Thinkorswim Review 2011-2012: Commissions, Fees and Investment Products
- Stocks and ETFs flat-rate plan: $9.95 per trade on market or limit orders, 5,000 shares maximum
- Stocks and ETFs per-share plan: $0.015 per share, $5 minimum
- OTCBB (Pink Sheets): $9.99 for any stock trade regardless of size or order type for stocks $2 or less
- Options: the lesser of $2.95 per contract OR $1.50 per contract plus $9.95 (only one $9.95 charge for unlimited spread legs)
- Mutual funds: first three mutual fund trades in calendar month are free; $15 per trade after that
- Bonds: up to 6 months maturity - $1 per bond
- Over 6 months up to 1 year maturity: $1.50 per bond
- Over 1 year maturity: $2 per bond
- Listed Bonds: $1.5 per bond additional
- Treasuries: minimum order is $25,000 ($25 minimum commission)
- All other bonds: minimum order is for 10 bonds ($25 minimum commission)
- Futures: $3.50 per contract (inclusive of exchange fees)
- Options on Futures: $3 per contract (inclusive of exchange fees)
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, T-Bills, futures, forex, ETFs
- Minimum to open Thinkorswim account: $3,500
- All Thinkorswim fees
Thinkorswim new account opening process is fast but you'll have to mail or fax your signature,
which makes registration slower. Most discount online brokers now employ electronic signature.
After registration is complete, you could download and install Thinkorswim's desktop trading platform.
You get delayed data until you fund your account.
Thinkorswim Website (Thinkorswim.com)/Trading Tools Review
Thinkorswim offers one of the best trading platforms on the market right now! It's well designed, intuitive and
customizable. Entering and executing orders is fast. Thinkorswim created many advanced features which only experienced
traders will truly appreciate. Its charts are second to none - everything you might want is included. The company provides
live CNBC news, a scan tool for finding stocks that meet certain criteria, a watch page that keeps track of
things like dividend dates and stock splits, spread / stock hacker. There are also live broadcasts from the
S&P 500 pit as well as Shadow Trader.
One of the finest features of Thinkorswim is their Analysis tab. This feature allows you to instantly view an active risk graph that will exactly
show you the most probable look of any trade setup. In addition to this, it will also instantly show you the latest risk graph about any planned
adjustments to the current trades you might want to make. This is usually the kind of things that go together with proprietary software which is
expensive. Thinkorswim is truly a great software that anyone could utilize for better trading experience.
Aside from using think Desktop - their trading application which you must install on your computer - you could
also use browser-based trading. think Anywhere is a tool for trading from your PDA device,
and think Mobile is for trading from your cell phone.
Thinkorswim Pros
- Powerful trading platform, good risk management tools
- Lots of investment products to choose from
- No IRA fees
- Great customer service
- Virtual trading
- No surcharge for placing trade through broker
Thinkorswim Cons
- High stock commissions
- In flat-fee plan there is additional charge of $0.005 per share on every share above 5,000
- All order types other than limit, marketable limit, and market orders will be charged per share rates
- Might be too complicated for beginner investors
- Browser trading is very slow
- High margin rates
Thinkorswim Review Summary
Thinkorswim (TOS) offers its customers both pay-per-share and flat-rate commission plans. Flat-rate commissions are on the higher end in
the industry: $10 per stock and ETF trade. Pay-per-share costs are also some of the highest among brokerage companies offering
them: $0.015 per share with $5 minimum. You can set your default stock commission plan in the "Setup" window of the software or in
webBasedTrading applications or choose to change the commission plan for a particular trade at the time you place an order.
Thinkorswim was bought by TD Ameritrade. It remains to be seen how this is going to affect their
excellent services. There are reports that recent trading tools updates are buggy and that it
interferes with customers trading.
TOS is offering impressive range of investment classes for clients to choose from. The firm is known for great customer service and
versatile, powerful, customizable trading platform. The ability to trade all types of option strategies along with futures and forex
on the same platform is incredible. Everything in the platform flows perfectly. Thinkorswim gets 4 stars instead of 5 because
their stock/etf/options commissions are high.
TOS is a good choice for an IRA account (no IRA fees) for clients who don't plan trading stocks often. Novice
investors are likely to struggle with TOS professional-level trading platform and they will be better off with one of the
Online brokers for beginners.
Active traders often prefer Choicetrade, which offers much lower commissions of just $.005 per share with $1 minimum per trade.
Thinkorswim
Reviewed by Brokerage Review on
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Rating: 4
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