thinkorswim: Trade. Invest. Reviews

While I can’t speak for any of the competition since I’m brand new to investing I am a quick learner and research as much as I can and I have to say I love the flexibility of thinkorswim to be able to see whatever info you like to watch. Also does a decent job of teaching you the basics with their learner videos. I only trade in stocks right now and I like that my money is available right away and there is almost 0 commission fees 99% of the time. I have found a few stocks that do charge a small fee for some reason. Maybe risk related, so I pass on those for now till I know more. Obviously still more to learn but I’m having fun and investing for the long term. Can’t wait to see what the future holds but either way at least I should be better off than if I had never started. There are a few things you must do on a pc on thinkorswim like cancel/edit auto contributions as thinkorswim doesn’t let you do that or choose if you want dividends auto re invested which isn’t on thinkorswim as an option either but other than that thinkorswim does an amazing job of having a huge amount of customization. Now if only I could figure out how to do this stuff for a living lol. That would be a pretty cool career imo but for now I’ll just keep watching and learning and building my portfolio. Thanks again TD.

There is so much more information and charts to analyze than Robinhood. You can change so many settings and dive into finding your own investment strategies. thinkorswim is very intimidating at first compared to Robinhood, but I strongly encourage you to dive in. Start simple by creating your watchlists. Then when want to purchase click on trade in upper right corner. It will already be set to 100 shares and instead of changing it with the +\- simply click directly on the number 100 to type the exact number of shares. Then either buy it at the market price which is if the lock icon is unlocked or lock the lock and click directly on the price and type the exact price you want to limit buy it at. Click send or confirm in upper right and your order is underway. If your order goes through then you can view your portfolio under positions tab at bottom next to watchlists. Next to that you can check on or cancel your orders under the orders tab. Hope this helps you get the confidence to give it a try. So far I love TD Ameritrade one week in.

thinkorswim over all is great. It has a lot too offer. But there is one issue that happens frequently enough the that it has caused me to one star. thinkorswim repeatedly logs me out staying “the session has ended, please log in to continue” the log in screen comes up and I have to type in my password etc and get logged in. This has cost me money in more than one occasion and it always seems to happen right as I’m about to exit a position that is going against me. I be been luck that the moves weren’t more violent and didn’t go further against me while I was getting logged back in. Very irritating. I’ve also had times where I sent and order and it just did t go anywhere. It was like the order never existed after I hit the send button. So I missed a lot of good entries and exits due to this. But besides those too issues I do really like thinkorswim . I do wish the would add a few quick execution button on the same screen as the chart…. So you do t have to toggle over to the order tab and hit “send” are you sure “yes”. That’s a 3 step process and a lot can happen in those 3 steps that can cost u money. I suggest 3 execution buttons buttons be added somewhere on the chart tab that can be customized to what type of orders the execute. Similar to the way you can assign hot keys on the active trader tab of the desktop version.

I've been with TDA for 12 years and using this app for about 6 years. Back then, it was rough around the edges and people using it before me would double down on that statement. But the team behind this software is AMAZING. They've been constantly updating it for better experience and best of all, they get lot of the ideas and feedback from is loyal users. So they end up building what we all really need.
For an advanced trader, who's not quite professional but still experienced, will find ToS platform capable of almost everything. It has so many features and now lot of those are available on tablets even down to your phone. I use my full desktop application and love it, but now I've switched to tablet app 60%, phone 20% and desktop the rest. These apps keep getting better with updates.
I'd say improve on adding more features from full app, better over all performance of real-time order data. Great software overall!

The concept is great and the execution is okay. Selection of settings and preferences to organize data and view it is poor and frequently confusing and not consistent from desktop to mobile versions. Display preferences are lacking especially in the desktop version, but in mobile versions too. Font size can not be controlled. Dark mode versus regular can not be adjusted in mobile versions. There are no accommodations for anyone with less than 20-20 vision who can’t utilize dark mode. I wanted to use it primarily because there are markets and data not available in TDAmeritrade’s regular app that I need to monitor so I was forced on to thinkorswim to access them. The settings and preferences issues basically made it unusable for me. They were not very helpful or logical in their responses.

I received a nice response from the developers, but my primary issue with the font sizes remains. You cannot increase the font size which makes it very difficult to use. Every other financial or spreadsheet program I use enables you to zoom in or zoom out or increase the font size that is displayed. You cannot do that and think or swim and that makes it very difficult to use.

TD Ameritrade does not care about making your funds available for your own usage. I chatted a few weeks back to see how I would go about accessing my funds and was told that I would need to wait two days after any sale for funds to settle before being able to make a withdrawal and that I could do so by getting a check at one of their branches or setting up an online transfer. Armed with that knowledge I sold a share on Wednesday of this week with the intent of going to my local branch yesterday (Friday) and collecting a check. When I got to the td Ameritrade branch it had been converted into a joint charles Schwab/td branch and I was informed they no longer offered checks at that branch. I left frustrated and called their customer service team who confirmed that the branch would be unable to create a check but told me he could start a transfer to my bank account and have the funds available to me by the end of business yesterday. This was a lie, every agent that I’ve talked to since then has told me Tuesday would be the earliest I would see these funds. TD Ameritrade refuses to stand by their own words and I will not do business with them or Charles Schwab ever again and wish a pox on their entire executive team. I needed this money to buy medicine to be able to eat and they could not care less.

Most people say that TDA and thinkorswim are better for serious traders and investors. While the service is more reliable and the commission fee is reasonable, the horribly outdated interface is an instant turn off and is the primary reason that I can’t stand any of this company’s products. I invest in options trading as a job and the vast majority of other brokers have generally modernized their interface to a degree because they realize that the majority of investors don’t need a wall of numbers and charts to look at. Some people like to feel cool having all of that information, but it’s unnecessary and deceptive at best, and this broker uses it as a flashy selling point.

On top of that, they claim to have instant deposits but fail to mention that it will take up to a week (mine was 8 days) to deposit funds for options trading. So, a large part of my portfolio sat in transit, unable to be used, because their instant deposit only applies to stock trading. When I spoke to an agent, they said I could just cancel the transfer and I would have my money back that day but that ended up not working. I tried using thinkorswim for a few days but it’s much much much worse than any I’ve used before and I would much rather use Robinhood if only because I know they’re a mediocre company with a decent application.

Love the platform and what it offers but am extremely frustrated with all the technical problems. There’s been countless instances where I’ve placed buy or sell orders that do not go thru. When you check it the color is lighter, it does not allow you to cancel it or make any changes, the order is not acknowledged resulting in enormous losses as you end up having to resubmit orders for a higher price or take a loss on the sales price. When the frozen order doesn’t allow you to cancel or change it, you have to submit a new order for a different price, suddenly the old order (which can sometimes take minutes at a time) suddenly activates and you end up with duplicate orders resulting at even further losses. Another costly problem is when you set trailing stops or stop limits and the stock breezes through it without selling. There’s been numerous other issues but those are the most predominant and costly issues. Of course It’s never Ameritrade the takes the loss, it is the user. If there weren’t so many technical problems I would really enjoy the program and frankly I’m shocked that there hasn’t been lawsuits from all the customers that have incurred monumental losses because of these problems.

Everything about thinkorswim is great except for two things-

1- it always asks for my password when placing a trade, and that really slows me down as an obstacle especially when trying to place limit orders during extended hours at times of volatility. By the time I type my password the price is different and then I have to keep doing the order again and retype my password each time. I know there is a way to use biometrics in place of a password, but I am not a fan of giving out my biometric data, so that feature is useless to me. I don’t see why we need to type our password for every trade. We should only have to do that once when we log in. Having to do it redundantly on each trade takes up valuable time which can (and often does) have a negative impact on those trades.

2- sometimes it shows the wrong prices for things I have bought, like the cost average I paid $7 per share may show up as a cost average of $15, profit shows up in the negative constantly even when I’m actually in the green. I don’t know if this is some kind of wash sale thing or a glitch but it’s kind of terrible

I have dropped my rating from 5 star to 4 star. The TOS App is as intuitive, and as easy as one could make trading complex items. I do not have a desktop, and have not used the TOS Desktop for years. I do not miss it. The iPad layout is very well done, so that you can see many things at a glance. Keep up the good work. The TOS iPad app struggles to keep up with the changes that occur on the desktop version from what I understand, so numerous issues that I find, are not fully developed and tested before be distributed, so be wary of some of the data that you receive, especially for options calculations/expiration data and for advanced orders placement. I have put in numerous requests and bug issues, but I do not get any closure on if or when the anomaly gets corrected. It is too bad, but compared to any others out there, it seems the interface and it team at TOS IS BEST IN THE BUSINESS AND Think or Swim, intends to keep it that way.

This platform is not user friendly. If you are a regular investor whose regular job is not placing trades one after another then find something more user friendly option. Because to place a trade you will not remember the terms and their lingo.

Counter to the ads run by TD Ameritrade with the geek broker trying to convince you can do everything on this platform. Well if you know the lingo and have years of experience with a brokerage firm, yes. Otherwise to place a trade you’ll be reading glossary rather than getting your desired price.

Furthermore, the platform lacks functionality. It does not simply override your commands over a limit order. You have to first cancel a limit order then place your market order. By that time you do this the market price has moved. The support staff is pretty cocky. They expect you know this stuff and act as if you don’t know what you are saying. If you have worked in a brokerage and know what the terms are like OCA bracket then download this is for you. Otherwise do not waste your time. This is my honest advise.

Ive got 4 brokers, all with some thing i cant do without, but thinkorswim is a must for trading stock. I can get on at 1am and see a streaming chart of qqq which gives me an idea of what the markets doing. If some horrible news comes out at 11pm, i can get on here and buy psq 24hrs a day 5 days a wk. i can enter 17*qqq+250*sh in a quote window and get a real time chart of that combination of stocks and then buy and sell that combo like one thing. I have apps from ibkr, fidelity, schwab, and this that i use and this is in a whole other category by itself. If you were living out of a van and only had wifi at breakfast at mcdonalds, you could tell thinkorswim to buy a share of qqq every hour at market and go see the grand canyon. In my opinion, all this stuff is going full on mobile eventually and most of the other apps are kind of made to be used in a pinch. This is all you need ( with the exception of billpay)

Thanks for developing thinkorswim. this app is the power user's application, especially when compared with the regular TDAmeritrade app. As such, certain keyboard/trackpad functions are notably missing, especially given the proliferation of keyboards for iPads and the inclusion of thinkorswim for M1 Macs. If these features are added, I would rate thinkorswim 4.5-5 stars.

1. Keyboard integration for price input when placing trades. On my M1 Mac and iPad Pro, I have to click on the individual numbers as though I was using a finger. It would be a better experience if, when the iPad detects that a keyboard is connected, the user could use the numbers on the keyboard to input price into the order ticket.
2. Multi-touch/Mouse functions (e.g. “2 finger tap, right click, etc.”). When right-clicking, the crosshair view shows up and upon release presents the user with options to place trades similar to TOS Desktop. When a trackpad/mouse is detected, please enable the user to right click/2-finger tap to place trades at the selected price in chart view (similar to the ToS desktop app).

Honestly, this is truly an amazing app and the number of feature is second to none. I love 99% of everything about it. But the one frustrating thing about thinkorswim is that one of the most basic features that makes literally every other mobile charting easier is missing. Not sure how this was overlooked as they included it in the desktop application.

You cannot turn on snap drawings in mobile.

That means the lines just slide where you put them, whether or not it aligns with any significant point on the chart. And when it comes to trading, accuracy matters. Even a difference of $0.01 means your order may or may not be executed. What’s the point of the price level if it’s probably not even accurate?? I have to go back in a second time with the poke-and-hold to view the OHLC then validate every line I create is actually accurate by setting the values in the line settings. It’s incredibly tedious

Phones are much smaller screens and that makes navigating lines and such a bit more difficult. Having to eyeball the open or close of a candle, or the body and wick or a candle when they’re close is frustrating.

I love everything else about thinkorswim , but come on guys, just this ONE thing: snap drawings are a basic feature on every other reasonably standard mobile trading platform. It’s a weird thing to not have when everything else is so amazingly polished.

Please think about adding it to mobile soon!

I have been using TD platform for long time and especially think or swim for number of years.
I have seen this app is high performance platform with real time trade and financial detail.
It has always retail and institutional customers comes first mindset.
I have used Robinhood and also WeBULL they are still not there yet compare to TD. Also I have seen conflict of interest on other platform like “Robinhood “which is not the case in here. And I am a high frequency trader where I can compare all the little detail for stock trade , option trade , required indicators and catalyst.
Strong , robust , detail , real time and especially made for day trader and non-day trader with amazing experience . Great charting detail and financial clarity. Loved it . Strongly recommend for everyone over any other platform in the market .

When trying to add to a saved watchlist, it hangs if I type in more that one letter so I have to type the first letter of the ticker and scroll to find it in a long list of possibles starting with that first letter but it doesn’t give you all the tickers (no preferred shares listed) so I have to type it in my real laptop instead to add to the watchlist (of the same watchlist name). But then the ones added over there on my laptop don’t transfer to ipad and phone - when log out and into the apps they are not the same list of tickers (same watchlist name though and yes, it’s the same one because I gave it a special name that also shows up on the laptop) so ended up having to keep adding whichever of them on your ipad/iphone that I can find with the first letter of the ticker method anyway. Also half the time when looking for tickers it just does the infinite spin ball loop and does not show any possible tickers so I have to quit thinkorswim and open it again to try again. This is on an ipad pro so it’s not a hardware problem and it’s fast on the laptop so it’s not a network problem.

thinkorswim has nowhere near the capability of this app desktop, or even the standard TDA app really. My biggest complaint is that there is very limited company profile/fundamentals data in the quotes. For many companies there isn’t even a company description, so you have to use other apps to research companies to see what you’re even investing in. You can add description, sector, and industry rows to the table at the top of the quote but the space is so limited the text is cut off. Also, thinkorswim does not have the ability to scan for stocks using stock hacker like tos desktop. thinkorswim also just feels really dated. The UI looks like it was designed 20 years ago, and it doesn’t have iOS 14 widgets or anything. Also, some of the chart features and studies are buggy or don’t work. You can not change the color of the volume bars in the volumeavg study (or any study that has histogram bars). No matter what color you select the bars are green. The volume profile study doesn’t work at all. Overall a very dated and buggy app.

2020 October Update
More stable this year, and very fast on iPhone SE (2020)

The THEO theoretical price for option legs just disappeared on Oct 14, please add it back !

Legacy comments on old versions:

2017 October update:
Customization of what columns to show and in what order to show them in is great, and is available for ticker symbol watchlist, portfolio positions, and entered (open or filled or cancelled) orders screens.

It asks me for my password a lot more often, it should use touchID more often.

2017 July update:
-1 star for nagging me to write a review and popping up reminders to write a review while the market is open.

After demerits for review whoring, TD/this app still earns a strong four star rating from me, a long term customer and option trader.

ToS and TDAmeritrade understands what option traders do, and makes it easy to do.

Recent editions have been weak about populating a market 'mark' price quote into lists of open orders. This missing the mark problem continues in 2017 June.

Thoughtful improvements, but the additional information is optional and my screen does not become increasingly cluttered with additional columns I do not use, as I can sort or hide info I do not use.

Flexible customizations. Sometimes unable to connect when the market is busy.

The latest improvements to chat with support and share screens or images/screenshots is great.

I was told this app would be a better interface than the TD Mobile Trader app, but they are essentially the same. The “positions” tab doesn’t clearly tell you your basis in a position, or its current market price, and doesn’t have a quick trade button to allow you to close that position right there. (At least this is the case for options.) I end up going to the underlying stock quote and looking at its options chain to see the bid/ask for my contract (and I trade it from there if I want to close).
The “positions” tab does tell you p/L for the day, based on the last trade, but not based on the current bid/ask which is what I really want to know.
Also for stock quotes, there isn’t a good “fundamentals” snapshot where you can see some basic metrics about the stock like P/E, mcap, FP/E, P/B, short interest, profile, etc like Yahoo Finance or Google Finance would give you. I end up looking up the stock elsewhere then coming back to thinkorswim to trade— it’s not remotely capable of research.
App is secure and functional, however, and I haven’t had any problems with my trading.

I have tried multiple platforms and have found this app superior to all of the others for many reasons: Charts, tools, ease of use, honesty, and most of all…..If I have a question about my account or really ANYTHING AT ALL, I can call and actually talk to a customer service representative for answers. Especially if you are new to trading the fact that they value their users enough to be available is a breath of fresh air! I had money in Robinhood for a long time because it was the first platform I started with. That made it difficult to change but I realized I had to start somewhere. Now that I am switched over I feel like I have the best tools available to me to be successful and in fact have done better.

Happy to write this review
Ronnie

I am an exceptionally, uneducated, 70 something that spent my adult life driving trucks across this great land of ours. After I retired, I decided to try my hand at a little day-trading. Did I say ignorant? Maybe ‘dumb’ better describes me. Anyway, after that colossal disaster, I downloaded this app ...that’s when things got worse. I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at or how to do anything. But, guess what, this app has many, many ways of learning the platform. And, I learned.
Here’s my point; if I can learn this absolutely, terrifically designed, user friendly platform, and be profitable ...so can you. By the way, the support level is more than you’ll ever need to master it. Whether you trade stocks, options, futures, Forex, etc, this platform will do it all ...and quite well, may the add.

Seems to be a pretty good app that gives you access to the think or swim platform and it can be surprising how powerful it is. That said, check your calendar people, it 2018. We were suppose to have flying cars by now (in our driveways). Alas thinkorswim and its big brother on my Mac seem to need an update every time I launch them.

So if you get a trade idea you want to move on when things get active, I hope you’re already logged in. Otherwise, the minutes are passing while the trade escapes you.

Hey Developers: How about offering the update when we log out instead of killing the moment with yet another stoopid update. OR at least give us the choice to defer update till after completing initial objective. OR think of something even better. I can’t believe you’re still doing it this way. Check your calendar.

Can you please let me edit my background color and my candle colors. These red and green candles are terrible and I hate both the white and black backgrounds. Also please can you add a feature so I can add space to the right of my chart. When I try to take a snapshot I cannot see any of my future plans bc it cuts the screen off. Also when you open up a spread trade it's really clunky to try and close and also i would like to have the option to close multiple orders at the same time. Please. Thankyou and other than these nitpicking little details TOS is an awesome platform and I truly love them.

Oh another thing. I would love if you guys would add harmonic drawing tools on the desktop and mobile for different patterns, like bat and crab and all those. Please please pleas. Like trading view does.

Oh and another thing. It would be really awesome if there was a feature that would alert me anytime the price of a stock moved a certain increment. Like say if o trade SPY I can set it to alert me every time the price moves $.50 up or down without me having to physically set the alert. It just does it automatically. This would be really cool.

Thanks guys and gals and keep up the good work.

I didn’t know a thing about stocks when I got thinkorswim but I wanted a hobby that I could get paid by doing it. It has everything you need in a nice streamlined app. I tried a few others and it didn’t compare in my opinion. Every day I learn a little more and I can practice with paper trades (without losing money) until I think I’m ready to play with the big boys. There’s a lot of information to be given so I try to stick one thing a day. It’s been a few weeks since I started and now I have a better understanding on how to use all the tools and terms. So if you’re just starting out in the stock market get thinkorswim and take it slow, you’ll get to were you want too be to start trading.

The speed issues are so bad you wont be able to even load quotes sometimes or even your watchlists. If you contact them about it they'll just blame your phone, laptop, software and/or internet connection. Absolutely terrible because you know they make a killing off of your commissions but they'll just stick it to you when its imperative to get up to day real time quotes. Even in 4 bars of LTE their app will be slow. Contact customer support through chat and be sure to answer within 5 minutes or else they'll close the trouble ticket on you! Thanks for all the fees and subpar service TD. You really sold your customers out on these new updates recently.

I’m new to this, but i can’t say enough good things about this platform. this app is a lot to take in being new, it can do so many things it can be overwhelming. I have been just taking my time to learn it and am feeling a lot more comfortable with this platform. (It’s awesome!!)
That being said, the paper trading side of it seems to have some bugs. It looks like it gets mixed up between (delayed and real-time data) where it executes orders wrong. This can be a little frustrating when your trying to learn the platform.
I would also like to give a huge shout out to TDAmeritrade, you guys have been an absolute pleasure to deal with. Thank you!

Spent a few years on the outdated app on iPhone SE. Upgraded to latest app on iPhone Xs. Excellent. Flip between iPhone & iPad. Drawings on one are also on the other. Haven’t fired up custom built, zooming fast PC and accompanying multiple large screens in years.
The work of trading has changed because of apps like this. There’s no need to sit indoors & stare at screens all day. Do homework in the evenings, then go about doing whatever else the following day while carrying phone.
If scalping futs for ticks, trading 50+ times per day, there’s still a place for the fastest desktop & connection available. But for everyone else, trading on the go is where it’s at. New normal right here.

thinkorswim is extremely useful, it enables me to monitor multiple accounts, make quick trades, conduct analysis and read news all in one place. That being said, there is room for improvement in a few areas:
1- Updates continuously reset thinkorswim , which is extremely annoying. It clears all settings, so I am forced to set up all the different tabs over and over again.
2- When using margin enables accounts, it can be very unclear about how much cash is available for stock and option trading. This can cause one to become over leveraged quite easily. There also needs to be separate lines for cash balances for each account on the home page.
3- Need to add a category to show trade price for options spreads, like the one on computerized version.

I have been waiting patiently, and communicating with the TOS ppl about upgrades to an already powerful mobile platform. Recently they gave us traders a wonderful Christmas gift! Trend lines, drawing tools linked to the desktop, and vice versa. Got an idea waiting in line at the bank, notice a trend in a store? No prob, take out your mobile device set an alert or add to a watchlist. Draw trend lines fibs, whatever floats your boat cause it’s all here in mobile trader now!! I am thrilled with this update! One thing, TOS. Please remove the alerts on the chart. I’m having a little bit of a time seeing candles where the alerts are. Keep positions tho. That’s really helpful. Y’all rock!!!

App was good b4 but even better now. Can make trend lines and all. Not as easy as on a computer but if your away from home and got some time you can put trend lines, fib, etc.

I day trade futures, I won’t use mobile to trade but when I’m at my work I’ll plot out my lines and mark where I’d buy and sold so at least still I’m still in my mind playing the market. Ya the only thing that I’d like to see which I don’t know if they could do on mobile is some how make it easier/faster to put in orders for day traders.

It’s great app no doubt, pretty sure best trading app there is hands down. Can even switch to paper account

TOS is by far the best trading app out there. I came from Fidelity which is totally generic. thinkorswim allows you the freedom to do pretty much everything that you can on the desktop platform from indicators to everything that makes a great chart. One thing that I would really like to see from TOS aka TD Ameritrade is the ability to at least be able to split screen and watch 2 charts at one time as for some people that is very crucial. Other then that I have no complaints on thinkorswim .

After iOS 12.1 was released the TOS app became extremely buggy. Constantly freezes up and messes with my trades because I can’t sell my position or get any updated pricing unless I force close thinkorswim several times. Can someone tell me what’s going on with thinkorswim ?

Would be nice if it allowed for split screen on thinkorswim . It’s a big plus to have a web page also. And out of all the possible info you CAN get (which is a lot), none of it is what I need for the style of trading I do. You need to get outstanding shares, authorized shares, float, and dollar volume into your system. When I don’t have to use more applications and websites to get this info, than the entirety of my time on your app I will give you 5 stars. So much potential, but for me, it’s close to empty apart from buying and selling. iPad Pro version needs a scanner too

I use thinkorswim on FOUR iPads to monitor quick moving Option positions with customized charts and studies. It takes me 90 minutes or more to set up EACH GD IPad every time you wipe out these settings. These iPads help me save thousands each day. Your poor QC and testing is forcing me to stay out of the market until you get thinkorswim stable again.

These iPads supplement what I do on my desktop TOS. You can’t imagine how these constant updates every few days, to a new worthless, still-broken, version of this long-time stable and useful App, that ERASES ALL MY CUSTOM SET-UPS have cost me in lost profits. Do I even want to waste my valuable time recreating my columns, charts and settings? Or should I use that time shopping for a new brokerage and trading platform?

Your mistakes and poor QC are costing you best customers a lot of money.