to navigate through our numerous high-quality features at ever greater efficiency, helping them to establish their own personalized work environments and tools.

在盈透證券，這是他們可以做到的。我們的任務是讓他們知道這一點，以便他們要求他們的顧問將他們的賬戶轉移到 IBKR。盈透證券在使我們的客戶能夠以更高的效率瀏覽我們眾多的高質量功能方面做得更好，幫助他們建立自己的個性化工作環境和工具。

The superior customer experience our platform offers has become better known worldwide, spread by word of mouth as well as by our institutional sales team, as we continue to add customers at a rate of over 30%. In addition, our capital base has grown even stronger during this period, with total equity reaching $10.5 billion this quarter, up $1 billion since this time last year.

我們的平台提供的卓越客戶體驗已在全球範圍內廣為人知，通過口耳相傳以及我們的機構銷售團隊傳播，我們繼續以超過 30% 的速度增加客戶。此外，在此期間，我們的資本基礎變得更加強大，本季度總股本達到 105 億美元，比去年同期增加了 10 億美元。

This base funds our business, helps us to attract larger customers and reassures the increasing number of clients looking to participate in the markets. We saw account growth once again in all 5 of the client types that we service. Individual account growth was fastest at 45%, followed by proprietary traders at 35%, introducing brokers at 23%, financial advisers at 16% and hedge funds at 8%.

這個基礎為我們的業務提供資金，幫助我們吸引更大的客戶，並確保越來越多的客戶希望參與市場。在我們服務的所有 5 種客戶類型中，我們再次看到了賬戶增長。個人賬戶增長最快，為 45%，其次是自營交易員，為 35%，介紹經紀人為 23%，財務顧問為 16%，對沖基金為 8%。

We are excited about the opportunities we see in 2022. We continue to place enhanced focus on our marketing efforts, and we increased spending in this area over the past year and expect to continue again this year.

我們對 2022 年看到的機遇感到興奮。我們繼續加強對營銷工作的關注，過去一年我們增加了該領域的支出，並預計今年將再次繼續。

We recently introduced GlobalTrader, a simple mobile trading app that allows investors to open an account in minutes and start trading on over 80 stock exchanges around the world in 23 different currencies, allowing for global diversification. It is integrated with our GlobalAnalyst scanner, which helps investors identify investment opportunities worldwide, allowing GlobalTrader users to quickly take advantage of them.

我們最近推出了 GlobalTrader，這是一款簡單的移動交易應用程序，投資者可以在幾分鐘內開立賬戶並開始在全球 80 多個證券交易所以 23 種不同的貨幣進行交易，從而實現全球多元化。它與我們的 GlobalAnalyst 掃描儀集成，幫助投資者識別全球投資機會，讓 GlobalTrader 用戶能夠快速利用它們。

We also started Traders' Insight Radio, a new podcast series featuring interviews with thought leaders across financial services. And that is available for free on our Trader Workstation, client portal and IBKR Mobile as well as via the popular podcasting services.

我們還開設了 Traders' Insight Radio，這是一個新的播客系列，採訪金融服務領域的思想領袖。這可在我們的交易者工作站、客戶門戶和 IBKR 移動版以及流行的播客服務上免費獲得。

Our leading ESG efforts continue and now include Carbon Offsets. Our clients can select from a list of preset activities, estimate their carbon footprint and purchase the carbon credits to offset them, which we source and retire all from their IBKR account.

我們領先的 ESG 努力仍在繼續，現在包括碳抵消。我們的客戶可以從預設活動列表中進行選擇，估計他們的碳足跡併購買碳信用額以抵消它們，我們從他們的 IBKR 賬戶中獲取和淘汰所有這些碳信用額。

We believe in 2022, with a potential for higher inflation, that more people will come to the realization that holding on to their money as cash is a losing proposition. They will turn to equities worldwide to earn a return, and Interactive Brokers will serve them with our innovative platform and educational materials. We aim to be the platform of choice for the best-informed, most successful investors.

我們相信，到 2022 年，通脹可能會更高，更多的人會意識到，把錢當作現金持有是一種失敗的主張。他們將轉向全球股票以獲得回報，盈透證券將為他們提供我們的創新平台和教育材料。我們的目標是成為消息靈通、最成功的投資者的首選平台。

With that, I will turn the call over to our CFO, Paul Brody, who will go through the numbers for the quarter. Paul?

有了這個，我將把電話轉給我們的首席財務官 Paul Brody，他將檢查本季度的數據。保羅?

Thank you, Nancy. And as usual, thanks, everyone, for joining the call. I'll first review the first quarter operating results, and then we'll open it up for questions.

謝謝你，南希。和往常一樣，感謝大家加入電話會議。我將首先回顧第一季度的經營業績，然後我們將對其進行提問。

Starting with our revenue items on Page 3 of the release. We're pleased with the strength of our results this quarter, and we believe our robust growth in customer accounts positions us well for both commission and interest revenues in the quarters ahead. Commissions were strong, reaching their second highest quarterly revenue ever at $349 million. Options and futures volumes outpaced the first quarter of 2021, while stock volumes declined from last year's so-called mean stock spike.

從新聞稿第 3 頁上的收入項目開始。我們對本季度的強勁業績感到滿意，我們相信我們客戶賬戶的強勁增長使我們在未來幾個季度的佣金和利息收入方面都處於有利地位。佣金強勁，達到有史以來第二高的季度收入，達到 3.49 億美元。期權和期貨交易量超過了 2021 年第一季度，而庫存量從去年所謂的平均庫存峰值下降。

Net interest income of $282 million reflected higher margin loan interest on greater loan balances as well as higher interest earned on our segregated cash portfolio as U.S. rates have recently moved up from near 0. These gains were offset by lower securities lending revenue, which reflected fewer opportunities in the marketplace.

2.82 億美元的淨利息收入反映了更高的貸款餘額帶來的更高的保證金貸款利息，以及隨著美國利率最近從接近 0 的上升而從我們的隔離現金投資組合中賺取的更高的利息。這些收益被證券借貸收入的下降所抵消，這反映了更少的證券借貸收入。市場上的機會。

Other fees and services generated $53 million, with market data fees of $20 million, up 5%; and risk exposure fee revenue tripling to $15 million. Exchange liquidity payments remained at $10 million on consistent options volume. Declines in IPO fees and account activity fees, which we discontinued for most account types in 2021, reduced the total in this line item.

其他費用和服務產生 5300 萬美元，其中市場數據費用為 2000 萬美元，增長 5%；風險敞口費收入增加了兩倍，達到 1500 萬美元。在期權交易量穩定的情況下，交易所流動性支付保持在 1000 萬美元。我們在 2021 年停止了對大多數賬戶類型的 IPO 費用和賬戶活動費用的下降，減少了該項目的總額。

Other income includes gains and losses on our investments, our currency diversification strategy and principal transaction. Note that many of these noncore items are excluded in our adjusted earnings. And without these excluded items, other income was $8 million for the quarter.

其他收入包括我們的投資收益和損失、我們的貨幣多元化戰略和主要交易。請注意，我們調整後的收益中不包括許多這些非核心項目。如果沒有這些排除項目，本季度的其他收入為 800 萬美元。

Turning to expenses. Execution, clearing and distribution costs rose 4% from last year, led by futures volumes, which carry higher fees. As a percent of commission revenues, execution and clearing costs, which are driven by a combination of trading volume, exchange rebates and changing fee schedules, were 16% this quarter, meaning that 84% of incremental commission revenue dropped to the bottom line.

轉向開支。執行、清算和分銷成本比去年上漲了 4%，主要是期貨交易量，其中收取更高的費用。作為佣金收入的百分比，由交易量、交易所回扣和不斷變化的收費表共同推動的執行和清算成本在本季度為 16%，這意味著 84% 的增量佣金收入下降到了底線。

While this cost ratio will fluctuate over time with product mix and trading volumes, the factors that drive it lower over time remain in place, with exchanges offering rebates and competing on costs, which gives our Smart Router the opportunity to improve on execution quality for our IBKR Pro clients.

雖然這個成本比率會隨著產品組合和交易量的變化而波動，但隨著時間的推移，導致它降低的因素仍然存在，交易所提供回扣和成本競爭，這使我們的智能路由器有機會提高我們的執行質量IBKR Pro客戶。

Compensation and benefits expense, while up in dollar terms for the quarter as we expanded hiring to support our strong growth, was 16% of our adjusted net revenues, consistent with its historical level. Our head count at quarter end was 2,683.

由於我們擴大招聘以支持我們的強勁增長，本季度的薪酬和福利費用以美元計算上升，佔調整後淨收入的 16%，與歷史水平一致。我們在季度末的人數為 2,683。

G&A expenses were down versus last year, driven by a nonrecurrence of $18 million in Brexit-related costs and lower legal expenses. This quarter also included a $1 million donation towards humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

由於與英國脫歐相關的 1800 萬美元的非經常性費用和較低的法律費用，G&A 費用與去年相比有所下降。本季度還包括為烏克蘭的人道主義援助捐款 100 萬美元。

Our adjusted pretax margin was a robust 64%. Automation remains our key means of maintaining high margins as well as continued expense control while we hire talented people and invest in the future of our business. $28 million of income taxes reflect the sum of the operating company's $11 million and the public company's $17 million.

我們調整後的稅前利潤率高達 64%。自動化仍然是我們保持高利潤和持續費用控制的關鍵手段，同時我們僱傭人才並投資於我們業務的未來。 2800 萬美元的所得稅反映了運營公司 1100 萬美元和上市公司 1700 萬美元的總和。

Moving to our balance sheet on Page 5 of the release. Our total assets were $114 billion at the end of the quarter, with growth over the last year driven by increases in our segregated cash and securities and margin loan. Our consolidated equity capital was $10.5 billion, and we have no long-term debt.

轉到新聞稿第 5 頁上的資產負債表。截至本季度末，我們的總資產為 1140 億美元，去年的增長是由我們的隔離現金和證券以及保證金貸款的增加推動的。我們的合併股本為 105 億美元，我們沒有長期債務。

Turning to our operating data on Pages 6 and 7. Our contract volumes for all customers were especially strong, reaching the second highest ever in options, up 6% on the year; and the highest ever in futures, up 31% on the year. Stock share volume was down significantly versus last year's active first quarter. And the drop-off is largely attributable to trading in pink sheet and other very low-priced stock.

關於我們在第 6 頁和第 7 頁上的運營數據。我們為所有客戶提供的合同量尤其強勁，達到了有史以來第二高的期權，同比增長 6%；期貨歷史最高，同比上漲31%。與去年活躍的第一季度相比，股票交易量顯著下降。下降主要歸因於粉紅色床單和其他非常低價股票的交易。

On Page 7, you can see that our account growth remains robust with over 132,000 net account adds in the quarter, and total accounts reaching 1.8 million, up 36% over the prior year. We are now adding accounts at a quarterly pace that is greater than our annual pace prior to 2020.

在第 7 頁，您可以看到我們的賬戶增長依然強勁，本季度淨新增賬戶超過 132,000 個，總賬戶達到 180 萬個，比上年增長 36%。我們現在每季度增加賬戶的速度高於 2020 年之前的年度速度。

Total customer DARTs were over 2.5 million trades per day, second highest in company history, surpassed only by last year's extreme first quarter activity, but up 4% from strong fourth quarter trends.

客戶 DART 的總交易量每天超過 250 萬筆，是公司歷史上第二高的交易量，僅次於去年第一季度的極端活動，但比第四季度的強勁趨勢增長了 4%。

Our cleared IBKR Pro customers paid an average of $2.57 commission per cleared commissionable order, up 11% from last year, as our clients' volume mix included proportionately more futures than last year. These products carry higher pass-through fees charged by exchanges and clearinghouses.

我們結算的 IBKR Pro 客戶每結算可佣金訂單平均支付 2.57 美元的佣金，比去年增長 11%，因為我們客戶的交易量組合包括比去年更多的期貨。這些產品帶有交易所和票據交換所收取的更高的傳遞費用。

Page 8 presents our net interest margin numbers. Total GAAP net interest income was $282 million for the quarter, down 8% on the year-ago quarter, reflecting strength in margin lending, offset by fewer opportunities in securities lending. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points with about 2 weeks left in the quarter, which had a minor positive impact in a 12-week quarter, but will have a full positive impact in the next quarter.

第 8 頁介紹了我們的淨息差數字。本季度 GAAP 淨利息收入總額為 2.82 億美元，比去年同期下降 8%，這反映了保證金貸款的強勁勢頭，但被證券借貸機會的減少所抵消。美聯儲在本季度還剩約 2 週時加息 25 個基點，這在 12 週的季度中產生了輕微的積極影響，但在下一季度將產生全面的積極影響。

Margin loan interest was up 27% to $149 million as average margin loan balances grew 18% over last year's first quarter. The higher Fed funds rate bodes well for our U.S. dollar-denominated balances, which are roughly 3/4 of the total. Net interest on segregated cash turned positive this quarter, and we earned $7 million on these balances due both to our opportunistic investment strategy as well as the mid-March Federal Reserve rate hike.

由於平均保證金貸款餘額比去年第一季度增長 18%，保證金貸款利息增長 27% 至 1.49 億美元。較高的聯邦基金利率對我們以美元計價的餘額（約佔總數的 3/4）來說是個好兆頭。本季度，隔離現金的淨利息轉為正數，由於我們的機會投資策略以及 3 月中旬美聯儲加息，我們從這些餘額中賺取了 700 萬美元。

Securities lending net interest was $110 million, down from $175 million in the unusually active year-ago quarter. There were fewer hard-to-borrow names that investors sold short in the first couple of months of the quarter, particularly in January and early February, though we began to see more opportunities open up in March.

證券借貸淨利息為 1.1 億美元，低於去年同期異常活躍的季度的 1.75 億美元。在本季度的前幾個月，尤其是在 1 月和 2 月初，投資者賣空的難以藉入的股票較少，儘管我們在 3 月開始看到更多機會出現。

Interest from customer credit balances, or the interest we pay our customers, continues to be positive because in currencies where rates are negative, we pass through some of the increased costs to customers. We earned $9 million on these balances.

來自客戶信用餘額的利息或我們支付給客戶的利息繼續為正，因為在利率為負的貨幣中，我們將部分增加的成本轉嫁給客戶。我們從這些餘額中賺取了 900 萬美元。

Now for our estimates of the impact of increases in interest rates, we expect the next 25 basis point rise in rates to produce an additional $124 million annually. Note that our starting point for this estimate is March 31 when the first 25 basis point increase in Fed funds had already occurred.

現在，對於我們對加息影響的估計，我們預計未來 25 個基點的加息將每年額外產生 1.24 億美元。請注意，我們進行此估計的起點是 3 月 31 日，當時聯邦基金已經出現了第一個 25 個基點的增長。

The $124 million estimate is for a second rate increase and is in addition to the $165 million increase for the first rate hike that we estimated last quarter. As current market expectations include larger rate increases, we note that a 50 basis point rise in rates would produce an additional $175 million annually. This does not take into account any change in how we may adjust our investment strategy to take advantage of newly higher rates or any change in our assets.

1.24 億美元的估計是第二次加息，是我們上季度估計的第一次加息的 1.65 億美元的補充。由於當前的市場預期包括更大幅度的加息，我們注意到加息 50 個基點每年將產生額外的 1.75 億美元。這並未考慮到我們如何調整投資策略以利用新的更高利率或我們資產的任何變化。

About 28% of our customer cash balances are not in U.S. dollars. So estimates of U.S. rate changes -- rate change impact exclude those currencies. In conclusion, the first quarter produced a solid start to the year, reflecting our continued ability to grow our customer base, take advantage of opportunities as they arise, while managing the business effectively with strong expense control.

我們大約 28% 的客戶現金餘額不是美元。因此，對美國利率變化的估計——利率變化的影響不包括這些貨幣。總而言之，今年第一季度取得了良好的開端，這反映了我們繼續擴大客戶群、利用出現的機會、同時通過強有力的費用控制有效地管理業務的能力。

And with that, we'll turn it over to the moderator, and we will open up for questions.

有了這個，我們將把它交給主持人，我們將提出問題。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Rich Repetto from Piper Sandler.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Piper Sandler 的 Rich Repetto。

I guess the first question has to do with the -- just trying to understand, Paul, the interest rate sensitivity you just went through. When you say the next 50 basis points that -- we've had rate hike, one, and then the second one would be $124 million. This 50 basis points, can we consider that -- this year, it looks like there's going to be at least the Fed continues to forecast an 8 additional? So would that be hikes, what do you call it, 3 through 8? Could we apply that sort of sensitivity?

我想第一個問題與 - 只是試圖理解，保羅，你剛剛經歷的利率敏感性。當你說接下來的 50 個基點時——我們已經加息一次，然後第二次將是 1.24 億美元。這 50 個基點，我們是否可以考慮——今年，美聯儲至少會繼續預測 8 個基點？那會是徒步旅行，你怎麼稱呼它，3到8？我們可以應用這種敏感性嗎？

Right. So we haven't mapped it all the way out, but I can tell you that the incremental numbers stabilize after maybe about 3 rate hikes. And that's because the rates are high enough that we're now paying customers credit -- interest on their credit balances. And so we're earning our spread. And the incremental amount we earn as the rates go up is on what we call fully interest rate-sensitive balances, in other words, balances that -- on which customers are not earning.

對。所以我們還沒有把它完全映射出來，但我可以告訴你，增量數字可能在大約 3 次加息後趨於穩定。那是因為利率足夠高，以至於我們現在向客戶支付信用——他們信用餘額的利息。所以我們正在賺取我們的傳播。隨著利率上升，我們賺取的增量金額是我們所說的對利率完全敏感的餘額，換句話說，就是客戶沒有賺取的餘額。

And after about 3 rate hikes of 25 basis points, that level has added about $50 million incrementally per year for each 25 basis point increase. So we had $124 million. Now we're looking at the incremental, as I said, 50 basis points, that $175 million was equivalent to -- the $124 million would be for 25 basis points, $175 million would be for 50 basis points, hence about $50 million extra for that next 25 basis points.

在大約 3 次加息 25 個基點之後，該水平每增加 25 個基點，每年就會增加約 5000 萬美元。所以我們有1.24億美元。現在我們正在研究增量，正如我所說的，50 個基點，1.75 億美元相當於 - 1.24 億美元相當於 25 個基點，1.75 億美元相當於 50 個基點，因此額外增加約 5000 萬美元接下來的25個基點。

Got it. That's -- the clarification is helpful. Thomas, I just wanted to get your view -- people are trying to understand and grasp where the retail investor is. And it looks like if I had to -- if you could sort of guide us, it looks like the more sophisticated trader is still pretty strong, given the size of your trades went up and a little bit more tilted towards futures.

知道了。那是 - 澄清是有幫助的。托馬斯，我只是想听聽你的看法——人們正試圖了解和掌握散戶投資者的位置。看起來如果我必須 - 如果你可以指導我們，看起來更老練的交易者仍然非常強大，因為你的交易規模增加了並且更傾向於期貨。

Would you size up retail engagement, who is trading these days? And is it sort of bifurcated between the sophisticated and sort of some of the newer investors we saw in the first quarter of last year?

您是否會評估零售參與度，這些天誰在交易？我們在去年第一季度看到的一些老練的投資者和一些較新的投資者之間是否存在某種分歧？

So aside of the semi-sophisticated, the more sophisticated, I think, are -- just are trading away. They basically tend to focus more and more on options. And within that, they tend to do more and more vertical spreads. And what we like about vertical spreads, of course, is that it's very strategic just as much in down markets as it is in up markets. So we expect that even if the market starts going down, we will not suffer too heavily from lack of trading.

因此，除了半複雜的，我認為更複雜的是——只是在交易。他們基本上傾向於越來越關注選項。在此範圍內，他們傾向於進行越來越多的垂直傳播。當然，我們喜歡垂直點差的原因在於，它在下跌市場和上漲市場中都具有戰略意義。因此，我們預計即使市場開始下跌，我們也不會因缺乏交易而遭受太大損失。

And our next question comes from Craig Siegenthaler from Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Craig Siegenthaler。

So in the prepared remarks, Paul, you commented how much stronger the organic growth rate is today versus before 2020. And that's continuing here into a more challenging backdrop in 1Q. Overall, what do you attribute this to? And Thomas, I know you've had a target out there, I believe, around 40% going forward. But what gives you conviction and confidence that this strong organic growth trajectory will continue here?

所以在準備好的評論中，保羅，你評論了今天的有機增長率與 2020 年之前相比要強多少。這將在第一季度繼續進入更具挑戰性的背景。總的來說，您將此歸因於什麼？托馬斯，我知道你有一個目標，我相信，大約 40% 的前進。但是，是什麼讓您堅信這種強勁的有機增長軌跡將繼續下去？

Well, I think my target was 30%. But -- so I certainly don't believe that we will get 40%. It's possible, but extremely unlikely. And I'll be very happy with 30% account growth. And even that is -- those new accounts as we keep going over that fact the new accounts tend to be somewhat slower -- smaller, although we do have several prospects -- larger prospects in the pipeline, but they tend to be basically in the introducing broker space, and they are likely to be more and more omnibus accounts.

嗯，我想我的目標是 30%。但是——所以我當然不相信我們會得到 40%。這是可能的，但極不可能。我會對 30% 的帳戶增長感到非常滿意。即便如此——那些新賬戶，因為我們一直在討論這個事實，新賬戶往往會有點慢——更小，雖然我們確實有幾個潛在客戶——更大的潛在客戶正在籌備中，但它們往往基本上處於引入經紀人空間，他們很可能是越來越多的綜合賬戶。

In other words, when they join us, they will not show up in the account growth. So somebody could join us with, say, 100,000 accounts, but it will just show up as 1 account, because it is going to be 1 omnibus account.

換句話說，當他們加入我們時，他們不會出現在賬戶增長中。所以有人可以加入我們，比如 100,000 個帳戶，但它只會顯示為 1 個帳戶，因為它將是 1 個綜合帳戶。

That makes sense. And then just turning to capital return, you have $10.5 billion of equity capital now. Is there a level where you can accelerate the return of capital to shareholders? And is one reason you have so much capital also because you're trying to win hedge fund prime business where the size of the balance sheet is critical?

這就說得通了。然後只談資本回報，你現在擁有 105 億美元的股本。有沒有可以加速資本返還給股東的水平？您擁有如此多資金的原因之一是因為您正試圖贏得對資產負債表規模至關重要的對沖基金優質業務嗎？

You're absolutely right. We are going to keep on accumulating capital and firming up our credibility in the eyes of the investing public.

你是絕對正確的。我們將繼續積累資本，鞏固我們在投資大眾眼中的信譽。

And our next question comes from Dan Fannon from Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Dan Fannon。

Just want to clarify, Paul, one thing on the rate sensitivity. So in addition to what you said for the next 2 hikes, but every 25 basis point hike after what would be the first 3, it will be a $50 million benefit? Is that the way to think of it?

只是想澄清一下，保羅，關於利率敏感性的一件事。因此，除了你所說的接下來的 2 次加息，但在前 3 次加息之後每 25 個基點加息，這將是 5000 萬美元的收益？是這樣想的嗎？

Roughly. But of course, that's assuming no change in balances. And if our balances grow over time, those numbers will go up.

大致。但當然，這是假設餘額沒有變化。如果我們的餘額隨著時間的推移而增長，這些數字就會上升。

Right. And given you haven't changed your investment philosophy, but obviously, the backdrop for rates is a lot different today than it was 3 months ago. How are you thinking about that potentially as the year progresses and the rate backdrop changes? Should we see a shift? Or should we anticipate a shift in investment strategy based upon that backdrop?

對。鑑於您沒有改變您的投資理念，但顯然，今天的利率背景與 3 個月前有很大不同。隨著時間的推移和利率背景的變化，您如何看待這一點？我們應該看到轉變嗎？或者我們是否應該在這種背景下預測投資策略的轉變？

No, no. So look, I very strongly believe that Fed rate hikes will have to go much higher to slow down inflation. That's basically -- we still have a negative 8%, right? So I think that's just going up 2% or 3%, and being a negative 6% or 5% is not going to be good enough. So I think that rates could go as high as 4% or 5%, and we are not going to lend money out for any further than for the very, very short term.

不，不。所以看，我非常堅信美聯儲的加息幅度必須更高以減緩通脹。這基本上是——我們仍然有負的 8%，對吧？所以我認為這只會上升 2% 或 3%，而負 6% 或 5% 還不夠好。所以我認為利率可能會高達 4% 或 5%，而且我們不會在非常非常短期內進一步放貸。

And our next question comes from Kyle Voigt from KBW.

我們的下一個問題來自 KBW 的 Kyle Voigt。

I just want to clarify, I think, Nancy, you mentioned that Milan has joined the call. Is that correct? Is he on?

我只是想澄清一下，我想，南希，你提到米蘭已經加入了電話會議。那是對的嗎？他在嗎？

That's correct.

這是正確的。

Just because you haven't historically had, I guess, much exposure to IBKR investors in this forum before. Just wondering if you could share a few maybe high-level thoughts on the state of the business, what opportunities you're spending the most time on operationally? And then what segments or initiatives that kind of excite you the most as you look out over the next 3 or 5 years for the company?

只是因為你以前在這個論壇上沒有過多地接觸過 IBKR 投資者。只是想知道您是否可以分享一些關於業務狀況的高級想法，您在運營上花費最多時間的機會是什麼？那麼，在您展望公司未來 3 年或 5 年時，哪些部門或舉措最讓您興奮？

So thanks for your question. I feel like Interactive Brokers is firing on all cylinders. We have a lot of projects that we are currently working on. We are still spending quite a bit of time on increasing our scalability. Our goal is to be able to service 10 million accounts -- 10 million trades a day. We're getting close to be able to hit those numbers. So scalability continues to be part of our work.

所以謝謝你的問題。我覺得盈透證券正在全力以赴。我們目前有很多項目正在進行中。我們仍然花費大量時間來提高我們的可擴展性。我們的目標是能夠為 1000 萬個賬戶提供服務——每天 1000 萬筆交易。我們越來越接近能夠達到這些數字。因此，可擴展性仍然是我們工作的一部分。

We focus on the retail investors. As you might have seen, we have released the IMPACT app not that long ago. We have put online the GlobalTrader, which we just started marketing. So we are doing work that should appeal to the most retail client, if you will.

我們專注於散戶投資者。正如您可能已經看到的，我們不久前發布了 IMPACT 應用程序。我們將剛剛開始營銷的 GlobalTrader 上線。因此，如果您願意，我們正在做的工作應該能吸引大多數零售客戶。

There is a substantial amount of effort we are putting into servicing the financial advisers. We are making it easier for them to onboard their clients. We're making it easier for them to service those clients. We're going to be gradually allowing the financial advisers to do more work for their clients than we previously allowed.

我們在為財務顧問服務方面投入了大量精力。我們讓他們更容易加入他們的客戶。我們讓他們更容易為這些客戶提供服務。我們將逐漸允許財務顧問為他們的客戶做比我們之前允許的更多的工作。

Our sales force is doing a great job in getting us institutional accounts, for example, the high broker accounts, introducing brokers accounts. So we have a few in the pipeline that we're going to be onboarding this year.

我們的銷售人員在為我們提供機構賬戶方面做得很好，例如，高經紀人賬戶，介紹經紀人賬戶。因此，我們有一些正在籌備中，我們將在今年入職。

We are working on a facelift of our MobileTrader. We are designing a brand new desktop trading platform, and I could go on. We're going to be adding products as we usually do. We're going to be adding new geographies for our international traders.

我們正在對我們的 MobileTrader 進行改造。我們正在設計一個全新的桌面交易平台，我可以繼續。我們將像往常一樣添加產品。我們將為我們的國際貿易商添加新的地域。

That's great color. I guess, for a follow-up question maybe for Paul on the expense side. I think fixed expenses in aggregate were $179 million in the first quarter. If we compare that to the first quarter of last year and even excluding the, I think, $19 million or so of onetime Brexit expenses last year, the fixed expense growth rate was still only 8% or so year-on-year, which is lower than your historical growth rate as well as, I think, the guidance range, which is closer to that 15% type range for fixed expenses.

這顏色真好。我想，對於費用方面的保羅來說，可能會有一個後續問題。我認為第一季度的固定費用總計為 1.79 億美元。如果我們將其與去年第一季度相比，甚至排除去年英國脫歐的 1900 萬美元左右的費用，固定費用增長率仍然只有 8% 左右，即低於您的歷史增長率以及我認為的指導範圍，該範圍更接近固定費用的 15% 類型範圍。

So just wondering how we should think about year-on-year growth in fixed expenses as we move through the remainder of this year?

所以只是想知道在今年剩餘時間裡我們應該如何看待固定費用的同比增長？

So by design, we've been increasing staff to accommodate our growing business, especially in client services, but also, we've ramped up compliance over the last several years. So that's by design. And so when you see those numbers increasing, we're expecting that. And in fact, we're hitting our targets, I think. And really, the rest are fairly stable.

因此，根據設計，我們一直在增加員工以適應我們不斷增長的業務，特別是在客戶服務方面，而且在過去幾年中，我們已經提高了合規性。所以這是設計使然。所以當你看到這些數字在增加時，我們期待著這一點。事實上，我認為我們正在達到目標。真的，其餘的都相當穩定。

When you see the G&A go up and down, it's because there's items in there that come and go. As we mentioned, there was about $18 million that we spent last year related to Brexit and getting regulated in Europe. That didn't repeat this year, hence those numbers came way off. So it's a little hard to pin down the overall growth rate, but probably the largest contributor may continue to be the employee compensation and benefits.

當你看到 G&A 上下波動時，那是因為裡面有東西來來去去。正如我們所提到的，我們去年花費了大約 1800 萬美元與英國脫歐和在歐洲受到監管有關。今年沒有重蹈覆轍，因此這些數字離我們很遠。所以很難確定整體增長率，但最大的貢獻可能仍然是員工的薪酬和福利。

Got it. So it seems like this type of growth rate is fairly good to assume for the remainder of the year. Is that fair? Is it now high single digits or low double digits? Just trying to get a sense of the growth rate we should be assuming in our models.

知道了。因此，在今年餘下的時間裡，這種增長率似乎相當不錯。這公平嗎？現在是高個位數還是低個位數？只是想了解我們應該在模型中假設的增長率。

I think that low double digits are closer to the target than high single digits. So we are continuing to expand in customer service and in the number of geographies where we are establishing subsidiaries. So I would think that the 15% increase is probably a good guess.

我認為低兩位數比高個位數更接近目標。因此，我們將繼續擴大客戶服務和我們正在建立子公司的地區數量。所以我認為 15% 的增長可能是一個不錯的猜測。

And our next question comes from Chris Allen from Compass Point.

我們的下一個問題來自 Compass Point 的 Chris Allen。

I wanted to ask about the yields on margin balances, so a nice increase sequentially and year-over-year. I know you had some pricing changes in there. I'm just wondering if you could parse out what was driven by pricing changes and also what was driven by the recent Fed hike?

我想詢問保證金餘額的收益率，因此環比和同比都有不錯的增長。我知道你那裡有一些定價變化。我只是想知道您是否可以分析出價格變化的驅動因素以及美聯儲最近加息的驅動因素？

So what we used to do in quite a long time ago was that our margin rates were between 0.5 point and 1.5 points over Fed funds. We have increased the bottom of that so that we are between 75 basis points and 150 basis points over Fed funds. That's the only change we have made.

所以我們很久以前做過的事情是，我們的保證金率比聯邦基金高 0.5 到 1.5 點。我們已經增加了底部，使我們比聯邦基金高出 75 個基點到 150 個基點。這是我們所做的唯一改變。

Understood. Was that impact for the full quarter?

明白了。這對整個季度都有影響嗎？

Sorry?

對不起？

Was that impact felt for this full first quarter?

整個第一季度是否感受到了這種影響？

Yes.

是的。

Yes.

是的。

And then maybe a quick one just on execution and clearing costs. In addition to higher futures activity, the loss of the OCC fee waiver going away that impacted. Was that also a factor just in higher execution and clearing costs relative to where they had been running?

然後可能只是關於執行和清算成本的快速解決方案。除了更高的期貨活動外，失去 OCC 費用豁免的損失也受到影響。這是否也是導致執行和清算成本相對於它們一直在運行的地方更高的一個因素？

I'm sorry. Can you repeat that, Chris?

對不起。你能重複一遍嗎，克里斯？

Yes. I mean I'm trying to figure out -- the execution and clearing costs obviously ramped higher from where it had been running. You attributed some of that to futures activity, but the OCC fee waiver, which had been in effect for the tail end of 2021, that went away. So I'm just trying to figure out the differences both the 2, what's the driving factor there?

是的。我的意思是我正在試圖弄清楚 - 執行和清算成本顯然比它運行的地方更高。您將其中一部分歸因於期貨活動，但已於 2021 年底生效的 OCC 費用減免政策消失了。所以我只是想弄清楚兩者的區別，那裡的驅動因素是什麼？

Yes. Most of it was driven by the futures. There was an impact from the OCC fee holiday at the end of the year coming back. It didn't come back at the full rate that they started last year at. Last year, they started at a higher rate, dropped it toward the middle of the year and then put a fee holiday on for part of the end of the year.

是的。其中大部分是由期貨驅動的。年底 OCC 費用假期的影響又回來了。它並沒有以他們去年開始的全速恢復。去年，他們以更高的價格開始，在年中下降，然後在年底的部分時間裡放假。

They reinstated it around -- somewhere in the middle, which is probably reasonable for them because they're doing such higher volume now. That impact was something like $3 million to $4 million in the quarter over the prior quarter.

他們恢復了它——在中間的某個地方，這對他們來說可能是合理的，因為他們現在正在做更高的音量。與上一季度相比，本季度的影響約為 300 萬至 400 萬美元。

And we have a follow-up question from Rich Repetto from Piper Sandler.

我們還有來自 Piper Sandler 的 Rich Repetto 的後續問題。

Yes. Now that we know we have Milan on the call as well, I wanted to get a question in for him as well, Milan. So Thomas has placed, I guess, the highest priority, the highest standard on technology driving Interactive Brokers' success. And I guess, from your standpoint, which of the areas in the technology really differentiate your -- can you talk about your platform? How you see the platform and how it sets you apart from some of your peers?

是的。既然我們知道我們也有米蘭在電話會議上，我也想問他一個問題，米蘭。因此，我猜，Thomas 將推動盈透證券成功的技術放在了最高優先級和最高標准上。我想，從你的角度來看，技術中的哪些領域真正讓你與眾不同——你能談談你的平台嗎？您如何看待這個平台以及它如何讓您與一些同行區分開來？

I think what sets us apart is the fact that I view our company as a technology company that applies its skill set to the financial industry. So we have a lot of programmers, a lot of technologists working for the company. As you may know, Interactive Brokers started as an options market-making firm. And what we were doing was building computer systems for trading options at various exchanges.

我認為讓我們與眾不同的是，我認為我們公司是一家將其技能應用於金融行業的科技公司。所以我們有很多程序員，很多技術人員為公司工作。您可能知道，盈透證券最初是一家期權做市商。我們正在做的是在各種交易所構建用於交易期權的計算機系統。

So our mindset is technology. That is how we approach the problems. We look at workflows, the task flows that our clients have to execute on the platform, and we ask ourselves the question, how can we automate the process that they are executing, how can we make the process the most intuitive and the simplest for them? So that is our nature.

所以我們的心態是技術。這就是我們處理問題的方式。我們研究工作流，我們的客戶必須在平台上執行的任務流，我們問自己一個問題，我們如何自動化他們正在執行的流程，我們如何使流程對他們來說最直觀和最簡單?所以這就是我們的本性。

We obviously have a very strong sales force. But at the core, we are a tech company. And I believe that's what sets us apart, the high level of automation, which you can clearly see in the 65%-plus profit margin that we are running as a company. And that will never change. That is what we are counting on going forward, building new features for our clients, reviving the older ones, increasing the stability and scalability of our systems. That is what we are into. That is what we will continue to do.

我們顯然擁有非常強大的銷售隊伍。但本質上，我們是一家科技公司。我相信這就是我們與眾不同的地方，即高度自動化，您可以在我們作為一家公司運營的 65% 以上的利潤率中清楚地看到這一點。這永遠不會改變。這就是我們未來所指望的，為我們的客戶構建新功能，恢復舊功能，提高我們系統的穩定性和可擴展性。這就是我們所喜歡的。這就是我們將繼續做的事情。

Understood. Very helpful. And I've got one last one for Thomas, getting back to the retail investor, Thomas. So we did see some deleveraging or margin balances contracting a bit in a couple of months, I believe. And just trying to understand, we saw futures go up. We've seen the Russia-Ukraine event sort of stall, I guess.

明白了。很有幫助。我有最後一個給托馬斯，回到散戶投資者托馬斯。所以我們確實看到一些去槓桿化或保證金餘額在幾個月內略有收縮，我相信。只是試圖理解，我們看到期貨上漲。我猜我們已經看到了俄羅斯-烏克蘭事件的停頓。

So it appears that there was a lot of trading maybe in February with derivatives, but it seems like it's more stalled now. And just trying to understand who -- again, who is trading as we get into this period, if market conditions pretty much stay the same for the next couple quarters.

因此，似乎 2 月份可能有很多衍生品交易，但現在似乎更加停滯不前。並且只是試圖了解誰 - 再次，當我們進入這個時期時，如果市場狀況在接下來的幾個季度幾乎保持不變，那麼誰在交易。

So look, I mean, the way it works for us is half of our customers practically never trade. So something like 52% of the customers do 3 or less trades a year. Now set that up against the remaining 48% where the average customer with $100,000 of assets in these account trades 230 times a year. And from there on, for every 60% increase in funds in the account, the trading volume doubles. And it surprisingly is a very straight line.

所以看，我的意思是，它對我們的工作方式是我們一半的客戶幾乎從不交易。因此，大約 52% 的客戶每年進行 3 次或更少的交易。現在將其與剩餘的 48% 進行比較，在這些賬戶中擁有 100,000 美元資產的平均客戶每年交易 230 次。從那時起，賬戶中的資金每增加 60%，交易量就會翻一番。令人驚訝的是，它是一條非常直線。

Okay. So the Euro sophisticated traders or semi-sophisticated traders, the ones with more assets, are more active?

好的。那麼，擁有更多資產的歐元老練交易員或半老練交易員更活躍？

Right.

對。

(Operator Instructions) And we have a follow-up question from Craig Siegenthaler from Bank of America.

（操作員說明）我們有來自美國銀行的 Craig Siegenthaler 的後續問題。

I had a question on the mix of new account growth with 133 million accounts by geography. Any commentary on what it looked like on the way in? And I was particularly interested in Asia and Eastern Europe. And also any commentary on clients closing accounts or redemptions on the other side of that?

我有一個關於新賬戶增長與按地域劃分的 1.33 億賬戶的組合的問題。關於它在路上的樣子有什麼評論嗎？我對亞洲和東歐特別感興趣。還有任何關於客戶關閉賬戶或贖回的評論嗎？

So we didn't really have redemptions other than the Futu and Tiger Brokers going away, right? And there were some European introducing brokers who were extremely active in last year, and they have -- their activity has drastically diminished this year. But -- so tell me again, what is it that you would exactly try to find out?

所以除了富途和老虎證券的離去之外，我們並沒有真正的贖回，對吧？去年有一些歐洲介紹經紀人非常活躍，而且他們今年的活動已經大幅減少。但是——再告訴我一次，你到底想找出什麼？

I just wanted to understand what the inflow looked like by geography, if there was any regions that were outhitting their weight?

我只是想從地理上了解流入量是什麼樣的，是否有任何地區超過了它們的重量？

Inflow by geography, well, it's basically due to the -- so I'm looking at annual numbers here. And I -- and due to the, as I said, the going away of Futu and Tiger, our inflow from Asia is basically unchanged for the year. While in the -- for the Americas, it's up 11%. And from Europe, it's up 17%. So that's roughly -- those are the numbers.

按地域劃分的流入量，嗯，這基本上是由於 - 所以我在這裡查看年度數據。而我——正如我所說，由於富圖和老虎的離開，我們從亞洲的流入量今年基本沒有變化。而在美洲，它增長了 11%。從歐洲來看，它上漲了 17%。大概就是這樣——這些是數字。

Thank you, Thomas. And I had a follow up to Kyle's question on expenses. But last year, the operating margin was high at 67%. It was a good commission backdrop. This quarter, it dipped to 64%. You talked about expense growth, I think, in the low double-digit zone. But also, how should we think about operating leverage? Should we really think about the margin really capped kind of in the high 60s and really a ceiling where we are here?

謝謝你，托馬斯。我對凱爾關於費用的問題進行了跟進。但去年，營業利潤率高達 67%。這是一個很好的佣金背景。本季度，它跌至 64%。我認為您談到了低兩位數區域的費用增長。而且，我們應該如何看待經營槓桿？我們真的應該考慮到 60 年代的利潤率真的達到了上限，而且真的是我們現在所處的天花板嗎？

Well, we find it very difficult to go over the hurdle. We keep thinking that one of these days, the growth will just exceed the continuous hunger to build new things, and the growth on the backbone that we have built up to that point is going to exceed the continuing spending on new investments. But we haven't seen that happen yet. So we just keep thinking that may happen in the future, but it hasn't so far, and it certainly is not likely to happen this year, maybe later on.

好吧，我們發現很難跨越這個障礙。我們一直認為，在這些日子裡，增長將超過對構建新事物的持續渴望，而我們在這一點上建立起來的骨幹上的增長將超過對新投資的持續支出。但我們還沒有看到這種情況發生。所以我們只是一直在想這可能會在未來發生，但到目前為止還沒有，而且它肯定不太可能在今年發生，也許會在以後發生。

And we have a follow-up from Kyle Voigt from KBW.

我們有來自 KBW 的 Kyle Voigt 的跟進。

I guess a follow-up question for Milan. You spoke about how IBKR has been and always will be a technology-first firm. But the company has also been putting a lot more focus on marketing. And in the prepared remarks, you spoke about growing the marketing spend.

我想是米蘭的後續問題。您談到了 IBKR 過去和將來如何成為一家技術至上的公司。但該公司也將更多精力放在營銷上。在準備好的評論中，您談到了增加營銷支出。

Just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the marketing strategy, the shift in that strategy over the past couple of years? It seems like there's certainly more emphasis on that now. And then the trajectory, I guess, in terms of that marketing spend as we look ahead this -- beyond this year over the medium term?

只是想知道您是否可以多談談營銷策略，以及過去幾年該策略的轉變？似乎現在肯定更加強調這一點。然後，我想，就我們展望未來的營銷支出而言——在今年之後的中期軌跡？

So marketing is obviously extremely important. It doesn't matter what kind of technology we build for our clients and how low-cost provider we are if we don't tell anybody about it. So we have to explain ourselves very well and make ourselves attractive to the investors. So marketing is extremely important. We have been increasing our marketing spend, but we have been doing it gradually and responsibly.

所以營銷顯然是極其重要的。如果我們不告訴任何人，我們為客戶開發什麼樣的技術以及我們是多麼低成本的供應商都無關緊要。所以我們必須很好地解釋自己，讓自己對投資者有吸引力。所以營銷非常重要。我們一直在增加我們的營銷支出，但我們一直在逐步和負責任地這樣做。

At all times, we pay a lot of attention at what type of return we receive from the various marketing channels. And the ones that work for us well, we put more money into. And the ones that do not pan out, do not work well enough, we take our spending back. And this will gradually continue.

在任何時候，我們都非常關注我們從各種營銷渠道獲得的回報類型。那些對我們有用的，我們投入更多的錢。而那些沒有成功的，工作得不夠好，我們收回我們的開支。而且這種情況會逐漸持續。

And I am showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Nancy Stuebe for closing remarks.

我沒有再提出任何問題。我現在想將電話轉回給 Nancy Stuebe 進行結束髮言。

Thank you, everyone, for participating today. As a reminder, this call will be available for replay on our website, and we will also be posting a clean version of our transcript on the site tomorrow. Thank you again, and we will talk to you next quarter-end.

謝謝大家今天的參與。提醒一下，這個電話將在我們的網站上重播，我們明天還將在網站上發布我們的成績單的干淨版本。再次感謝您，我們將在下個季度末與您交談。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

謝謝你。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。