TradeStation Group, Inc. (Form: 8-K)

TradeStation Reports 13% Increase in Brokerage Commissions and Fees and 10% Growth in
Brokerage Account Base Year over Year

Plantation FL, July 23, 2009 – TradeStation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: TRAD) today reported for the 2009 second quarter net revenues of $35.2 million, net income of $4.7 million, and earnings per share (diluted) of 11 cents, compared to 2008 second quarter net revenues of $36.6 million, net income of $6.1 million, and earnings per share (diluted) of 14 cents. The decreases were due primarily to a year-over-year reduction in net interest income of $4.9 million attributable to lower interest rates.

Brokerage commissions and fees for the 2009 second quarter were $31.9 million, a 13% increase over 2008 second quarter brokerage commissions and fees of $28.2 million. Brokerage commissions and fees are the largest component of the company’s net revenues.

“Our second quarter financial performance was excellent,” said David Fleischman, the company’s Chief Financial Officer. “In what we think are difficult market conditions, and with interest rates not much above zero, we grew our brokerage commissions and fees and brokerage client base year over year, and generated solid net income. This once again demonstrates the strength and resiliency of both our client base and our product offering. It is also worth emphasizing that, all other things being equal, had interest rates remained the same as in the 2008 second quarter our 2009 second quarter net revenues, net income and earnings per share (diluted) would have been significantly higher than 2008 second quarter results.”

TradeStation’s balance sheet as of June 30, 2009 showed cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities totaling $131.7 million, shareholders’ equity of $169.1 million, and no debt.

For the 2009 second quarter, TradeStation experienced the following year-over-year daily trading results with respect to equities, futures and forex accounts:

The company also published today, in a separate announcement, its DARTs, Total Client Assets, Average Equities Client Credit Balances and Average Equities Client Margin Balances for the month of June 2009.

TradeStation had a record 44,922 brokerage accounts at June 30, 2009, a 10% increase from June 30, 2008.

TradeStation’s Average Client Trades 553 Times per Year and Has an Average Account Balance of $64,900 for Equities and $19,400 for Futures

TradeStation’s brokerage client account metrics are among the best in the industry. TradeStation brokerage clients generated the following client account metrics in the 2009 second quarter:

In the 2009 second quarter, the company purchased 484,576 shares of its common stock pursuant to its stock buy-back plan for a total purchase price of $3.75 million. Since buying under the plan began November 13, 2006, through June 30, 2009 the company has purchased 4,191,245 shares for a total purchase price of $39.4 million.

Under the stock buy-back plan, the company is authorized, over a 4-year period, to purchase up to $60 million of its common stock using available and unrestricted cash in the open market or through privately-negotiated transactions pursuant to one or more Rule 10b5-1 plans or programs. Pursuant to the plan, up to $1,250,000 of company cash per month during each month of the 4-year period (i.e., up to $15 million per 12-month period and up to $60 million for the 4-year period) has been authorized to be used to purchase company shares at prevailing prices, subject to compliance with applicable securities laws, rules and regulations, including Rules 10b5-1 and 10b-18. The buy-back plan does not obligate the company to acquire any specific number of shares in any period, and may be modified, suspended, extended or discontinued at any time without prior notice.

The company’s 2009 Third Quarter Business Outlook estimated ranges are as follows:

TradeStation also revised its Full-year Business Outlook, originally published February 19, 2009, to a “Revenues” range of $140.0 million to $145.0 million and an “Earnings per Share (Diluted)” range of $0.41 to $0.46.

The company’s 2009 third quarter and full-year estimated ranges are based on numerous assumptions, including: basing the midpoints of the ranges, in part, on average daily revenue per account for each asset class (equities, futures, forex) at approximately the same level as average daily revenue per account over the three-month period ended June 30, 2009 (the period used and the formula and criteria applied often vary with each Business Outlook based upon management’s judgment each period concerning the best assumptions to use); treasury bill rates and a federal funds target rate of interest of close to zero percent throughout the quarter and year; no FDIC or similar fees or assessments will be imposed which affect the company; anticipated growth, attrition and trading activity of active trader equities, futures and forex accounts, and the proportions in trading activity among those asset classes (each of which have different profit margin structures); the timing of expenses relating to company growth initiatives as compared to the timing of anticipated benefits from those initiatives; and numerous other assumptions concerning the company’s business and industry, market conditions, and various decisions, acts or failures to act both within and outside of the company’s control. All assumptions, expectations and beliefs relating to the Business Outlook are forward-looking in nature and actual results may differ materially from those estimated, including, but not limited to, as a result of, or as indicated by, the issues, uncertainties and risk factors set forth and referenced above and below. In particular, to the extent market volatility moves to significantly higher or lower levels, net account growth increases, slows or decreases, the treasury bill rates and federal funds target rate of interest are different than what has been assumed, and/or severe negative economic or financial market conditions persist or worsen, or improve sooner than expected, the results estimated in the Business Outlook will likely be materially different than actual results.

At 11:00, a.m., Eastern Time, today, members of TradeStation Group senior management will conduct an analyst conference call to discuss the company’s 2009 second quarter results and its 2009 Third Quarter and revised Full-year Business Outlook. All company shareholders and the public are invited to listen. The telephone conference will be broadcast live via the Internet at www.TradeStation.com. The live webcast will be accompanied by slides of graphs and charts. A rebroadcast of the call will be accessible for approximately 90 days.

TradeStation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: TRAD), through its principal operating subsidiary, TradeStation Securities, Inc., offers the TradeStation platform to the active trader and certain institutional trader markets. TradeStation is an electronic trading platform that offers state-of-the-art electronic order execution and enables clients to design, test, optimize, monitor and automate their own custom Equities, Options, Futures and Forex trading strategies.

TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, SIPC, NSCC, DTC, OCC & NFA) is a licensed securities broker-dealer and a registered futures commission merchant, and also a member of the Boston Options Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange, International Securities Exchange and NASDAQ OMX. The company’s technology subsidiary, TradeStation Technologies, Inc., develops and offers strategy trading software tools and subscription services. Its London-based subsidiary, TradeStation Europe Limited, an FSA-authorized brokerage firm, introduces UK and other European accounts to TradeStation Securities.

This press release, including the 2009 Third Quarter and revised Full-year Business Outlook estimated ranges contained in this press release, and today’s earnings conference call, contain statements and estimates that are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, or the conference call, the words “anticipate(s),” “anticipated,” “anticipation,” “assume(s),” “assumption(s),” “become(s),” “belief(s),” “believe(s),” “believed,” “could,” “designed,” “estimate,” “estimates,” “estimated,” “expect(s),” “expected,” “expectation(s),” “going forward,” “future,” “hopeful,” “hopefully,” “hope(s),” “intend(s),” “intended,” “look forward,” “may,” “might,” “opportunity,” “opportunities,” “outlook(s),” “pending,” “plan(s),” “planned,” “potential,” “scheduled,” “shall,” “should,” “think(s),” “to be,” “upcoming,” “well-positioned,” “will,” “wish,” “would,” and similar expressions, if and to the extent used, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based largely on current expectations and beliefs concerning future events that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results herein suggested or suggested in the conference call. Factors that may cause or contribute to the various potential differences include, but are not limited to, the following:

•

further negative changes in the condition of the securities and futures markets, and the financial markets and economy generally (which could cause the company to experience significantly lower revenues, net income and earnings per share, as well as reduced market value of its publicly-traded shares of common stock), or unexpected positive changes (which could have the opposite effect);

•

changes in the combined average volume of the major U.S. equities and futures exchanges and in market volatility, which tend to significantly affect customer trading volume at TradeStation (for example, sharply increased market volatility in the 2008 fourth quarter helped generate a significant increase in client trading volume in that quarter, but client trading volume was lower in the 2009 first quarter, and even lower in the 2009 second quarter, when market volatility was lower);

•

changes in treasury bill rates and the federal funds target rate of interest that are inconsistent with, or different from, the company’s assumption that there will be no increases in 2009, that is, that those rates will remain at close to zero percent throughout 2009;

•

the company’s ability (or lack thereof), based upon market conditions, the level of success of its marketing and product development and enhancement efforts, product and service quality and reliability, competition (including both price and quality-of-offering competition, which are intense) and other factors, to achieve significant, or any, net increases in DARTs, brokerage accounts and brokerage commissions and fees sequentially or year over year (for example: TradeStation’s DARTs decreased sequentially from first to second quarter 2008 and from first to second quarter 2009, and decreased year over year and sequentially in first quarter 2009; brokerage commissions and fees decreased sequentially from fourth quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009 and from first to second quarter 2009; and net account growth slowed in the 2008 third quarter; and these and other items may decrease sequentially or year over year in subsequent periods);

•

with respect to net new customer accounts, the company’s ability (or lack thereof) to maintain or increase the rate of quarterly gross account additions and to control the rate of quarterly account attrition, particularly in current market and economic conditions, including recession, unemployment, high volatility and swings in volatility, and if those conditions worsen and/or are prolonged (account attrition increased in the 2009 second quarter and is expected to be even higher in the 2009 third quarter);

•

technical difficulties, outages, errors or failures in the company’s electronic and software products, services and systems relating to market data, order execution and trade processing and reporting, and other software or system errors and failures, which have increased over the past two years (also, the company does not maintain a seamless, redundant back-up system to its order execution systems, which could materially intensify the negative consequences of any such difficulties, outages, errors or failures);

•

with respect to technical difficulties, outages, errors and failures the company has experienced, the failure or inability of the company to address the underlying issues or causes relating to such problems, to adequately correct them and ensure they do not repeat (particularly as the volume of market data received from the exchanges, or the volume of the company’s client base’s trading volume, requires increased, improved or different hardware and/or software capacity, technology or company domain know-how), or otherwise to ensure the stability, capacity, speed and accuracy of the trading platform’s market data and order placement services, as such failure or inability on the part of the company could materially negatively affect the company’s reputation in the online trader market, causing increased attrition and a decrease in new accounts, and decreased net revenues and net income;

•

unanticipated infrastructure, capital or other large expenses, or, unforeseen or unexpected liabilities and claims, the company may face as it seeks to grow its U.S. active trader market business, and its institutional and non-U.S. trader market businesses, including potential acquisition, joint venture, investment or business combination risks, costs and expenses (such as start-up costs and expenses, absorption of ongoing losses from an acquired entity, professional fees and, in the case of an acquisition, amortization expense) incurred in the event the company acquires, joint ventures with, invests in, or combines with other businesses, or launches new divisions (several such potential opportunities are currently under consideration);

•

business interruptions, slowdowns or failures affecting vendors or vendor services used by the company for clearance, settlement and back-office systems, whether caused by adverse economic conditions or other events, which could significantly interrupt, impair or injure the company’s core business operations;

•

the potential negative effects on the company’s brokerage commissions and fees of any future rules that may be imposed which ban short selling (such as the temporary ban in 2008 on short selling of financial sector securities) or restrict or limit short selling (such as new short sale regulations that are being considered by regulators), as a significant percentage of the firm’s daily client trades on many trading days are short sale transactions;

•

the potential negative effects on the company’s forex commissions and fees, and forex business generally, based on a new rule FINRA is seeking to enact that would prohibit broker-dealers from offering competitive buying power (as opposed to buying power that could be offered by forex dealers or agents who are not broker-dealers) to forex customer accounts;

•

in general, new or modified regulatory rules or requirements, or increased or more stringent enforcement and higher fines or greater sanctions, concerning required net capital or deposits, or the manner in which TradeStation Securities operates its business and monitors and ensures compliance of its business operations with applicable laws, rules and regulations, that may be enacted or imposed in response to the current economic crisis and recent scandals, and which could materially increase the firm’s cash requirements to conduct its business, require substantial increases in compliance, legal and/or brokerage operations costs, result in fines, penalties or sanctions, limit or reduce the firm’s access to, or use of, a significant percentage of its now-available cash, or otherwise limit the firm’s ability to engage fully, and with as much success, in the services it currently provides;

•

the frequency and size of, and ability to collect, unsecured client account debits as a result of volatile market movements and unstable economic conditions, particularly in concentrated positions held in client accounts or as a result of other high-risk positions or circumstances;

•

the results, which likely will not be known until later in 2009, of an ongoing investigation of TradeStation Securities by Canadian regulatory authorities relating to brokerage accounts held by Canadian residents in light of the firm not being registered (or having an introducing brokerage firm registered) in a Canadian province, which could result in substantial fines or settlements and affect the firm’s ability to accept new, or retain existing, futures and forex brokerage accounts (the company does not have or accept equities accounts) from Canadian residents, which could adversely impact the company’s futures revenues (since the inquiry was made, TradeStation Securities has not accepted Canadian resident futures or forex accounts);

•

the company’s estimated earnings per share (diluted) being based on assumptions of a certain number of outstanding shares and an average stock price for particular time periods that turn out to be inaccurate (if the number of outstanding shares and/or the average stock price is actually higher than what has been assumed, there will be more dilution and the actual earnings per share would be lower, and, if both of those are lower, there will be less dilution and higher earnings per share) because of new or modified company share buy-back plans (which the company considers from time to time and which could be implemented later in 2009) or other events or factors that can affect the price of the company’s shares or the number of outstanding shares;

•

unauthorized intrusion and/or other criminal or fraudulent activity in customer accounts by persons who unlawfully or improperly access or use customer accounts (through deceit or otherwise) and then place orders or other transactions in, or deposit misappropriated funds in, or improperly withdraw funds from, those accounts;

•

the effect of changes in product mix (how much of customer trading volume is stocks versus equity options versus futures versus forex), which can affect the company’s revenues, net income and margins, even if overall volume remains the same;

•

rule-based trading not growing in appeal to the extent the company believes it will (both in the U.S. and other regions);

•

the effect of unanticipated increased infrastructure costs that may be incurred as the company seeks to increase its product development/information technology headcount and resources (which the company continues to try to do as quickly as possible) and grows its brokerage firm operations, adds accounts and introduces and expands existing and new product and service offerings;

•

pending regulatory matters which could result in fines, sanctions and/or other negative consequences;

•

the amount of unexpected legal, consultation and professional fees (including fees related to pending and future regulatory matters, lawsuits or other proceedings against the company, or potential acquisitions, investments, business combinations or strategic relationships);

•

the general variability and unpredictability of operating results forecast on a quarterly or annual basis; and

•

other items, events and unpredictable costs or revenue impact items or events that may occur, and other issues, risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008, its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2009, and other company press releases, conference calls and public presentations or statements.

David H. Fleischman
Chief Financial Officer
TradeStation Group, Inc.
954-652-7000

TRADESTATION GROUP, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
(Unaudited)
(in thousands, except per share data)


	Three Months Ended				Six Months Ended
	June 30,				June 30,
	2009		2008		2009		2008
REVENUES:
Brokerage commissions and fees	$	31,864	$	28,228	$	64,799	$	58,752
Interest income		1,341		7,061		2,336		16,338
Brokerage interest expense		—		847		—		2,071

Net interest income		1,341		6,214		2,336		14,267

Subscription fees and other		1,993		2,118		4,033		4,259


Net revenues		35,198		36,560		71,168		77,278


EXPENSES:
Employee compensation and benefits		10,653		10,827		21,152		20,046
Clearing and execution		7,814		8,510		16,662		18,036
Data centers and communications		2,887		2,369		5,649		4,760
Marketing		1,791		1,483		3,593		2,788
Professional services		912		159		1,760		1,788
Occupancy and equipment		746		755		1,483		1,507
Depreciation and amortization		1,115		1,082		2,244		2,032
Other		1,685		1,351		3,210		2,801


Total expenses		27,603		26,536		55,753		53,758


Income before income taxes		7,595		10,024		15,415		23,520

INCOME TAX PROVISION		2,914		3,937		6,054		9,177


Net income	$	4,681	$	6,087	$	9,361	$	14,343


EARNINGS PER SHARE:
Basic	$	0.11	$	0.14	$	0.22	$	0.33

Diluted	$	0.11	$	0.14	$	0.22	$	0.32


WEIGHTED AVERAGE SHARES OUTSTANDING:
Basic		41,658		43,389		41,930		43,549

Diluted		42,210		44,143		42,385		44,303

TRADESTATION GROUP, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in thousands)


	June 30,		December 31,
	2009		2008
	(Unaudited)
ASSETS:


Cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash of $956 at June 30, 2009 and December 31, 2008*	$	94,824	$	100,314
Cash and investments segregated in compliance with federal regulations		734,213		626,103
Marketable securities		36,830		8,465
Receivables from brokers, dealers, clearing organizations and clearing agents		21,314		11,139
Receivables from brokerage customers, net		42,455		30,316
Property and equipment, net		6,423		6,602
Deferred income taxes, net		3,020		3,001
Deposits with clearing organizations		32,517		48,019
Other assets		3,926		3,473


Total assets	$	975,522	$	837,432



LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY:


LIABILITIES:

Payables to brokers, dealers and clearing organizations	$	111	$	87
Payables to brokerage customers		796,163		661,046
Accounts payable		2,492		3,363
Accrued expenses		7,610		7,935

Total liabilities		806,376		672,431

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY		169,146		165,001


Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity	$	975,522	$	837,432

* June 30, 2009 Cash and cash equivalents includes $6.7 million that was transferred on July 1, 2009 to Cash and investments segregated in compliance with federal regulations. December 31, 2008 Cash and cash equivalents excludes $4.1 million that was transferred on January 2, 2009 from Cash segregated in compliance with federal regulations.


Florida	000-31049	650977576
_____________________ (State or other jurisdiction	_____________ (Commission	______________ (I.R.S. Employer
of incorporation)	File Number)	Identification No.)

8050 SW 10th Street, Suite 4000, Plantation, Florida		33324
_________________________________ (Address of principal executive offices)		___________ (Zip Code)


	TradeStation Group, Inc.

July 23, 2009	By:	/s/ David Fleischman

		Name: David Fleischman
		Title: Chief Financial Officer


Exhibit No.		Description

99.1		Press Release dated July 23, 2009


	Q2 09		Q2 08		% Increase
Daily Average Revenue Trades		97,392		91,121		7	%


Client Trading Activity
Annualized average revenue per account	$	2,940
Annualized trades per account		553

Client Account Assets
Average assets per account (Equities)	$	64,900
Average assets per account (Futures)	$	19,400


Date of Report (Date of Earliest Event Reported):		July 23, 2009


Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:		(954) 652-7000


		2009 Third Quarter
REVENUES		$34.5 to $36.5

EARNINGS PER SHARE (Diluted)		$0.09 to $0.11