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Revenues from Contracts with Customers
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2020
Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]  
Revenues from Contracts with Customers Revenues from Contracts with Customers
Revenue Recognition

The Company adopted ASC Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, as of January 1, 2018 in the consolidated financial statements by applying the modified retrospective method.

Commissions, net. The Company earns commission revenue by acting as an agent on behalf of customers. The Company’s performance obligations consist of trade execution and clearing services and are satisfied on the trade date; accordingly, commission revenues are recorded on the trade date. Commission revenues are received on settlement date; therefore, a receivable is recognized as of the trade date. Under a commission management program, the Company allows institutional clients to allocate a portion of their gross commissions to pay for research and other services provided by third parties. As the Company acts as an agent in these transactions, it records such expenses on a net basis within Commissions, net and technology services in the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

Workflow technology. Through its front-end workflow solutions and network capabilities, the Company provides order and trade execution management and order routing services.
The Company provides trade order routing from its execution management system (“EMS”) to its execution services offerings, with each trade order routed through the EMS representing a separate performance obligation that is satisfied at a point in time. Commissions earned are fixed and revenue is recognized on the trade date. A portion of the commissions earned on the trade is then allocated to workflow technology based on the stand-alone selling price paid by third-party brokers for order routing. The remaining commission is allocated to commissions, net using a residual allocation approach.

The Company participates in commission share arrangements, where trade orders are routed to third-party brokers from its EMS and its order management system (“OMS”). Commission share revenues from third-party brokers are generally fixed and revenue is recognized at a point in time on the trade date.

The Company provides OMS and related software products and connectivity services to customers and recognizes license fee revenues and monthly connectivity fees. License fee revenues, generated for the use of the Company’s OMS and other software products, is fixed and recognized at the point in time at which the customer is able to use and benefit from the license. Connectivity revenue is variable in nature, based on the number of live connections, and is recognized over time on a monthly basis using a time-based measure of progress.

Analytics. The Company provides customers with analytics products and services, including trading and portfolio analytics tools. The Company provides analytics products and services to customers and recognizes subscription fees, which are fixed for the contract term, based on when the products and services are delivered. Analytics services can be delivered either over time (when customers are provided with distinct ongoing access to analytics data) or at a point in time (when reports are only delivered to the customer on a periodic basis). Over time performance obligations are recognized using a time-based measure of progress on a monthly basis, since the analytics products and services are continually provided to the client. Point in time performance obligations are recognized when the analytics reports are delivered to the client.

Analytics products and services can also be paid for through variable bundled arrangements with trade execution services. Customers agree to pay for analytics products and services with commissions generated from trade execution services, and commissions are allocated to the analytics performance obligation(s) using:
(i)the commission value for each customer for the products and services it receives, which is priced using the value for similar stand-alone subscription arrangements; and
(ii)a calculated ratio of the commission value for the products and services relative to the total amount of commissions generated from the customer.

For these bundled commission arrangements, the allocated commissions to each analytics performance obligation are then recognized as revenue when the analytics product is delivered, either over time or at a point in time. These allocated commissions may be deferred if the allocated amount exceeds the amount recognizable based on delivery.

Disaggregation of Revenues

The following tables present the Company’s revenue from contracts with customers disaggregated by the services described above, by timing of revenue recognition, reconciled to the Company’s segments, for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018:
Year Ended December 31, 2020
(in thousands)Market MakingExecution ServicesCorporateTotal
Revenues from contracts with customers:
Commissions, net$52,453 $405,698 $— $458,151 
Workflow technology— 101,211 — 101,211 
Analytics— 41,148 — 41,148 
Total revenue from contracts with customers52,453 548,057 — 600,510 
Other sources of revenue2,540,889 102,086 (4,154)2,638,821 
Total revenues$2,593,342 $650,143 $(4,154)$3,239,331 
Timing of revenue recognition:
Services transferred at a point in time$2,593,342 $575,846 $(4,154)$3,165,034 
Services transferred over time— 74,297 — 74,297 
Total revenues$2,593,342 $650,143 $(4,154)$3,239,331 

Year Ended December 31, 2019
(in thousands)Market MakingExecution ServicesCorporateTotal
Revenues from contracts with customers:
Commissions, net$23,526 $357,401 $— $380,927 
Workflow technology— 82,610 — 82,610 
Analytics— 35,007 35,007 
Total revenue from contracts with customers23,526 475,018 — 498,544 
Other sources of revenue1,004,568 16,718 (2,338)1,018,948 
Total revenues$1,028,094 $491,736 $(2,338)$1,517,492 
Timing of revenue recognition:
Services transferred at a point in time$1,028,094 $425,549 $(2,338)$1,451,305 
Services transferred over time— 66,187 — 66,187 
Total revenues$1,028,094 $491,736 $(2,338)$1,517,492 
Year Ended December 31, 2018
(in thousands)Market MakingExecution ServicesCorporateTotal
Revenues from contracts with customers:
Commissions, net$28,813 $150,206 $— $179,019 
Technology services— 5,320 — 5,320 
Workflow technology— — — — 
Analytics— — — 
Total revenue from contracts with customers28,813 155,526 — 184,339 
Other sources of revenue1,355,662 340,807 (2,090)1,694,379 
Total revenues$1,384,475 $496,333 $(2,090)$1,878,718 
Timing of revenue recognition:
Services transferred at a point in time$1,384,475 $491,013 $(2,090)$1,873,398 
Services transferred over time— 5,320 — 5,320 
Total revenues$1,384,475 $496,333 $(2,090)$1,878,718 

Remaining Performance Obligations and Revenue Recognized from Past Performance Obligations

As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the aggregate amount of the transaction price allocated to the performance obligations relating to workflow technology and analytics revenues that are unsatisfied (or partially unsatisfied) was not material.

Contract Assets and Contract Liabilities

The timing of the revenue recognition may differ from the timing of payment from customers. The Company records a receivable when revenue is recognized prior to payment, and when the Company has an unconditional right to payment. The Company records a contract liability when payment is received prior to the time at which the satisfaction of the service obligation occurs.

Receivables related to revenues from contracts with customers amounted to $57.3 million and $53.6 million as of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. The Company did not identify any contract assets. There were no impairment losses on receivables as of December 31, 2020.

Deferred revenue primarily relates to deferred commissions allocated to analytics products and subscription fees billed in advance of satisfying the performance obligations. Deferred revenue related to contracts with customers was $9.3 million and $8.6 million as of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. The Company recognized revenue of $33.1 million and $32.6 million during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively that had been initially recorded as deferred revenue.

The Company has not identified any costs to obtain or fulfill its contracts under ASC 606.