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Thinkorswim discussion (features, how to, cool stuff, problems, etc.)

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Is it appropriate to start a discussion about the Thinkorswim platform?

I'm still an options amateur and only know the basics of Thinkorswim. I can't believe that by luck (reading a former coworker's post on another board) that I just learned about TOS' OnDemand feature. For those who don't know what it is, I learned about it from the links at http://www.trade2win...ml#post1103380.

I just now started poking around and feel so stupid for not knowing about it until now. Am I the only one here on TOS that doesn't know about it? For those who don't, *DO* check it out, seriously. I'm guessing Kim has known about this for awhile.

I'd only known about Analyze > Thinkback and thought the amount of data there was impressive...

It's a little pokey to jump around in time and there's some stuff that's not complete (e.g. wish it had Prophet charts working since I don't know their regular charts very well), but still, it seems amazing.

If this tool turns out to be useful as it appears, I think I will always have an account w/TOS unless this feature falls into disrepair/is way too buggy.

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Guest listolyman

I just checked my TOS account and the "On Demand" feature is available w/o funding an account. I had to logon to the non-paper acct to see the feature.

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Guest listolyman

No. You can register on their website without funding an account. Then download the TOS software.

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Guest tkast36

Where is the "On Demand" link on the TOS site? I tried the Trade2Win link, but it does not work. Thanks.

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Guest listolyman

After you logon to TOS then you will need to download the TOS software.Then launch the software, logon to the non-paper acct, and then you should see the button in the upper right corner.

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Where is the "On Demand" link on the TOS site? I tried the Trade2Win link, but it does not work. Thanks.

Those two links on Trade2win are only tutorials/overviews in Adobe Flash format.

After you logon to TOS then you will need to download the TOS software.Then launch the software, logon to the non-paper acct, and then you should see the button in the upper right corner.

Yep.

I do not have an account with TOS. Do I have to put in some fund to open an account?

If you're asking this question, you might find the TOS platform daunting. I did for a few weeks when I made the switch to TOS. Prior to that, I only knew about web-based trading on the TD Ameritrade web site.

I still probably only know how to use about 5% of TOS but at least I'm able to buy and sell stocks, options, use some of the studies in Prophet Charts, use watchlists and a few other features here/there.

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Anyone else have ToS live quotes go down this morning?  Did a chat and they acknowledged the problem and had them back up in about 10 minutes.  That said, still not getting index quotes (e.g. VIX, GVZ, RUT, RVX, etc...) and they say they are still working on them.  Just trying to understand if it was an issue isolated to a few users or if it was systemwide.

 

The reason I ask is that the frequency of interruptions/outages with ToS seems to be increasing over the past few months, today's incident being one of the quicker fixes.  I like their platform a lot, but it is becoming more frustrating with issues like this, as well as some of the margin policies.  So far, only one of the outages had a material impact on my ability to execute a trade.

 

I've been thinking about moving to IB, but so far have ended up back at "the devil you know" each time I do the analysis.  

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