Getting Around in thinkorswim

1 Getting Around in thinkorswim If you don t have a real account, the virtual account that you sign up for is called papermoney. If you sign up and fund a real account with TD Ameritrade s thinkorswim platform, you have both the real account, and a virtual account called OnDemand, where you can practice. The photo pictured is the virtual OnDemand account for thinkorswim. All you have to do to flip back and forth between the real account and OnDemand virtual account is click the orange button to the far right, where it now says Hot Key Setup, that usually says OnDemand. There is a noticeable difference between the two accounts so you won t make a mistake. The virtual account is orange, as below, and the real account is green. Either the papermoney account or the OnDemand will fund the account with $100,000 of virtual or fake money, kind of like a video game. Copyright 2015 SMMOGUL, Ltd. WWW.SMMOGUL.COM trader

2 Getting Around in thinkorswim On the second tab at the top of the screen, the Trade Tab, you will find the Level II quotes (pronounced Level 2) that come in from different exchanges in the blue box, once you enter a stock symbol in the top left white bar (the search quote bar) and hit enter. These are Bid and Ask quotes in real time trading. Level II is real-time trading on the exchanges. You need Level II to know what the immediate pricing of the stock is going for, otherwise your trade likely won t go through. With this platform, you can click right on the Ask price to buy and it will set up in the order entry screen at the bottom, with the symbol, number of shares, etc You can change the quantity of shares at the bottom, when you push Confirm and Send, it takes you to another box so you can verify what you are trading, and then you click again to approve it. Once you have done that you can monitor how it effects your funds in the upper left corner of the screen (shown on previous page), and also watch it keep track of the amount you are gaining or losing. By clicking on the Charts Tab at the top you can monitor the activity of the candlesticks in the chart. This platform makes it easy to switch back and forth from the charts to the trade area, however, you can trade from the chart as well by clicking the small yellow arrow which pulls up the order entry, or by clicking the buttons on the right side of the chart. Copyright 2015 SMMOGUL, Ltd. WWW.SMMOGUL.COM trader

5 Getting Around in thinkorswim Symbols to Know: NTB: Not Available to Borrow HTB: Hard to Borrow ETB: Easy to Borrow In the upper right corner where we have circled it in white, there is an abbreviation, HTB, for the stock symbol FIT, or Fitbit. Usually, this happens with very low-priced stocks, however FIT was priced in the $30s today, so it may have been due to too much volume trading on the stock, and that creates less availability when everyone is trading it, or simply that the broker is having a hard time getting it to make it available to thinkorswim customers for trading. Copyright 2015 SMMOGUL, Ltd. WWW.SMMOGUL.COM trader

6 Getting Around in thinkorswim To change your chart settings, like colors, time frames, etc check out each tab listed at the top of the Chart Settings box. Click on the tiny wrench button at the top right to access the Chart Settings box. The tiny button next to the wrench is the Edit Studies button, where you can add or delete the different studies that we will discuss a little later, like moving averages, Bollinger Bands, etc Tabs Copyright 2015 SMMOGUL, Ltd. WWW.SMMOGUL.COM trader

7 Getting Around in thinkorswim: Orders This screen shows a better view of Level II quotes from the different exchanges in the blue box. This is in a real trading account, but almost identical to the papermoney virtual account. When you make a trade at the bottom of the screen in the Order Entry area, you have the option of choosing the type of order. TOS automatically sets this to LIMIT. The types of ORDERS are: MARKET: Simplest, fastest, and most reliable. Appropriate if getting filled is more important than getting a certain price. It instructs the broker to buy (or sell) at the best price that is currently available on the market. LIMIT: An order to buy (or sell) at a specified price or better. A buy limit order can only be executed at a specified limit price or lower. A sell limit order will be executed at the specified limit price or higher. Copyright 2015 SMMOGUL, Ltd. WWW.SMMOGUL.COM trader

8 Getting Around in thinkorswim: Orders STOP: Also referred to as a stop-loss order, is an order to buy or sell a stock once the price of the stock reaches a specified price, known as the stop price. When the stop price is reached, a stop order becomes a market order. A buy stop order is entered at a stop price above the current market price. STOPLIMIT: Will be executed at a specified price (or better) after a given stop price has been reached. Once the stop price is reached, the stop-limit order becomes a limit order to buy (or sell) at the limit price or better. TRAILSTOP: Trailing stop orders can be regarded as dynamic stop loss orders that automatically follow the market price. You can use these orders to protect your open position: when the market price reaches a certain critical value (stop price), the trailing stop order becomes a market order to close that position. TRAILSTOPLIMIT: Trailing Stop Limit order allows you to specify a limit on the maximum possible loss, without setting a limit on the maximum possible gain. A SELL trailing stop limit moves with the market price, and continually recalculates the stop trigger price at a fixed amount below the market price, based on the user-defined trailing amount. The limit order price is also continually recalculated based on the limit offset. As the market price rises, both the stop price and the limit price rise by the trail amount and limit offset respectively, but if the stock price falls, the stop price remains unchanged, and when the stop price is hit, a limit order is submitted at the last calculated limit price. A BUY trailing stop limit order is the mirror image of a sell trailing stop limit, and is generally used in falling markets. MOC: Market-On-Close order is a non-limit (market) order executed as close to the end of the market day as possible. All MOC orders must be submitted by 3:45pm on the NYSE and by 3:50pm EST on the Nasdaq. Neither exchange allows for the modification or cancellation of MOC orders after those times. LOC: Limit-On-Close order is a type of limit order to buy or sell shares near the market close only if the closing price is trading better than the limit price. This order is an expansion of the market-on-close order, adding to it a limit condition, which places a maximum on the entry price and minimum on the selling price. Copyright 2015 SMMOGUL, Ltd. WWW.SMMOGUL.COM trader

Other Resources Charting, News + other trading info: tradingeconomics.com finviz.com StockCharts.com StockFetcher.com google.com/finance finance.yahoo.com Media to follow: Watch CNBC or CNBC.com WSJ.com reuters.com bloomberg.com forbes.com fortune.com wired.com fastcompany.com techcrunch.com