The big advantage for TD Ameritrade is the ability to offer Thinkorswim’s stock simulator to their six million plus clients and anyone new who might be interested in joining. A great move.

Thinkorswim’s focus is in options trading which is also a nice plus for TD Ameritrade:

Thinkorswim is among the fastest growing online brokerage firms and has unique trading and investor education capabilities, particularly for the fastest growing segment of the industry – options trading. Over the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, 2008, the company generated $380 million in revenue and $87 million in pre-tax income. It has approximately 87,000 funded retail brokerage accounts, each placing approximately 176 trades per year, more than $3 billion in client assets and more than 375,000 education graduates.

To offset the 28 million new shares of stock TD Ameritrade will be issuing to current Thinkorswim shareholders, TD Ameritrade is going to initiate a fresh stock buyback program. Total cash amount being payed out is $225 million.

As of this post TD Ameritrade (AMTD) is trading right around $13 a share and boasts a market cap of $7.78 Billion. Thinkorswim Group (SWIM) is trading at around $8.30.

Source:
TD Ameritrade to Acquire Thinkorswim
BusinessWire.com
January 8th, 7:30 AM EST

The actual duration of the meeting is estimated at around 30 minutes which depends on your current situation. Details include:

• Meet with a licensed TD Ameritrade Investment Consultant.
• Review your current situation and your investment objectives.
• Discuss Investment products and portfolio guidance solutions that are available to help you pursue your goals.

Read our TD Ameritrade Review and find a branch near you.

Other Recent TD Ameritrade News:

• TD Ameritrade Introduces Ted, the first virtual investment consultant
• TD Ameritrade launches Independence ETFs

Today I logged into my TD Ameritrade account and tested Ted out. The results were very impressive with Ted correctly answering all of my questions and with very good accuracy, and he actually didn’t sound like a robot.

They key to getting good help from Ted is to ask short questions that are clear and concise. For example, I asked Ted “How much are options commissions?” to which he responded,

“Ted: Our options commissions are competitive, with Internet commissions at $9.99 + $0.75 per contract, IVR at $34.99 + $0.75 per contract and broker-assisted at $44.99 + $0.75 per contract. Options exercises and assignments will incur a $19.99 commission. Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors.”

Ted even offered several page links of further information in case my question was not thuroughly answered.

TD Ameritrade is already known for great customer service (like handing out free trades when the TD Ameritrade site crashes) so this should add to the full package offered.

Welcome home Ted…

Read our full TD Ameritrade Review.

Independence ETFs are funds setup that automatically adjust themselves over time to match your goal for retirement. TD Ameritrade explains further,

‘For example, the Independence 2040 ETF has over a 30-year time horizon, so it starts with an aggressive allocation of stocks. It then steadily moves to a more conservative allocation with bonds and CDs until 2040.”

As I read further it says that there are no annual fees for investing in the funds nor are there account minimums so any member can buy shares. You simply pay the standard TD Ameritrade commissions for investing in the fund and the rest is on the house.

There are currently Independence ETFs for 2010 (TDD), 2020 (TDH), 2030 (TDN), and 2040 (TDX). You can find out more at the TD Ameritrade website.

I went searching for online broker ads as a result and found 10 that I thought were pretty good. For the sake of fitting them all I only focused on smaller button ads.

Which one do you think best grabs your attention?

TD Ameritrade Advertisement, “No maintenance fees.”

TD Ameritrade Advertisement, “$9.99 trades. No surprises.”

Charles Schwab Advertisement, “Back test your trading strategies.”

Charles Schwab Advertisement, “Learn how to keep more of what you make.”

Scottrade Advertisement, “Up to $100 back when you switch.”

Scottrade Advertisement, “No-Fee IRA.”

Zecco.com Advertisement, “$0 Stock Trades.”

Advertisement, “$4.95 A Trade, Join Today.”

Advertisement, “Get $50. Switch now.”

Etrade Advertisement, “100 Free Trades.”

More on Stock Brokers:

• Top 5 Online Stock Brokers
• 12 Ways to Compare Online Brokers
• Understanding Flat-Fee Trades
• How to Get Free Real Time Quotes
• Guide to Changing Online Brokers
• View All

**NEW** - Check out the Stock Broker Forum.

Some of the reasons for investors to choose stock broker TD Ameritrade over competitors Zecco, TradeKing, Scottrade, Interactive Brokers, ShareBuilder, Fidelity, and Etrade are:

1. Flat-rate $9.99 commissions.

2. 24/7 customer support.

3. Service tailored to your needs.

4. 13,000+ mutual funds to choose from.

5. Amerivest for outstanding portfolio advisory services.

6. A wide variety of retirement accounts including IRAs.

7. TD Ameritrade 5-Second Guarantee on all trades.

8. Advanced Analyzer for finding stocks that meet your trading criteria.

9. Expert analysis live with Market Huddles weekly.

10. Award winning TD Ameritrade Apex for the highest of quality.

11. Broker support not only in Canada but also in the UK.

The services TD Ameritrade offers its clients even go beyond what is stated here. They have service centers throughout the United States and Canada and also run an Asset Protection Guarantee to keep your accounts secure all day every day.

Other Stock Brokers Reviews:

• Zecco
• TradeKing
• ShareBuilder
  
• Scottrade
  
• Fidelity
  
• Etrade
• OptionsXpress
• Interactive Brokers

More on Online Stock Brokers:

• 12 Ways to Compare Your Online Broker
• 10 Great Online Stock Broker Advertisements
• Understanding Flat-Fee Trades
• How to Get Free Real Time Quotes
• View All

**NEW** - Check out the Stock Broker Forum.

Recently online brokers TD Ameritrade and Scottrade have developed new trading tools that can be used allus investors.

TD Ameritrade Pattern Matcher

According to TD Ameritrade with this free trading tool you can find stocks with specific technical chart patterns that use best match your trading style. Designed completely for technical traders, the tool allows you to save time while letting the tool do all the pattern searching for you.

The key benefits of the TD Ameritrade Pattern Matcher tool listed in the email I received are that you can:

Identify stocks that match well-known, textbook trading patterns.

Enter stock symbols to find other stocks that have similar patterns.

Customize your preferences and filter data to create your own unique search.

Analyze the results of your pattern search in a table or chart.

Add or create a Watch List from the results to easily monitor potential trading opportunities.

This investment tool is free for all TD Ameritrade clients and only is available in Command Center 2.0. You can learn more about the tool and see more images of it on the TD Ameritrade site.

Scottrade NASDAQ Velocity and Forces

Scottrade has broken the ground as being the first online brokerage firm to offer a NASDAQ tool that helps traders identify trends and track market momentum.

From the press release I was sent (hat tip Patricia at Scottrade) the tool works as such:

NASDAQ Market Velocity® is a real-time visual representation of the level of market activity in individual stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) by measuring the frequency and share volume in aggressively-priced orders against historical averages. It can indicate changes in market direction, momentum or liquidity in each stock, enabling users to imply future price movements and trends. By measuring the intensity of the trading interest, traders can decide whether to execute their trading strategies before other traders by comparing the expected order activity in a stock with the current activity to detect surges in trading interest before the trade occurs.

Is that confusing? Just watch this video below and see the trading tool explained visually:

The downside to this investment tool? Sadly it is only available to Scottrade Elite clients.

The Minyanville service is 3rd party real-time streaming service of news, picks, and analysis from Wall Street gurus. There are a handful of different writers that contribute content, and everything from the economy to technical indicators to major earnings reports are discussed.

I actually have been using the Minyanville service for several months now within my Apex account, so I am assuming this is the “official announcement”.

To access the service, simply open up your Command Center 2.0 and at the top you’ll find a link to open up the Minyanville news streamer.

About TD Ameritrade Apex: TD Ameritrade Apex is the top of the line account for TD Ameritrade. There are two ways you can gain this status, either make 10 trades per month for three consecutive months, or you can open an account with atleast $100,000.