Thomas Peterffy

Thomas Peterffy was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1944 and immigrated to the United States in 1965 with minimal financial resources. He worked as a draftsman and then a computer programmer before purchasing a seat on the American Stock Exchange in 1977 to trade options. Peterffy became one of the first traders to use computers for options pricing and trading, eventually building custom handheld devices to calculate option values in real time. He founded Interactive Brokers Group in 1977, which grew into the largest electronic brokerage in the United States by number of trades. Interactive Brokers is known for its low-cost structure, sophisticated trading technology, and global market access. His story — from Hungarian immigrant to technology-driven trading billionaire — is one of the great American finance success stories.