The LSE Directory / Charting platforms
thinkorswim is Charles Schwab's flagship trading and market-analysis platform, offered as free desktop, web and mobile applications to any Schwab brokerage client. It provides professional-grade charting with more than 400 built-in technical studies, order entry across stocks, ETFs, options, futures and forex, and a set of purpose-built research tools including the Analyze tab for options and probability modeling, the Monitor tab for positions and orders, and MarketWatch for news and alerts. The platform differentiates itself from mainstream retail brokerage apps through depth aimed at active and options traders rather than casual investors. Its thinkScript language lets users write custom indicators, scans and order-execution studies, and its three built-in scanners (Stock Hacker, Option Hacker and Spread Hacker) let traders filter the market on technical, fundamental and options-Greek criteria, including implied volatility rank and open interest. paperMoney, a live-data paper-trading simulator built into every version of the platform, gives users a virtual account to test strategies before committing real capital, and thinkOnDemand lets users replay historical market data tick by tick. thinkorswim traces back to Thinkorswim, Inc., an options-focused online brokerage founded in 1999 by Tom Sosnoff and Scott Sheridan with backing from Technology Crossover Ventures. Investools acquired the company in 2007, and TD Ameritrade bought it in January 2009 for roughly 606 million dollars in a deal valued at up to 749 million dollars including existing brokerage accounts. When Charles Schwab acquired TD Ameritrade in October 2020, thinkorswim became part of Schwab's platform lineup; the TD Ameritrade brand and legacy platforms were retired in May 2024, with all former TD accounts and thinkorswim users transitioned fully onto Schwab. There is no separate account minimum or platform fee for thinkorswim; Schwab charges its standard per-trade commissions, 0 dollars for stock and ETF trades and 0.65 dollars per options contract. Schwab has continued to add features to thinkorswim since the TD Ameritrade integration, including 24 hour trading on select ETFs and, from 2025, many S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 stocks. In June 2026 Schwab announced further enhancements including nearly round-the-clock trading of select cryptocurrency futures (bitcoin, ether, solana and ripple products) on thinkorswim, expanded fractional-share trading with a 1 dollar minimum across most U.S. stocks and ETFs, and new tax-lot selection tools for the desktop order ticket. Programmatic access is offered separately through the Schwab Developer Portal's Trader API, which succeeded the discontinued TD Ameritrade API.
