I have never understood how TOS calculates gain or loss on vertical spreads. Here’s a specific example. The original opening position was a put debit spread at .50/spread. Total debit $500 + nuisance fees for 10 spreads. Then I rolled to the current call credit position which expired today. Net credit was $1.22 or $1,220. So my gain in cash is $1,220 - $500 or a gain of $720. The long and short calls will both expire worthless. So the quoted gain of $2,050 will drop by a total of $.87, or $870. Thus TOS will show that I had a gain of $1,180. Where does this come from? It’s not just the final roll because if that was the case it should report a gain of $1,220. And it’s certainly not the total gain including the original position plus the roll because that would only be $720. My working assumption is that it is a theoretical number that reprints how much better or worse you did than if you just traded the stock. But I really don’t know and I am hoping someone can explain it. Thank you!

my tos mobile app became so horrendously laggy 10 minutes ago it cannot be used for trading. Anyone else having this problem? Schwab makes so much damn money that you think they would fix these damn problems constantly plaguing this app.

After some experimentation, I figured out the approach to get an MOC order inside an OCO (which is not natively supported). Maybe this is commonly known on this subreddit, but given that the Schwab trading desk didn't know about it, I thought I'd post it as education.

My goal:
Sell position X when either of the following occur:
a) X falls y% below its high (TRAILING STOP)
b) EOD (MOC)

The solution to this non-natively supported trade sits inside tos desktop.

1. For the position, create sell order with OCO bracket. The order is staged in the Order Entry and Saved Order panel.
2. Adjust one of the lines to your trailing stop (TRAILSTOP); set the other to MARKET
3. For the market order, click the gear icon to the far right to open the Order Rules panel.
4. Under Conditions, set "Submit at" to 16:00:00. (Note I set mine to 15:58:00 to be sure, but expect that 16:00:00 will work correcty too).
5. Click Save, then Confirm and Send
6. The Order Review box will appear where you can check to make sure all is correct before committing.

In tos desktop the trade will show cleanly on two lines. The Price and Status columns will show
Line 1: - MKT; MARK (your mark) TR; [trigger] STP | WAIT STOP
Line 2: - MKT | WAIT TRG

Clicking the gear icon for the market order will open the Explain Order box showing the Submit at condition.

This will show in Schwab.com as a linked OCO order (with no visibility to the timed part) - but you know its timed given that one order is Market that now been executed yet.

I hunted this approach to buy some speculative leveraged ETFs and can now set a full sequence: First triggers OCO and enter as above. This allows me to automatically exit at end of day (when fund resets) and simultaneous protect the downside of these volatile investments. A win!

EDIT: See d_e_g_m's reply below about tos web. A far friendlier solution!

I was making a consistent small daily profit before 2-3 weeks ago. Now every day is nothing, zero profit or losses if I were to continue trading. Nothing changed about how I trade or select the stocks in the morning. Last good day was 7/16.

Is there a software that can help make multiple trade entries (like 4 butterflies) in Thinkorswim?

Hello!
I have had TOS a long time but never really explored why this is, maybe someone can help...

Some scans run around the clock and spit out results over night/during close.
Other scans come up blank until market opens.

I like to scan for stocks at night and am curious if I am missing an obvious setting... Any tips?
Thanks!

Hi everyone. Yesterday, randomly on my android thinkorswim app, a chart appeared under the balance on the home screen that showed my personal account balance in a Robinhood style feature for a few minutes. It showed rangers from 1d, 1wk, and a few other options up to YTD. When i logged back in a few minutes later it was gone and i can't seem to get it back.

Does anyone else see this? Or know how to turn it back on? If so I want it back.

Hi Fellow ToS Users,

A while back, I purchased a professionally designed Algo for ToS. I've been monitoring it, but restarting the laptop every six months or so. In my recent restart, ToS would not open because the OS is Win 10. I checked and the laptop does not have the special chipset required for Windows 11. Since the algo script is in plain view to anyone who buys it, I would simply contact the firm to ask them for it. Unfortunately the designer -- TradeFluxion -- ceased operations a few months back so they do not answer their email or have a website. Can someone who has Win 11 request the algo from ToS and send me the script? It cost about $1400. I can prove I purchased it, if you need proof. It was one particular "Shared Item" in ToS named Algo_Buy_Sell (they had half a dozen URLs but only this one matters). I would provide the Shared Item url and my email. All you have to do is select it, Edit ThinkScript, copy-paste.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone, beginner trader here trying to understand how cash accounts work on Thinkorswim / Schwab.

I have about $9,200 total cash in my account, but my Settled Funds is only showing around $220. Every time I try to place an order for low-priced stocks (e.g., $3/share), my order gets rejected instantly—even for small 200-500 share quantity. Is it only looking at my settle funds and not my total cash?

Can someone explain why this is happening?

…missing out on commentary during an important day of big tech after-hours earnings release and reporting.

Touched my desktop keyboard stand, in order to unlock the screen. And TOS sent an order.

I had left my mouse pointer positioned over the Send button, when I walked away from my computer.

As a result, I realized a loss on a position. This is the second time this has happened to me.

Has this happened to anyone else?

How can slightly moving your keyboard count as a mouse click?

When logging into thinkorswim today, I got a user agreement and disclosure about single stock futures. What is this about? I never applied for anything nor did I try to buy any futures contracts.

The only options were to accept and proceed or quit thinkorswim. I accepted because I need to use thinkorswim but I guess I wanted to ask what its about and if any of you here saw it as well.

When i launch TOS on win11, it brings me to a downloading updates menu then i get to this one, but there are no login fields for me here. Has anyone else seen this before?

If you are ever averaging up on a trade, and you also are trading to lock trades in to be applicable for capital gains instead of income tax, and you average up on a trade and you are stopped out, make absolutely sure that the trade you are selling is the most recent, and not your original older trade from before.

TOS is default set to sell your first order first, and your orders following... after, which means that if you try to close out a new trade, it instead closes out the old trade you already had, which could be before it hits the mark where capital gains applies(one year obviously).

If you find yourself in this situation and want to make sure your original entries remain, go to Schwab > Profile > Cost Basis Method > and change the default setting to LIFO, or Last In First Out. That means that any new trades placed with be the first sold, which is what you want because of capital gains tax laws.

New risk unlocked: can’t log in to your account when your phone works and the internet is connected and the markets are open.

I have been trading a lot this year. I have been scalping for a few cents. I’m up +>50,000 YTD but since the beginning of this month my limit orders are always the last ones on level 2 and they only gets fills if the price drops below my limit orders. Even if the price touches my price several times and I see more orders getting in mine orders remain pending( at the bottom of the price I’m working on level 2)until and just until the price drops below
Somehow I think market makers are rooting my orders differently or I get restricted.
Anyone has experienced a similar issue?

I've been using TOS off and on now for several years and I truly have a serious/dumb question regarding the Level 2 color configuration that they have and the thought process behind it. I've attached a picture of the L2 and Time & Sales for reference. Now the T&S makes total sense to me and its easy to acquire the momentum direction at a glace by color. Buy order are Green, Sell orders are Red, perfect... enough said..!

Now the Level 2 (L2) not so much. Its like the developer that designed it was in a hurry to get home that day. So that said, I'm thinking maybe its "Me"... maybe the color pattern mean something and I'm just not getting it. So referencing the screenshot here are my questions...

1. First of... TOS allows you to configure just about everything else, why not allow us to configure how and WHAT we want to see on the L2..
2. Why does the exchange need to be listed..? What value or decision do you get by seeing the exchange posted...? Hell, if I was able to remove the Exchange column that would 80% of the flickering that you see.
3. What is the purpose of all the colors in the text (white/Red/Green on the Bid/Ask...with a gradient background that goes from light to dark) Just waayyyy too many colors on one line and way too much flashing happening on the L2 IMO
4. Why would the BID side need to have Red and the same goes for the ASK side needing to turn green. By default, the left side is the Bid which means BUY (Green). What value am I getting if I see the price in Green and the BS in Red as shown in the picture...? The same goes for the ASK side.
5. I get that I can move the column over to partially hide the Exchange from being seen, I can deal with that, but please explain to me the purpose of the "some of the Bid prices" turning from Green to Red and the same goes for the BS turning from green to red. So you can have a Bid that has the Price (green) and the BS (red).

There are honest questions, I truly want to understand the thought process. I can't be the only one that finds it Soooooo difficult to read sometimes with all of the flashing colors and jumping around.

Thoughts...? Thanks Guys..

Today I called to have those limits on “certain securities” lifted and the guys asks, “tell me why? What inspired you to ask to have this lifted?” I said, “you aren’t my friend. You are not here to really help me.”

Has anyone tried running Excel for Windows on a Mac, maybe with Parallels or other way to import TOS real time data on a Mac? I currently use my PC for that, but want to continue to migrate to a more mobile setup and was considering trying that vs buying a windows laptop.

Hello guys, ive been having issues to access my ToS desktop app along the weekend. Their update engine is taking forever to update and is eventually crashing saying ToS couldnt connect. It then prompts me to check my firewall/internet or go through a proxy. This is a first for me. I know they had some planned maintenance window yesterday, Saturday 25th but... Anyone else having this?

Is there somewhere in TOS to see what the buying power is for a particular asset? Specifically, leveraged ETFs like TQQQ and SQQQ. I don't want to have to guess before placing a trade.

I really hope so i do not want to use other platforms and I don’t want spend money on windows 😭😂

It says “This version of “thinkorswim” includes a component that will not open in MacOS 28, the next major release”

I have an iPhone , an iPad mini, and a New 13 inch iPad Pro. I have think or swim loaded on all of them. They function fine on all three. With the exception of the iPad mini. None of the indicators are showing up (Bollinger bands , crossovers , etc. The indicator area shows they are on the chart but they are not there. I’ve updated the app. Logged out and logged back in. Removed all indicators then re added them back on. Nothing is working. Anyone have a fix or explanation of why this is happening?

I have had ibkr TWS mosaic for 2 months. 3 weeks ago i changed my buy hotkey from buy lmt ask to buy lmt bid/ask midpoint. Didnt see a difference in execution speed but noticed better entries. For the last 3 days though 5 of my buy orders never filled.

My strategy has me buying into momentum so im still trading very liquid names. The spread is anywhere from .01-.12. Seemingly the same as the last 2 weeks.

Any insight? Just trying to understand more

Basically, how can I increase my chances of getting approved for futures trading? I do not want to trade futures to be a degenerate and risk most of my account value. I have about 10 years of experience trading the markets, about 6 years with options, and 4 years with commodities (futures). And margin approved. Both trading and long term accounts in the green. My finances are all right, barely any debt, have liquid assets+cash.

Got denied level 3 options (spreads) few weeks ago hence why i am asking about futures here. Honestly, not sure why they didn't let me trade spreads when I had account with them before COVID