Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions) We'll go first to Mike Vinciquerra with BMO Capital Markets.
Mike Vinciquerra – BMO Capital Markets
Thank you and good afternoon, guys.
Lee Barba
Hey, Mike.
Mike Vinciquerra – BMO Capital Markets
I must say, I hand it to all three of you, I had trouble keeping up with each of you with all the good data you were spitting out there, so I appreciate that. But I want to follow-up on a couple of things. One, the cash from your customers surged in the quarter, as you mentioned, Ida, and it's pretty astonishing. I've got it at 56% of your client assets, much higher than it was last year. Is this something that you expect to continue? Is this market conditions, Tom? What's really going on with that position?
Tom Sosnoff
Say that again, Mike, just the –
Mike Vinciquerra – BMO Capital Markets
Sure. The client assets that were in cash, I measured – based on the statistics you're not sharing with us – at 56% of your clients' assets; last year it was about 45%, 46%. What's driving the increase? Even at 45% or 46%, it's incredibly high for the industry.
Tom Sosnoff
Well, I mean you are comparing us to the rest of the industry, Mike, and really were one of the few firms that 80 some odd percent of our business is in the derivatives space. Most people keep their cash as cash. So whereas – we are a very different animal. If you look at our $40,000 average account size, that would be – if you compare it apples-to-apples, for example, with a firm that controls more of let's call it share of the wallet, you'd be looking at their actual cash portions of their account that they use for trading, probably smaller than what we have. So if you look at our business a little bit different than most of the other businesses, we've always maintained a high percentage in cash. It makes sense, number one, for the business we're in and it also makes sense for the way the market's been relative to volatility the last couple of months. You've seen people just pull back a little bit on their allocations to new positions. So they've pulled back, they've left it in cash, and they're ready to play. It's basically just a sidelines effect.
Mike Vinciquerra – BMO Capital Markets
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