Did you hear Charles Schwab is stepping in to buy TD Ameritrade for big bucks? 28 Billion dollars is being dropped on the deal. The brokerage wars are getting hotter by the minute! As a Trader, what does this mean to you? Uh oh! Is this good or bad? How do you feel?
Chart by TradingView
Table of Contents
Charles Schwab Buying TD Ameritrade Introduction
Everyone knows TD Ameritrade is one of the best charting and trading platforms. The ThinkorSwim platform is one of the most popular trading software platforms for active traders. Schwab traders and investors should be extremely excited about this. Investors, in general, appear to be excited about the news. Look at $AMTD today and see the huge pre-market move for yourself. The chart is ripping!
Broker Competition
Check out our full Charles Schwab review to learn more about their brokerage and how they stack up against the competition.
So, if you are a ThinkorSwim user, don’t worry. Schwab would have to be crazy to mess with ThinkorSwim. However, less diversity in the trading world for brokers to choose from is not a good thing, in my opinion. If we, as traders, have fewer choices for brokers, you know what that means. Less innovation, less competition for customers, and typically higher prices.
For now, it’s not a problem. Brokers are fighting hard for your account. The race to free commissions was started with Interactive Brokers offering commission-free trades in September. Schwab, TD, ETRADE, and FIDELITY soon followed suit. (Can I get a refund on those trades I made over the years, guys? haha)
Robinhood started as the first broker to offer free trading in 2016-2017. (Thank you, RH!)
We at the Bullish Bears think commission-free trading is great for active or casual traders—more money in your pocket, fewer fees, and more ROI. However, if it costs you less speed when executing trades, poor platform performance, slippage, or lack of good customer service, then we have a problem.
COMPANY |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| DESCRIPTION | Experience TradeStation's professional-grade options trading platform, built for serious traders seeking value and power | ThinkorSwim is for more advanced options traders. It features elite tools and lets you monitor the market, plan your strategy, and implement it in one convenient, easy-to-use, integrated place | Leading online trading solutions for traders, investors and advisors, with direct global access to stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds |
| HIGHLIGHTS | Solid overall trading platform • Good for futures trading • Ease of use • Reliable • Great customer service • Low commissions TradeStation > | Top charting platform • Customizable scanners and indicators • Easy order entry • Reliable • Great customer service • Low commissions Thinkorswim > | International • Ok customer service • Solid order executions • Low commission fees • Good short locates I. Brokers > |
Why Does It Matter?
Let’s look at the facts: TD Ameritrade has great customer service. We hope that doesn’t change after the acquisition. The deal will take a long time to work out, so we will monitor the situation and let you guys know what we think and see.
We noticed ThinkorSwim has had more issues since they went to free commissions. Trades took longer to execute, and there were more log-in and data issues. Though lately, it’s been fine. It isn’t stopping us from using it daily on our live streams.
We’re good as long as Schwab ($SCHW) leaves our platform alone. If we see any trading problems, we might not use it as much. Schwab knows this and will tiptoe around any negative changes to ThinkorSwim. We do use other brokerages to make trades. I think it’s silly to have all your money in one account as a trader. If you’re investing, that’s different. But if your bread and butter come from trading, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Final Thoughts: Charles Schwab Buying TD Ameritrade
As a result of the two brokers merging, better short locates may come out of it. TD does not have the best short locations in the industry. Combining their two clearinghouses and combining customer bases means more shares potentially for us to short, which is a good thing!
It’s a good idea to spread yourself out when it comes to your financial strategy in general. Here is the bottom line. ThinkorSwim should remain the same until the deal progresses and might not change. There’s no reason to panic. It’s always good to have a backup plan. If you’re looking for other brokers and want the facts, check out the trading companies listed on our site. We have vetted all the most popular ones.
You can always join us in the trade room and ask our mods and members what we think or use. Charles Schwab buying TD Ameritrade is a good thing for traders for now because it shows that these giant brokers are willing to do anything for our business. We should be fine if we don’t have an Amazon-like broker someday. Read our thinkorswim review for a full breakdown of this platform.
