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Heady trading at Schwab

hank
edited April 2021 in Other Investing
“In Schwab‘s recent earnings release, capital CEO Walt Bettinger noted that client activity exceeded anything the company had ever experienced. And some days, the brokerage firm handled as many as 10 million trades and 15,000,000 logins across its website and mobile platforms. The market volatility even attracted more investors - rather than scaring them away. A Schwab survey found that 15% of all current U.S. stock investors first began treating in 2020.”

(Schwab’s stock price has risen 27% YTD.)

From: The Striking Price: Sharp Swings Favor Schwab
Steven M. Sears, writing in Barron’s, April 26, 2021

Comments

  • Derf
    Appears their latest acquisition has turned out to be quite beneficial !!
    Derf
  • rforno
    edited April 2021
    Derf said:

    Appears their latest acquisition has turned out to be quite beneficial !!
    Derf


    Trading will explode again at Schwab once they unleash ThinkDesktop on Schwab's network. I find their StreetEdge/Active Trading platforms to be utter junk compared to ThinkDekstop, and refuse to use them.

    I moved my TDA stuff to Schwab last fall after TDA dropped the ball horribly with that multi-day outage, but left 30K at TDA for a) records access and b) to keep ThinkDesktop going, b/c it's a great platform when their network is running. That day can't come soon enough!
  • hank
    edited April 2021
    Last month I experienced a (non-typical) one-hour telephone hold at TRP while trying to follow up on an important matter. Is it possible they were / are also experiencing this same kind of heavy trading activity?

    I discussed the hold time when an agent eventually picked up. He was in Baltimore and working from home due to Covid restrictions and indicated virtually all of the front line (phone) workers were working at home and would continue to do so until May.

    It’s easy to get frustrated under such conditions and lash out at the organizations. However, sometimes you need to cut them a bit of slack.
  • rforno
    Schwab and TDA had insane phone hold times in recent months.

    On Friday I called both and got thru each time in under 2 minutes. Amazing!
  • hank
    edited April 2021
    rforno said:

    ”Schwab and TDA had insane phone hold times in recent months. On Friday I called both and got thru each time in under 2 minutes. Amazing!”

    - With 15% of all current investors new to the game, I’d imagine there’s increased need for telephone-based “hand-holding” than for the older crowd who’ve been at it awhile.

    - On the subject of websites - TRP has done a great job with recent upgrades. I don’t know of anything else that comes close in terms of amount of data (account and otherwise) that can be accessed - or for ease of navigation. Invesco, on the other hand, has one of the most awkward / confusing setups I’ve ever experienced.
  • Sven
    Working from home is not the same as in office when your kids are attending remote learning. Supporting equipment including landline for telephone, high capacity broadband internet connection, and workstation have to added. Even then it is not the same as working in the office. For now we have to be patient in light of the situation.

    BTW, I have better luck to talk with a live agent during off-peak hours. Early mornings or late evenings seem to work better.
  • FD1000
    edited April 2021
    I'm with Fidelity and Schwab for years. I never waited at Schwab more than 1-2 minutes and many times the reps work from home.
    In the last 2-3 years, I waited several times at least 20-30 minutes at Fidelity and then they transferred me again to the "right" rep and waited long again.

    I don't use sophisticated trading software, I mostly buy funds/indexes and when I buy a stock, it's pretty easy to use the normal tools they have.
    These sophisticated trading software are for Trading-Obsessed. I tried a couple of these years ago and after several months of practicing and even trading (and fast daily trading including E-mini SP500/Russell/QQQ futures) they didn't enhance my results.
  • Derf
    I was referring to acquisition of USSA & all their customers, not trading platforms.
    Pardon, Derf
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