Tips for ThinkorSwim?

[Jzwu2017]

I have been using Schwab for over 10 years. Now they are migrating to the ToS platform after acquiring Ameritrade.

Hope to get some tips on ToS. I do day trading on stocks and usually only look at one chart and use the Active Trader tool for trading.

Notably the price ladder is a new thing for me. It’s kinda neat to be able to just click on it to place limit order trades, but it’s also rather chaotic with the fast flashing & moving price quotes. It will take some time for me to get used to it.

 

[wxytrader]

I have been using Schwab for over 10 years. Now they are migrating to the ToS platform after acquiring Ameritrade.

Hope to get some tips on ToS. I do day trading on stocks and usually only look at one chart and use the Active Trader tool for trading.

Notably the price ladder is a new thing for me. It’s kinda neat to be able to just click on it to place limit order trades, but it’s also rather chaotic with the fast flashing & moving price quotes. It will take some time for me to get used to it.

I suggest getting really familiar with the platform before doing live trades.

 

[Jzwu2017]

I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and did live trading today. It went ok but I made quite a few errors. Multiple Flatten orders got rejected when I had bracket orders in place.

In StreetSmart Edge from Schwab you can get out of all your positions with one click no matter what. I really missed that feature.

 

[R1234]

I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and did live trading today. It went ok but I made quite a few errors. Multiple Flatten orders got rejected when I had bracket orders in place.

In StreetSmart Edge from Schwab you can get out of all your positions with one click no matter what. I really missed that feature.

You can still revert back to SSE if you request it. Can't trade with both TOS and SSE.
The feature I like about TOS is the ability to copy multiple orders from an excel file and paste it into a 'Blast All' order.

 

[ironchef]

I have been using Schwab for over 10 years. Now they are migrating to the ToS platform after acquiring Ameritrade.

Hope to get some tips on ToS. I do day trading on stocks and usually only look at one chart and use the Active Trader tool for trading.

Notably the price ladder is a new thing for me. It’s kinda neat to be able to just click on it to place limit order trades, but it’s also rather chaotic with the fast flashing & moving price quotes. It will take some time for me to get used to it.

I use Schwab's Streetsmart Edge to day trade.

When I re-start my paper trade exercise, a few weeks ago, I transitioned to the TOS's paper trade platform and it is working well, actually better than Streetsmart Edge.

You can call Schwab technical support to help you set things up. Make sure you get right into paper trade or Schwab will kill your Streetsmart Edge platform and you cannot go back to it once TOS is live.

Good luck.

 

[zdreg]

When I re-start my paper trade exercise, a few weeks ago, I transitioned to the TOS's paper trade platform and it is working well, actually better than Streetsmart Edge

Can you offer specific advantages and disadvantages?

 

[ironchef]

Can you offer specific advantages and disadvantages?

I day trade using mtf: tick, 1 min, 5 min and DOM table. Just a few examples:

1. The tick by tick of TOS is more capable, I can do single, or combined any number of ticks to form a candlestick tick chart. SSE cannot do that.

2. I can do sub minute charts on TOS but not on SSE. Also, chart manipulation is intuitive and easy on TOS, not as easy on SSE.

3. After market, Streetsmart tick chart disappears and I cannot do post mortem analysis whereas with TOS, I can.

4. The SSE DOM is kind of cumbersome to us, TOS's DOM is more intuitive and doing limit order is just a click, making fast trading a lot easier than SSE. Often, I need to reverse a buy and start a sell immediately. TOS can execute steps a lot faster and easier.

5. TOS has way more studies and indicators, hundreds of them. I don't use any indicators so it is of no use to me but if you are trading with indicators, it is the go to platform.

6. I use a MacBook Pro to trade, starting SSE on Safari takes multiple steps, I first have to open Schwab.com, sign on, then click launch.... a real pain. Opening TOS is just a couple of clicks.

Some negatives, since it has so many features, long learning curve, some features are difficult to use and read....

 

[ironchef]

I day trade using mtf: tick, 1 min, 5 min and DOM table. Just a few examples:

1. The tick by tick of TOS is more capable, I can do single, or combined any number of ticks to form a candlestick tick chart. SSE cannot do that.

2. I can do sub minute charts on TOS but not on SSE. Also, chart manipulation is intuitive and easy on TOS, not as easy on SSE.

3. After market, Streetsmart tick chart disappears and I cannot do post mortem analysis whereas with TOS, I can.

4. The SSE DOM is kind of cumbersome to us, TOS's DOM is more intuitive and doing limit order is just a click, making fast trading a lot easier than SSE. Often, I need to reverse a buy and start a sell immediately. TOS can execute steps a lot faster and easier.

5. TOS has way more studies and indicators, hundreds of them. I don't use any indicators so it is of no use to me but if you are trading with indicators, it is the go to platform.

6. I use a MacBook Pro to trade, starting SSE on Safari takes multiple steps, I first have to open Schwab.com, sign on, then click launch.... a real pain. Opening TOS is just a couple of clicks.

Some negatives, since it has so many features, long learning curve, some features are difficult to use and read....

And SSE no longer provides real time option charts so I cannot day trade options with SSE.

 

[Jzwu2017]

Does anyone know how to one click to get out of your position in Active Trader in ToS when you are in a bracket order trade with both stop and target set in place?

I tried to click the Flatten button but it got rejected.

 

[destriero]

Does anyone know how to one click to get out of your position in Active Trader in ToS when you are in a bracket order trade with both stop and target set in place?

I tried to click the Flatten button but it got rejected.

Flatten would cancel all conditions, but it's not a single click. You can set up hot keys.