thinkorswim acquired by ameritrade.

FROM TOS SUPPORT a few minutes ago: a Dear John letter, good to know you amd thanks for building us up so now we can sell ourselves for $600 million, so we are selling out, taking the money and running...



Hi Swimmers! Happy New Year!!

We've been going strong for almost a full decade now, delivering what we believe is the best trading platform and service in the industry. As a small company, we've gone through some major changes in that time, and view all of them as positive for our clients. It was only a matter of time until a larger company recognized us as a great value. We want to let you know that TD AMERITRADE has agreed to buy thinkorswim and make our trading platform available to their customers. They are impressed by our trading know-how, technological edge and commitment to make each customer a smarter trader. That's what we bring to the table. Once the deal is completed, you¹ll have access to TD AMERITRADE¹s range of features, such as:
24/7 client account service in addition to our continuing thinkorswim support.
Extensive independent research and web-based investment tools.
A nationwide branch network, strong balance sheet and better cash management tools and tax software features.
A broad range of investment products, including an expanded mutual fund list and expanded bond and Treasury offerings.
Together, we hope to deliver more educational content, further enhance our trading platforms, and be a leading provider of brokerage services. TD AMERITRADE will work to leverage thinkorswim¹s capabilities, and Scott Sheridan and I will continue to lead thinkorswim through the close of the deal, and will then manage the active trading platforms for the combined company. You will continue to get the same, great trading software and support from your favorite Swimmers.

For more information click to read the letter from TD AMERITRADE, press release and FAQ. If you have questions, please feel free to call thinkorswim Support at 866-839-1100, Monday through Thursday from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. CT and from 6:00 a.m. CT to 5:00 p.m. CT on Fridays. Or you can send an email to help@thinkorswim.com.

In the meantime, our technologists have continued to deliver new features at a torrid pace and our support teams continue to work around the clock with 10 minute e-mail responses even on Christmas Day. We hope you¹re liking our new thinkAI for intra-day trading and we're going to be expanding its power to all other cash indices and ETFs to help you find more trading opportunities. It will soon be joined by a whole bunch of new tools that we'll be adding in the next quarter, including: integrated robotics, advanced tax tools and account management features and an open API.

Bottom line: we will never stop caring about each and every client.

Sincerely,

Tom
 
Quote from buzzy2:

Yes but they will change clearing firms, and routing orders through Ameritrade servers will affect execution quality and product offering, for example they may drop futures trading and options on futures.
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Several months ago, one of TD's cust service people told me that they were planning to add futures to their product line before long. Perhaps, that might indicate that they will retain futures trading. Stosh
 
The TOS letter to customers reads:

"We want to let you know that TD AMERITRADE has agreed to buy thinkorswim and make our trading platform available to their customers"

If the TOS platform is to be made available to TS, it should be fine - unless it affects the performance.
 
It doesn't make sense that an active trading platform would have as high fees as the standard investing platform. I can see them passing exchange fees and charging a platform fee for it but it doesn't make sense to charge more for those that would presumeably trade more.

Quote from pinthestrike:

I have heard rumors that while they will keep the platform as "Ameritrade Pro" they will raise commissions to meet AMTD retail fees.
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Would you want an account with this firm?

http://citizenvox.org/2008/09/02/ameritrade-deal-doesnt-address-massive-security-breach/

Ameritrade deal doesn’t address massive security breach
September 2, 2008 by Joe Newman

Most of us are so accustomed to doing our banking and business online that we often don’t give much thought to security. Then we get a reminder of how not only is security still a grave concern on the Web but how some of the companies that we entrust our private information with may or may not be doing everything they can to protect us. Such is the case with TD Ameritrade, one of the leading online brokerages.

Ameritrade’s clients filed a class-action suit after a massive security breach allowed hackers access to customers’ Social Security numbers, birth dates, account numbers and email addresses. A settlement proposed between Ameritrade and its customers, however, does little to shed light on the security breach and doesn’t really do anything to make Ameritrade clients feel more secure.

Those are some of the reasons that Public Citizen, on behalf of Ameritrade customer Mark Elvey, filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, asking the judge to reject the proposed settlement.


Ameritrade has never disclosed the extent of the security breach. Mostly the company has tried to characterize it as a case of spammers accessing the company’s email data base. This we know is true because Elvey, like other customers, received spam at email addresses that were used exclusively with his Ameritrade account.

Here’s what Public Citizen attorney Greg Beck had to say about the likelihood of hackers taking email addresses and nothing else:

It’s absurd to think that hackers would steal e-mail addresses from Ameritrade’s data base, while ignoring more prized information, such as Social Security numbers and birth dates. The only people who benefit from this settlement are the plaintiffs’ lawyers – who will receive $1.8 million in fees – and Ameritrade officials who would rather pretend this security breach never happened.

Elvey wants to know what else the hackers got access to. And he wants to know what Ameritrade has done to improve security. Neither of these questions are answered in the proposed settlement.

Instead, Ameritrade is offering members of the class action suit — some 6 million customers — access to a free download of some anti-spam software, a pretty useless gesture for most customers, who most likely already have anti-spam software.

Wired has more about the settlement here.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/ameritrade-hack.html

Ameritrade Hack Settlement: $2 Per Victim, $1.8 Million for Lawyers
By David Kravets July 11, 2008 | 1:55:18 PMCategories: Hacks and Cracks


A proposed agreement to settle a class action lawsuit to compensate as many as 6.3 million TD Ameritrade customers whose data was stolen by hackers would cost the Nebraska online brokerage firm less than $2 per victim and at least $1.8 million in fees to the attorneys who brokered the deal, according to an analysis of federal court documents filed Friday.

"The settlement provides the class members with fair, reasonable and adequate compensation for their claims," wrote lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Scott Kamber of KamberEdelson in New York.

Kamber, in a court filing (.pdf) in San Francisco federal court on Friday, is requesting $1,360 an hour -- $1.8 million and counting for time worked by him and others in his and other firms for bringing the case and negotiating a proposed settlement to the breach-of-privacy class action.

The court filings came in response to a request by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who last month scuttled the proposed settlement agreement. Walker wanted an hourly accounting of the proposed legal fees, which are not unusually high by class action standards.

Most important, Walker was concerned the settlement agreement might not provide any real benefits to the customers whose data was stolen.

The data theft, disclosed in September, gave hackers access to customer names, phone numbers, e-mail accounts and home addresses. There is "no evidence" Social Security or account information was compromised, according to Ameritrade. According to the settlement, there is no "evidence of identity theft." Customers fell victim, however, to spam attacks.

The settlement agreement, while also demanding heightened data security, does not spell out whether lax security was cause for the breach. ID Analytics, a company specializing in identifying organized identity theft, and has been retained by Ameritrade to monitor security. The deal also demands that Ameritrade assist victims of identity theft at rewinding their financial mess.

A central element to the agreement is a provision giving affected customers a one-year subscription to spam-blocking software. The Trend Micro Internet Security Pro retails for about $70. TD Ameritrade said it struck a deal with Trend Micro to service the settlement agreement for about $6 million, the parties told Walker in court briefs on Friday. A solution for those using Apple computers was added to the deal.

In all, lawyers in the case said Ameritrade is likely to spend $10 million on the deal. With attorney's fees, the deal is expected to run the Nebraska company $12 million, or about $2 for every affected customer covered by the lawsuit.

"It is my understanding from information and belief that TD Ameritrade's cost associated with this settlement are well in excess of the $6 million paid to Trend Micro," Kamber wrote Judge Walker. "Considering an undisclosed cost of ID Analytics as well as costs to comply with enhanced security, I believe the total costs of this settlement will approach $10 million."

In an unusual twist, lead plaintiff Matthew Elvey, an IT computer consultant who signed the agreement, now says it's not good for customers and that he was "threatened" by his lawyers into signing it. Kamber wrote (.pdf) Walker, saying such a statement was a "meritless accusation."

Elvey, in a telephone interview, said Kamber's declaration was "chock full of half-truths and outright lies."

No arrests have been reported in the Ameritrade breach.
 
Quote from suedeuno:

It doesn't make sense that an active trading platform would have as high fees as the standard investing platform. I can see them passing exchange fees and charging a platform fee for it but it doesn't make sense to charge more for those that would presumeably trade more.
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TOS was marginally profitable due to their back-office structure. AMTD can't make it work at anything close to it's current commission schedules. Futures will not be offered, and they are dropping the white-label forex offering. It's more than a rumor, but I've said too much already.
 
If that's the case and they don't consider grandfathering existing clients then I'll have no problem going elsewhere. If I wanted to pay inflated rates I would go to ETrade before I went to ATD anyway.
 
ToS had a good run :(. TD is a buy an hold dinosaur of a brokerage firm and will kill what made ToS great since not one broker in that place (TD) knows an option from an asshole.

ToS had no need to sell except to make money as they were growing well and adding more and more products.

After hating on IB for many years, looks like they will win my account by default.
 
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