José Torres

José Torres Occupation Senior Economist Employer Interactive Brokers Location Boca Raton, Florida Twitter @JoseTorresEcon LinkedIn Profile Website https://ibkr.com José Torres is a senior economist at Interactive Brokers, where he is responsible for market forecasting, economic analysis, economic commentary, client presentations, and educational content. Throughout his career, he has been interviewed by media outlets including Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, Business Insider, Seeking Alpha, Bond Buyer, Kiplinger, PBS, FOX, U.S. News, Economic Times, Univision and Telemundo. Background Torres joined the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as an economist in October 2018, where he worked until December 2021. During his time with the federal government agency responsible for deposit insurance and bank supervision, Torres frequently led presentations covering economic conditions and forecasts for elected officials, political appointees, and senior management. His responsibilities included building economic models, consulting with private sector executives, and contributing to the modernization of economic processes. Torres gained recognition during this period for predicting the inflationary episode of the 2020s, which materialized as the Consumer Price Index accelerated from approximately 1.4% in 2020 to peaks exceeding 9% in 2022. Bureau of Labor Statistics Before his appointment at the FDIC, Torres served as an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) from March 2016 to October 2018. At the BLS, Torres worked with employment and price discovery data collection and analysis, contributing to the monthly nonfarm payrolls and inflation reports that guide Federal Reserve monetary policy decisions and market expectations. Interactive Brokers Torres joined Interactive Brokers as a senior economist in December 2021, coinciding with the firm's expansion into prediction markets and forecast contracts. In this capacity, he became responsible for producing regular economic commentary through the IBKR Economic Landscape series, which provides weekly insight into leading economic indicators and macroeconomic trends for the United States. Torres has been a prominent voice explaining the firm's ForecastEx prediction market platform, which allows traders to speculate on economic indicators, political events and financial market outcomes through yes-or-no contracts. During the 2025 U.S. elections, Torres reported that trading activity on the ForecastEx prediction market surged to record highs, with market volume on Election Day reaching 12.68 million contracts as participants speculated on key political races and ballot measures. Torres noted that deep liquidity and active arbitrage made it difficult for individual players to manipulate markets across different prediction markets, demonstrating the platforms' ability to gauge real-time sentiment. He attributed the growth of forecast contracts to Interactive Brokers surpassing four million customers, citing an expanding lineup of instruments and increased demand for market-driven predictions. Torres has been a regular guest on financial news programs, providing analysis on Federal Reserve policy decisions, inflation trends, employment data, and market conditions. He has appeared on Bloomberg Television, CNBC, Yahoo Finance and other platforms to discuss economic forecasts and their implications for investors and traders. In 2024, Torres hosted a podcast interview with former FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac, discussing regulatory failures and financial system challenges spanning from the 1980s banking crises to contemporary economic turbulence. City University of New York Torres served as a visiting professor of economics at the City University of New York from August 2017 to May 2025, teaching courses including Introduction to Economics and Understanding Economic Data. His academic appointment at John Jay College of Criminal Justice allowed him to maintain connections to economic education while pursuing his work in federal government and private sector roles. Torres taught both undergraduate and graduate economics programs, bringing practical experience from his work at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and FDIC into classroom instruction. Education Torres holds a Master of Science in financial economics from West Texas A&M University, completed between 2015 and 2017. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in economics from John Jay College at the City University of New York, graduating between 2011 and 2015. Torres is bilingual, possessing native or bilingual proficiency in both English and Spanish, which has enabled him to provide economic analysis to Spanish-language media outlets, including Univision and Telemundo. Torres holds securities licenses including the SIE (Securities Industry Essentials), Series 3 (National Commodities Futures Examination), Series 7 (General Securities Representative), and Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent State Law Examination), all issued by FINRA. Professional Affiliations Torres is a member of the National Association for Business Economics, the professional organization for economists working in business, government and academia. He also maintains membership in the Association of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Alumni, connecting him with former colleagues from his time at the federal bank regulatory agency. Video ForecastEx Hit Record Volumes Ahead of U.S. Elections, Says Interactive Brokers’ Jose Torres References

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