Problem is it won't be Tom P, Tom S, or Scott S calling the shots when the deal is closed. AMTD will do whatever they want when it comes to fee structures, data and exchange fees and the software and customer service. Maybe they'll grandfather commish, but I bet we see data/exchange fees passed directly to us now.
Existing customer commissions are grandfathered. But, what about clearing and executing brokers ? Are they dumping Citi, Citadel, Etc. and Penson in place of AMTD clearing and execution ?
To sum it up, what they said in the meeting today is the existing customers will be grandfathered in. Commissions, platfrom, everything. They will be adding futures and forex by the time that the merger comes around. Tom and Scott will stay in charge of the active trader part(thinkorswim part) and it will stay in Chicago! TD will keep TOS and move the rest of their active trader section to Chicago with the rest of them. If anyone knows of a good site to upload an MP3 to, I have the meeting saved and will upload it for you to here if TOS does not have it up yet. Like I have said before, it did scare me in the beginning, however, after listening to Tom and Scott, I have full faith in them and they are staying in charge of the TOS part.
Well the webcast seemed to calm a lot of the fears, but they forgot one important thing. The other deals they talked about that they said didnât change them, seemed to be all partnerships or licensing deals. This is an acquisition. After they buy you, they own you. Sure they can keep things the same for awhile, but pretty soon, theyâll change to how they want it. If TD just wanted the software, couldnât they have just leased it to them? I bet the TOS developers are not happy about working for someone else.
Agreed. Of course they're going to tell their existing customers that everything is going to be the same. It would be mass exodus otherwise. I will wait until the deal is closed but I highly doubt AMTD leaves TOS completely alone. AMTD will own them, they can do whatever they want, WHENEVER they want.
Conference call transcript http://seekingalpha.com/article/113...on-acquisition-of-thinkorswin-call-transcript
AMTD's CEO makes it sound like they are buying the competition before it puts them out of business. If I owned TOS I wouldn't sell it unless I really needed the cash.
This was just posted by someone in the TOS chat room... Thanks Sarah â I appreciate the heartfelt note but I respectfully disagree â I wouldnât sell us short! There are advantages to being a public company but there are also some disadvantages â unfortunately, one of the disadvantages is that you canât always control your own destiny. The good news is that we have been through 4 or 5 deals over the last 8 years and each time our shareholders have benefited (after the initial shock!). Believe me that this time will be no different. Ameritrade has turned over all their trading platforms to Scott and myself and we view this as an extraordinary opportunity. Every TOS client will benefit across the board (or we wouldnât have done it)._ Good companies and good people always prevail â we will not disappoint â we never haveâ¦.nothing will change with respect to rates or fees either --- _ Take care, _ Tom _ _ _ _ Tom Sosnoff I dont understand all the frowning faces. Buy and hold is dead so amtd is being proactive by buying the best trading platform and the best programers. If you are worried about an extra buck per round trip you must not be making much. And if they try to rape us to bad we should get some of the former tos staffers to start a prop firm! TOS made 25k of me last year they better not screw me.