Status: v2 (marketing-strategist, 2026-04-21). Pricing unverified — WebFetch/WebSearch denied in this session. All numbers from training cutoff January 2026. Attempted live URLs: https://www.schwab.com/trading/thinkorswim and https://www.schwab.com/pricing. Timestamp of attempted fetch: 2026-04-21T00:00Z (blocked).
What they are
thinkorswim (TOS) is a professional-grade desktop + mobile options trading platform originally built by thinkorswim Group, acquired by TD Ameritrade in 2009, rolled into Charles Schwab after the TDA acquisition closed (2023). TOS is the platform many of our target users came up on — deep options analytics, scan libraries, paper trading (paperMoney), a large educational footprint (Investools, TDU).
Now available to any Charles Schwab brokerage customer at no additional platform fee. Three surfaces: thinkorswim Desktop, thinkorswim Web, thinkorswim Mobile.
Positioning (what they say about themselves, post-Schwab)
"A powerful trading platform for serious investors."
Full options chain + Greeks + scans + OnDemand replay.
paperMoney for paper trading (linked to a Schwab account).
No platform fee for Schwab brokerage clients.
Pricing (as of training cutoff 2026-01 — unverified)
Equity options:$0.65 per contract (no per-leg cap)
Index options (SPX, etc.): $0.65 per contract
Futures: $2.25 per contract per side via Schwab Futures
No standalone subscription. Must hold a Schwab brokerage account.
"Free" is asterisked. TOS costs $0/mo, but its true cost is the opportunity cost of holding your assets at Schwab rather than a venue with lower margin rates (IBKR) or a stricter per-leg cap (tastytrade). For a high-volume options trader, that opportunity cost runs into thousands per year.
How Raxx differentiates (the one-paragraph answer)
TOS is a deep options terminal tethered to a Schwab account and a 1999-era UX; Raxx is broker-agnostic, passkey-only, and built around your weekly P/L target, not a chart library. TOS is extraordinarily powerful and extraordinarily opinionated — opinionated about you running a Schwab account, opinionated about you wanting a chart with 40 indicators, opinionated about you learning their ThinkScript DSL. That matched a specific 2010s persona and still serves it well. Raxx is the opposite opinion: you keep whatever broker you already have (Alpaca day one, IBKR + tastytrade roadmap), you don't need to author scans in ThinkScript, and the primary question is "what structure hits this week's number?" not "what does the RSI on /ES look like?" We also win on modern auth and data rights — TOS inherits Schwab's password + 2FA model and Schwab-wide privacy notice; Raxx is passkey-only with GDPR-by-default DSR on every tier. The post-Schwab-acquisition uncertainty around TOS's strategic direction is a watch-list item, but the UX + broker-lock-in gap is durable regardless of where Schwab takes the product.
What they do well
Options analytics depth. Greeks, probability tools, scan library, OnDemand replay, paperMoney sim. Hard to match.
Free to Schwab clients. Removes the "do I pay for a tool" question for anyone already custodied there.
Huge installed base. Millions of traders have muscle memory on this platform.
ThinkScript — a real DSL for custom studies and scans. Power users love it.
Content / education footprint via Schwab's educational channels.
Where Raxx has room
Locked to Schwab. You cannot use TOS with a non-Schwab brokerage. Our entire user base is already at Alpaca / IBKR / tastytrade — asking them to transfer is a non-starter.
No AI proposal engine. TOS gives you the chain + the scans + the diagram. You still pick the structure yourself.
1999-era UX on desktop. The web + mobile versions are cleaner; desktop is the one power users prefer and it shows its age.
No passkey auth. Inherits Schwab's password + 2FA — which is fine by industry standard but not a product invariant like ours.
Paper trading is not strategy-level-tagged, multi-year-retained, or export-clean. It exists; it's not a research artifact.
Post-acquisition strategic uncertainty. Schwab has shuttered or deprioritized acquired products before (SchwabPlan, StreetSmart Edge). TOS's long-term roadmap is not guaranteed.
Where they have room (honest)
Free to Schwab clients is genuinely free. We compete against $0 for anyone who already banks at Schwab.
paperMoney + OnDemand replay are real features. Our paper ledger is a different shape (strategy-tagged, retained, exportable) but TOS's simulator is polished.
The breadth of analytics tools is enormous. We will never ship 400 indicators and do not intend to.
Implications for positioning
Don't compete on price against "free to Schwab clients." Compete on broker-agnostic + AI proposals + paper-ledger-as-artifact.
Frame the opportunity cost explicitly in long-form copy: TOS is free if you hold at Schwab, which costs you IBKR's margin rates or tastytrade's commission cap. Raxx at $29/mo lets you pick the broker with the best terms for your strategy.
Integrate with a Schwab broker surface eventually (longer-roadmap). Schwab's API is more limited than IBKR's or tastytrade's; plan Pro+ integration after the faster moves.
Watch-list signals
Schwab announces AI features or proposal-style tooling inside TOS. Would narrow the wedge.
Schwab deprecates or consolidates TOS surfaces (desktop kill, merge with StreetSmart). Creates migration moment.
Schwab opens third-party API access that would let Raxx route to Schwab accounts.
Verification queue for human
[ ] Confirm $0 platform fee for Schwab clients
[ ] Confirm $0.65/contract options commission
[ ] Confirm no standalone TOS subscription for non-Schwab clients has been introduced
[ ] Confirm all three surfaces (Desktop, Web, Mobile) are still active