The brokerage firm Interactive Brokers (IBKR) has launched a platform for trading event outcome contracts. The platform consolidates offerings from Kalshi, CME Group, and its own service, ForecastEx.
The new tool is available to both retail and institutional clients. Users can trade contracts related to the economy, climate, and political elections. The company does not currently plan to add contracts for sports and pop culture.
The application interface allows users to compare prices across different platforms and choose the most advantageous options, taking fees into account.
“Prediction markets are changing investors’ approach to risk and uncertainty. We have combined the advantages of competing platforms with the infrastructure familiar to our clients. We will soon add other major exchanges,” said Interactive Brokers CEO Milan Galik.
Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour described IBKR as the “gold standard” in the brokerage industry. According to him, institutional adoption of prediction markets is just beginning.
CME Group head Terry Duffy noted the growing retail demand for such tools. Through the IBKR platform, CME clients will be able to trade contracts on key economic indicators.
The service launch comes amid rising popularity of prediction markets. Previously, Kalshi raised $1 billion at a valuation of $22 billion. Polymarket is in talks to raise $400 million, which would value the company at $15 billion if successful.
Earlier in April, Bernstein analysts forecasted that prediction markets could grow to $1 trillion.