As I write this (Friday morning PDT) there is no agreement!! They are in talks. It may be years before you see TDA get brought in...FTC and SEC have to sign off on it. If you are a TDA customer wait and see. Schwab is not stupid. The will want to retain customers and they know TDA has many good platforms for trading. Hopefully they will keep the best of both. Schwab does not want to be a dinosaur. I think they looked at both TDA's assets under management AND their platforms. Why try to create new platforms for their clients, when TDA has very good ones. I don't see them going after (competing against) IB or Robinhood...Apples and oranges. They want to enlarge and keep many day traders!! But they want to go after the Morgan Stanley, Chase, Merrill type of clients. I also looked at some of TDA's physical locations. They overlap so much with Schwab. Maybe hundreds of offices could be closed (redundancy)...Smart move if it works out. Don't forget, many people WANT hand holding (physical locations). The markets think this a good move...We will see.
I would be shocked if Thinkorswim is axed. It will likely be their main trading / research platform, it is one of TD's main assets. Keep in mind, Schwab wants (large) customer accounts for their asset management services (RIAs, Robos, etc) & interest earned. They don't make much revenue on the 20 year youtube futures trader with a $1,500 account trading micros or 10 share lots of the daily low float runner. IMO Schwab puts Wealth Management first over an active trader, which is understandable from a business perspective. I think the biggest question is will this M&A go through without anti-trust issues? They might have to divest in certain assets and could take some time to get inked.
Agree 100% with above. TOS is great. These companies just want your 401Ks. Active trading is just a way to acquire you as a customer.
Schwab is doing this merger at the right time, with Trump still in office. In a year or two, if Trump loses, this merger would be much harder to do. Someone should quickly snatch up E-Trade.
Schwab/TDA does not want them to be calling their call center or going into their physical offices...or keeping a thread online for an hour!! The people in the call center (having their licenses and training) and the person behind the desk at the physical office are making OK money. I'm sure within a year they would be pulling in $50,000. or more (salary plus bonuses plus benefits). They DO NOT want to deal with the above. Let's argue over a $20 dispute in commissions or profits.
??? Schwab offered me zero commission for equity and $.25 per option contract a couple of years back, so I have no complain. My only complain is I cannot automate my trades.
Why would they pull the plug on TOS? It's an asset, and profitable to an extent I'm sure. It fills a void at Schwab too. Why is everyone in a panic? This will take 2 years to complete and once complete I'm sure the first thing on the list is not Disconnect TOS. Interactive Brokers is only a 30Bln market cap I believe... and the founder is not young.... that one might be next.