Charles Schwab Thinkorswim Margin Rates (2024) (2024)

Current Charles Schwab Thinkorswim (TOS) margin interest rates on brokerage trading account for loaned funds.

Whether you are already a Charles Schwab customer or are considering becoming one, understanding margin rates and margin requirements is integral to finding success in the markets.

Thinkorswim is Charles Schwab's flagship trading platform, and you can use any of the margin accounts available at Charles Schwab to trade on the popular trading software.

Keep reading to learn more about thinkorswim's margin rates, margin accounts, and margin requirements.

Thinkorswim Margin Accounts, Rates, and Requirements

Thinkorswim is a powerful platform with many useful tools that come free of charge. For some, access to the popular trading platform and all that comes with it may be enough to tip the scales in Charles Schwab's favor.

To use margin on thinkorswim, investors will need one of the many brokerage accounts offered by Charles Schwab. You can choose between an individual brokerage account, a joint account, a custodial account, one of the IRAs, a corporate account, or any other available account options.

No matter which account you choose to use in thinkorswim, a minimum balance of $2,000 is required to trade with margin.

Charles Schwab Thinkorswim Margin Rates

Margin rates at thinkorswim start at 13.575% and gradually decrease as the size grows. The rates are calculated using various criteria, including a base rate, market volatility, and the account size in question.

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Thinkorswim Margin Account Details

Whether you choose a basic individual brokerage account with thinkorswim or one of the other margin accounts on offer, many benefits come from trading on margin.

You might want to enhance your buying power to increase your trade size, sell shares short, or use the borrowed capital for reasons specific to your own goals.

Another important aspect of account margin is the ability to take part in advanced trading strategies. Creating complex options positions is one example, trading futures is another, and forex trading is another.

Besides amplifying your trading experience, margin is also helpful for money management. With a margin account, funds settle instantly when you sell securities. Without margin, trade settlement can take as many as three days.

No matter why you choose to use it, the margin interest rate is applied to your account automatically and is deducted once a month from your account balance.

Charles Schwab Review and Rating

Ways to master ThinkorSwim’s advanced trading platform as a self-directed investor

ThinkorSwim is an advanced, high performance trading platform. Due to the complexity of its features, there is a steep learning curve in becoming proficient at trading on ThinkorSwim. ThinkorSwim offers the self-directed investor a complete A-thru-Z trading education to master the platform’s most advanced trading features and product-specific trading concepts. Training expands a range of products including: stocks, futures and forex. Educational resources include: ThinkorSwim Learning Center, ThinkManual, PaperMoney, WadingPool, SwimLessons and ThinkMoney.

ThinkorSwim Learning Center (TLC)

TLC is a fantastic resource for traders to get started with ThinkorSwim. TLC is available to everyone with internet access, ThinkorSwim customers, or not. The portal has 4 must-read sections: “How to ThinkorSwim”, “Reference”, “Release Notes” and “FAQ”. The “How to ThinkorSwim” section includes instructional content like: “Interactive Elements”, “Left Sidebar”, “Chart Aggregation” and “Using Candlestick Patterns”. These guides are extremely informative and range from well-written graphic-rich step-by-step guides to easy-to-follow video demonstrations.

ThinkorSwim Instructional Manual: ThinkManual

Charles Schwab encourages new traders, to start by reading the ThinkManual, a short, well-written, 66-page platform manual, available in PDF format at the TLC. The manual covers logging into the application and walks the user thru basic features and workspace customization. Advanced features covered in the ThinkManual will be hard to understand for investors not familiar with professional-level stand-alone trading applications. In order to experience the array of features available on the platform, ThinkorSwim encourages users to start using PaperMoney.

Simulated Trading: PaperMoney

PaperMoney is a lightweight version of ThinkorSwim and it’s a great practice resource for new traders. PaperMoney is a good way for new users to get hands-on experience navigating the platform and creating trades using delayed pricing data during market hours. Since it’s a simulated trading platform, there is no risk of losing any real money. Most of the live application features are available on PaperMoney, except one key one, SwimLessons.

Live Training Seminars

ThinkorSwim offers its customers over 30 hours a month of free live seminars in shows including: “WadingPool”, “SwimLessons”, “The Plunge” and “Friday Wall Street Wrap Up”. These seminars are hosted by experienced traders with vast knowledge of trading and high proficiency on the ThinkorSwim platform. SwimLessons are an invaluable resource only available to “live” ThinkorSwim application users. The quality of training is worth the $2000 minimum initial deposit needed to open an account with ThinkorSwim. ThinkorSwim provides daily live seminars thru its Support/Chat service not included on the simulated PaperMoney platform.

Archived Training Seminars

All live training seminars are archived and available to users to watch at any time as refresher courses. There are over 6 months of archived seminars on the live platform with 100’s of hours of education. Archives can be searched by topic. A sample query for “vertical spreads” returns 9 seminars with over 13 hours of content with classes ranging from “Directional High Provability with Vertical Spreads” to “Vertical Spreads: Assignment and Expiration Risks”. Archived seminars allow part-time traders to watch hours of content around their schedule.

Beginner Lessons: WadingPool

WadingPool video seminars are provided weekly on Mondays to live application users. WadingPool lessons are 1 hour long and cover initial application navigation and workspace setup. Seminars focus each week on a different entry-level platform feature. WadingPool sessions include discussions on: “TOS Charts”, “Analyze Tab Part I” and “Monitor Activity and Positions”. New users are encouraged to watch all seminars and practice on their own platforms prior to advancing to SwimLessons. After watching and participating on 4 to 6 lessons, an investor would be able to: navigate platform tabs, place opening and closing trade orders and customize views. WadingPool “graduates” would still lack the knowledge and experience to leverage most of ThinkorSwim’s advanced features like ThinkScript or Active Trader. SwimLessons are the next progression in trading education.

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Updated on 4/19/2024.

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