Schwab acquired TD Ameritrade, which owns the Thinkorswim platform. Once your TD Ameritrade accounts are migrated to Schwab, you'll likely need to take steps to set up your accounts in Thinkorswim. We don't know if every migration is the same, but here's some info about the migration we experienced, which may help others with their account transition.
When launching Thinkorswim, we received the following message about the accounts being moved to Schwab.
Clicking the shortcut link brought us to the following page:
When first logging into Thinkorswim after migration, you may also see a message similar to the following:
Regardless of which message you see, if you have multiple accounts, you may find that only some of the accounts have been transferred to Schwab. For those with multiple accounts, account migration doesn’t necessarily occur simultaneously for all your accounts. For those with multiple accounts, there may be a transition period where some of your accounts are available under TD Ameritrade and others under Schwab. The link above refers to users who have accounts in both the old and new systems to download a second copy of thinkorswim to run from both accounts simultaneously. Once you have two instances set up, you can run two instances of thinkorswim simultaneously: one for your accounts still under TD Ameritrade and another with your accounts held under Schwab. Again, refer to the instructions in the Schwab-provided web link above to learn how to do this.
Important: If you follow the steps to migrate your Thinkorswim account to the Schwab account, it may appear that you've lost access to your TD Ameritrade accounts - but don't worry, they're still there. They just haven't been migrated to Schwab yet. When in "Schwab" account mode, you'll only see your Schwab-held accounts. When in "TD Ameritrade" account mode, you'll only see the accounts held at TD Ameritrade.
You CAN switch between the two accounts by using the login-prompt gear to select which account you want to use, but you may find you can't simply run two instances of thinkorswim like you used to anymore, because it checks for other running instances. But you can use the gear / select Accounts to switch the one instance between the two accounts. That is, if you only see your Schwab-held accounts, and you want to access your TD Ameritrade-held accounts, you can restart thinkorswim and point the Accounts selection to TD Ameritrade, or Schwab, to switch between them. If you want to run two instances to access both accounts simultaneously, follow Schwab's instructions to download a second instance to your computer to run both simultaneously.
Before you continue, you’re going to need to know your Schwab login ID and password. If you do not know this, you won’t be able to continue with the login. You’ll need these credentials each time you use thinkorswim. Refer to the Schwab web link article above if you need help with your credentials.
The following steps outline how to switch to the Schwab account.
Log out of thinkorswim, and then relaunch it.
At the login prompt (where you enter your username and password), click on the gear at the lower left of the login box, that's shown in the following image.
and under the Account selection, choose Schwab, as shown in the following image:
Click Save, and restart thinkorswim when you see the prompt:
When it restarts, you’ll notice the familiar green color used for the thinkorswim logo switches to an icy blue (Schwab) color. When connected to TD Ameritrade, the taskbar icons will have green icon colors, blue when connected to your Schwab accounts, and brown when in paper trading mode. You’ll see an installing updates window for some time, and it may appear and reappear. Eventually, you’ll see the following new login window, where you’ll need to enter your Schwab ID. Enter your Schwab (not thinkorswim) Login ID. If you don’t know your login ID, you may check with your browser’s saved passwords, or use the Forgot Login ID link, or contact Schwab support to get it. The Schwab-provided link near the beginning of this article provides contact info to assist with unknown passwords.
After you enter your Login ID, you’ll be prompted for your password. Again, this is your Schwab password.
Once you enter your credentials, you’ll see thinkorswim continue to launch
You will likely see the linked accounts notice again, directing you to the same support page we were directed to earlier.
You’ll then be prompted to Accept various agreements, as you likely did when you first installed thinkorswim. Check the agreement boxes once you’ve read and agree to what’s provided. Then select the Accept and proceed button to continue. If you don’t agree with any of these, click the Quit thinkorswim button and contact Schwab for next steps.
Once you’ve logged in, you can see your accounts moved under Schwab. If you don’t see all of your accounts, your other accounts may still be held under TD Ameritrade, until all the accounts are transitioned to Schwab. It's not known how long Schwab may take to transition all accounts. So you may need to switch between the two logins (TD Ameritrade and Schwab) until all accounts have transitioned. As a reminder, you can switch between accounts at the login prompt by clicking on the gear at the lower left of the login prompt screen, and then selecting which Account you wish to use. Then make sure you use the correct credentials for whichever broker (TD Ameritrade or Schwab) you are connecting to. As described above, you can configure two instances of thinkorswim - one using each type of account - to have access to all your accounts simultaneously, using the instructions pointed to by the Schwab-provided web link at the beginning of this article.
Once you're running the newer Schwab-updated version of Thinkorswim, you may find that your workspaces (charts) are not coming up as they did before. You may need to choose the Setup menu on the Thinkorswim Home Page and select a named workspace that appears in the bottom section of that Setup menu, as pointed to by the red arrow in the following image. If you can't find your workspace(s), contact thinkorswim support for assistance.
Where are my indicators?
Can't find your Base Camp Trading indicators in the Schwab version? Each instance of thinkorswim may require you to install your BCT indicators. This applies to the 'paper trading' mode, the 'real' trading mode, and the Schwab mode. If you don't see certain indicators after launching the Schwab version, try importing them to see if that resolves the issue.
Why didn't my charts get migrated to Schwab?
If your charts didn't move from the Ameritrade thinkorswim to the Schwab thinkorswim, give Thinkorswim support a call to see if they can help you with that migration. This could avoid the trouble of having to recreate your charts under the Schwab account.
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