thinkorswim Review

**Since the recent aquisition and integration of the thinkorswim platform with TD Ameritrade, this thinkorswim review has been updated and merged with our TD Ameritrade review. Follow the link below to read the new review.**

Click here to read the updated thinkorswim & TD Ameritrade review

Notes the acquisition and integration: 

•  TD Ameritrade Holdings, Inc, purchased thinkorswim Inc. in June 2009 for approximately $606 million in a mixture of cash and stock ($225M in cash + 28 million shares of AMTD common stock).
• At the time, TD Ameritrade was the 3rd largest online brokerage by assets and led the industry in number of stock trades placed per day, and thinkorswim was the leader in retail options trades according to the companies.
• Analysts praised the move by Ameritrade because, according to one analyst, they got “not only the best technology on the options trading side, but also the best investor education company.”
• At the time of the acquisition, thinkorswim had more than 87,000 traders with accounts.
• In August 2011, TD Ameritrade switched clearing for thinkorswim from Penson Worldwide over to their own in-house clearing technology. However, futures and FOREX clearing will still be done through Penson.

My thoughts:

• I see a lot of growth in the future in the options sector for TD Ameritrade as a result of this integration. TD Ameritrade and thinkorswim both had a lot of hardcore fans out there before the integration. People don’t like change, but they’ll get over it.
• thinkorswim customers will still be able to use the stellar platform they’re used to, and TD Ameritrade customers will get access to it as well. So if you’re a current customer, things can only get better from here.
• Some people are wary of the switch from thinkorswim because they don’t think they will get the same personal service that a boutique brokerage like thinkorswim can offer. But TD Ameritrade has always ranked highly for customer service, so I don’t see this being an issue.