thinkorswim acquired by ameritrade.

Hombre · Feb 10, 2009

Quote from Darkhand:

Tabs are different. and there are now subtabs under the main tabs. For instance, to use prophet charts, goto Charts tab, then under that it says Charts and Prophet, select prophet.

Darkhand,
Do they have also Prophet intraday emini charts ?

TradingPilot · Feb 11, 2009

1/12/09

Thinkorswim (SWIM) will have to pay a one time $20M breakup fee to TD Ameritrade if their proposed merger does not take place.

Whats up with this news slip? Is it just a clause or are there second guesses on the merger?

dnof · Feb 11, 2009

This seems like just "normal" merger terms for the most part.

Quote from TradingPilot:

1/12/09

Thinkorswim (SWIM) will have to pay a one time $20M breakup fee to TD Ameritrade if their proposed merger does not take place.

Whats up with this news slip? Is it just a clause or are there second guesses on the merger?

AmbushHillbilly · Feb 12, 2009

Quote from AmbushHillbilly:

I've been a tos trader for over three years..

..I'm in the process of pulling my accounts..

Well, I must now admit I reacted a bit hasty, mostly an emotional reaction to being blind-sided with the merger announcement. Funny how one gets attached to his trading platform, especially after spending so much time figuiring it out.

I still have huge concerns over the future of tos' platform and excellent customer service once the AMTD deal is complete. But given how much I like the tos platform for the type of trading I use it for (and dirth of competing platforms, with exception of IB), I moved some money back in and am trading.

However, my account is much smaller (just in case).

omegapoint · Feb 16, 2009

Quote from Boy Plunger:

Sosnoff says a lot of things. Most of which are from an Iced Tea high.

I'm not pleased that an overgrown bucket shop has acquired one of the last independent well run brokerages. The people at ToS are truly special.

If it means anything, the guys did hold up their end of the bargain during the IT merger. Even though the staff was definitely under some stress by the increase in sucker rates especially when SP's got clipped 25% in one week in Sept.

We will just have to wait and see how things pan out. Preparations at other brokerage houses are in order for now but no drastic moves are needed just yet. If anyone can retain autonomy it is Tom and Scott but we just have to wait and see.

Cheers

Was calling TDAm a bucket shop a figure of speech or do you suspect they actually interpose trades? What other misgivings do you have re: to TDAm. thanks for any advice.

Mario66 · Feb 20, 2009

Quote from suedeuno:

Yuck. I would probably try Lightspeed, speedtrader, protrade, or mastertrader before I went back to IB.

I use Lightspeed - great platform great service.

Mario66 · Feb 20, 2009

Quote from tickmagnet:

Who cares , I trade with just2trade.com and IB , both are good.
TOS is just another broker , and you people get excited about
the platforms and the monkeys , if you're good you can make money with any broker.

agreed - but to a certain extent. never hurts to have the right tools and broker.

optionsgirl · Mar 27, 2009

So what is the latest news?

Anyone out there check out AMTD's rules on trading within an IRA? Will TOS customers still be allowed to trade our IRA as we currently do and will margin be calculated the same way? OR will AMTD change the rules and make them more restrictive? TIA

Dagnabit! TOS allows margin trading in an IRA!? I was thinking of transfering my IRA account to TOS, but oh well. If they treat TOS IRA accounts the same way, you can forget about any kind of margin. Ameritrade doesn't allow margin trading in an IRA. You can't write any kind of call spreads. You can only write covered calls with stock. Naked puts is allowable as long as you have 100 percent cash to cover it. I can buy options. Even the ones that I don't have enough cash to exercise... Their rules make sense don't they?

Their idea of risk is pretty naive. When I first applied for trading options, I was only allowed to write covered calls because I was considered to not have enough experience. I could not buy options at all --therefore preventing me to even create a collar strategy. As we all know, a covered call isn't the safest option strategy in the world...

suedeuno · Mar 27, 2009

great for stocks. While their commish's may be cheap their platform isn't optimal for futures or options.

Quote from Mario66:

I use Lightspeed - great platform great service.

RichardRimes · Mar 27, 2009

Quote from optionsgirl:

So what is the latest news?

Dagnabit! TOS allows margin trading in an IRA!? I was thinking of transfering my IRA account to TOS, but oh well. If they treat TOS IRA accounts the same way, you can forget about any kind of margin. Ameritrade doesn't allow margin trading in an IRA. You can't write any kind of call spreads. You can only write covered calls with stock. Naked puts is allowable as long as you have 100 percent cash to cover it. I can buy options. Even the ones that I don't have enough cash to exercise... Their rules make sense don't they?

Their idea of risk is pretty naive. When I first applied for trading options, I was only allowed to write covered calls because I was considered to not have enough experience. I could not buy options at all --therefore preventing me to even create a collar strategy. As we all know, a covered call isn't the safest option strategy in the world...

No one allows margin trading in an IRA. IB does allow some futures trading (TOS does not). They have some language that says its not "exactly" margin. What TOS and many options speciality brokers allow is ANY trading that is "Defined" risk. Anything goes except naked calls. What TOS does exceptionally well is managing IRA's that have calendar/diagonal/IC and other "complex" option strats in them. Absolutely the best Options broker around. As a current TOS customer I certainly hope that AMTD will continue the TOS practices for option traders.