Think or Swim Manual

7/27/2019 Think or Swim Manual

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USER COMPANION FOR

thinkorswim


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INTRODUCTION

r

thinkManual

thinkManual

Well be makingfrequent updates tothinkManualas weadd new bells and

whistles to thinkor-swim. We welcomeyour feedback as tohow we can makethis resource evenbetter. Please for-ward your commentsto [email protected].

PLEASE NOTE:All screen shotsand examplesshown are forillustrative

purposes only.

Our answer, thinkorswim.Its smart. Its fast. And its fun.(Seriously, it really is.) But we un-derstand that to the new eye, itstrangely resembles the cockpitof an airplane, possibly renderingyou confused at times and ask-ing the question, Huh?

ENTER: THINKMANUALGoing forward, think of thisreference as your life coach forall things thinkorswim. Hope-

fully, it will make your trading lifeeasier before, during, and afteryour learning curve. If noth-ing else, when you get stuck orfrustrated, it will prevent theparoxysm of rage and ritualisticpillow-screaming that wouldsurely ensue without it.

ButthinkManual isntperfect. We cant possiblycover everything. New tools andgadgets are being added to the

platform all the time. And likethe software, this manual is awork in progress. Our ambitionhere is to dish the skinny onthe most important featuresof the platform, so you feelmore comfortable trading withthinkorswim.

That said, when thinkManual

does fall short on advice, try thefollowing resources:

bTheHelp Page in the tradingplatform is super convenient.There youll nd all kinds of videowalkthroughs and webinars onthe features of the platform itself.

bTheChat Rooms, also in thin-korswim, are not just for marketnarcissists and thinkorswimfanatics. You can pick the brainsof your fellow traders or attendeducation events that run insidethe chat rooms as well. If youmiss one of those, check out anarchived presentation on theSeminars tab.

bFinally, theres Live CustomerSupport. For the price of a smile,the Trading Desk is alwayseager to help you.

As an aside, if the help youreally need is less about usingthe platform, and more about

trading strategy or becoming amore informed investor, considerInvestools, a fee-based educa-tion afliate of TD Ameritrade,that offers in-depth trading andinvesting training designed tohelp you pursue your bigger-picture nancial goals. Asidefrom strategy education and thefundamentals of trading stocks,

options, futures, and forex,Investools education contentincludes integrated platformeducation from TD Ameritradeinstructors as well. Cool.

P.S. (MAC USERS)Okay, so heres the deal. Thereare two worlds we live inMac and PC. And Mac usersgood taste aside, we have noprejudices. Now most of thefunctionality of the thinkorswimsoftware is the same for both

versions. However, every once ina while, we needed to programan extra click here, a click thereto get around certain hurdles inthe Mac coding.

One such case is whereverright-clicking is called for. If youdont have a mouse with right-click functionality, simply, holdthe Command key while clickingon the software. If that doesntwork, try holding either the Con-trol or Shift key while clicking.Track pads may use two-ngertap. If none of these work, youllhave to take it up with yourwallet and just get a mouse withright-click functionality.

Happy trading!TD Ameritrade

THE TOKENINTRODUCTION

Trading platforms. Good luck trying to trade without them.We know that if you could, youd probably have your ordersexecuted with the snap of your ngers or a Jedi mind trick.But since you cant, you ought to be using the next bestthingsmart technology. The kind that doesnt require youto go outside the platform for the tools and informationyou need to conceptualize, research, place, and manage atradewhether stocks, options, futures, or forex.


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page 3

cont

ents

THINKMANUAL

WHAT YOULLFIND INTHINKMANUAL

thinkManual

2 94 6243

IntroducingthinkManual

Its more than amanual. Its your newbest friend.

PART I

Learning toSwim

A quick-Start guideto trading calls andputs without all thecalories.

5/How To Buy an Op-tion in Five Steps

7/How To Sell an Op-

tion in Four Steps

PART IV

PaperTrading

Real trading. Fakemoney.

63/thinkOnDemand

64/paperMoney

PART II

How to Navigateand Research

All the bells andwhistles you couldwant.

BEFOREYOU BEGIN10/The Pages

11/Little Blue Dots &

Wrench Thingies

DUE DILIGENCE,MEET FUN13/The Left Side-bar: Gateway to theUniverse

18/Analyze Page:Stress-test Withoutthe Worry

22/Scan Page: WhatStock Should I Trade?

25/MarketWatch

Page:Whats MovinToday?

30/Charts Page:Sweet, Sweet Pictures

39/Tools Page: Tweet.Watch. Learn.

42/Help Page: WhenthinkManual JustIsnt Enough

Every so often, wellpoint out somethingextra specialperhaps a piece oftrivia, a unique wayof using the software,industry jargon, or nextsteps thatTD Ameritrade can helpyou withwhich welldraw attention to withone of the followinglittle dudes. Be sure towatch for them!

what are these?

DID YOUKNOW?

TRADER-SPEAK

TAKEACTION

BRIGHTIDEA

PART III

How to Tradeand Watch

Trading redened.

44/Monitor Page:Hows My TradeDoing?

48/Trade Page: ItsWhy Were Here

Contact InfoYou Could UseCLIENT SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE800-669-3900

NEW ACCOUNTS800-454-9272

thinkorswim Support

DEDICATED SUPPORT [email protected]

PLATFORM [email protected]

TECH [email protected]

For all other inquiries: please visittdameritrade.com/contact

General Mailing AddressPO Box 2209Omaha, NE 68103


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page 4thinkManual

Learningto Swim

PART I


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R Cant Read It? If you want to change the font size or background color of thesoftware, clickConfgure, and adjust until your eyes say Thank you.

page 5

I

thinkManual

learn

ing

to

swim

QUICK-STARTGUIDE

LEARNINGTOSWIM

How toBuy anOptionin FiveSteps

To get to the login screen, re up your thinkorswim software bydouble-clicking the desktop icon (or nd it in your computers applica-tions folder). At the login screen:

1Choose Live Trading.2Enter your username and password.

3Click OK.

Step 1: Log in

So youve openedup the box, worked

through all the foampeanuts, and taken outthe thinkorswim trad-ing platform. That is,youve downloaded thethinkorswim software,and youre ready torumble. Perhaps youhave no desire to readthis manual and learnall about whats underthe hood of thinkor-swim. Youd rather justdive right in and tradesome calls. Great.

Heres how to buy andsell an option in just afew quick steps.

3.click on

OK

2.enter user

name &password

1.Live

Trading

changecolor &

font size


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LEARNINGTOSWIMStep 2: Check your

account balanceBefore you start conquering the world with your trading prowess,check your account balance to be sure you can afford to do so.

In the top left sidebar of the software now open, under ACCOUNTINFO, you can see your account balancethe cash you have availableto trade with.

Step 3: Enter a buy order

Step 4: Adjust your order

1Click the Trade tab in the top menu.2Type in the symbol in the box in the upper left.3Pick the expiration cycle (in this case, July) and left-click the cor-responding blue arrow until it faces down.4Click on the ask price of the option you want to buy (or right click toaccess other strategies). That will open up the ORDER ENTRY TOOLS

screen, with the information on the trade already populated.

Here you can adjust the quantity of the order, as well as the price andtype. When youre set, click on Confrm and Send.

av

ailablecash

positions

click toview daily

orders

1.click on

trade tab

adjustprice

adjustquantity

2.enter

symbol

4.doubleclick on

offer price

click tosend order

3.left click

arrowdown


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LEARNINGTOSWIMStep 5: Conrm and send

(for real this time)This is the Are you sure-sure? screen. After your order ticket opens up,double-check the order in case you hit a wrong key somewhere or acciden-tally typed too many zeros.

Next step:

bClickSEND if youre happy.b If not, clickEDIT to go back to Step 4 and change the order.bOr, clickDELETEto cancel the order and start over.

ROnce your order is lled, youll hear a little chime that seems to comeout of nowhere, and a conrmation box in the upper left-hand corner ofyour screen will pop up to let you know how many contracts were lledand for how much.

Congratulations! Having taken your rst dive, youre ofcially a swimmer.Now, how to sell.

How toSell anOptionin FourSteps

Step 1: Locateyour position

Once you have an open position, you can see what its doing by going tothe Monitor Page, which is another place to view your available capital aswell as any orders you have entered that day. To locate your position:

1Click the ridiculously small blue arrow to the left of your optionsunderlying symbol.2View your open position in all its glory.

1.arrow

down

click toadjust

position

2.view

position

edit, delete,or send

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LEARNINGTOSWIM

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Step 3: Adjust your orderif needed

If 10 contracts is too much or too little, you can change your mind and upthe ante or lower it. You can also adjust the price.

If youre happy and you know it, click Confrm and Send.

Step 2: Enter the sell orderTo sell the long option:

1Click the even more ridiculously small blue dot to the left of youroption position, or right-click on anywhere on the whole gigantic line.2In the drop-down menu, choose Create Closing Order.

3In the submenu that pops out to the right, click the SELL order.4An order ticket magically appears at the bottom of your screenunder the ORDER ENTRY TOOLS tab, automatically populated withthe current bid as a limit order and a default of 10 contracts. (Notethat the default bid or offer on spreads is the mid-price betweenthe bid and ask.)

adjustprice

set ordertype

Step 4: Conrmand send again

Back to the Are you sure-sure? screen. Once again, this is your lastchance to change your mind. Look over the order conrmation screenin front of you. If everything looks good, click SEND. If not, click edit

or delete.

RWhen your order has been lled, youll once again hear the coolcelebratory chime and a friendly pop-up conrmation box will notifyyou of how many contracts you were lled on and the price they werelled at.

1.click blue

dot

2.select to

close

3.click thesell order


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How toNavigateandResearch

PART II


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II

thinkManual

THE NOT-SO-QUICK-STARTGUIDESo, youve decided

you want more thanjust to delight in thethrill of buying callsand puts on thinkor-swim, eh? Okay. Letsdig a little deeper andsee whats under thehood...

pagessubpages

MAIN

WINDOW

LEFT

SIDEBAR

subpagetab

RMonitor PageWhere your posi-tions live and whattheyre doing.How much capitalyou have left totrade with, and

whether it hurts ornotyour P/L.

RTrade Page Real-time, streamingdata on any stock/option/future/forex instrumentyou can trade on theplatform. Place yourbuy and sell ordershere as well.

RAnalyze PageAnswer your Whatif...? questions here.Look at hypotheti-cal P/L graphs oftrades youre think-ing about taking

or wish you hadnt(to dwell on whatmightve been).

RScan Page Yourdue diligence has tostart somewhere.What stock will youtrade and why?Scour the marketshere for fresh ideas.

RMarketWatchPage Set price alertson stocks yourewatching, see whichones are movin andshakin, or plan yournext trade around

the calendar ofimportant events.

RCharts Page If youcan dream it, youcan probably chart it.Real-time, stream-ing charts withover 250 indicators.Its candy for chartnerds.

RTools PageSocial trading withother options geeks,watching CNBC, orjust keeping a per-sonal trading journalof your thoughts

and desires. Whatelse do you need?

RHelp Page Whenyou cant nd theanswer inthinkManual, tryhere. There arephone numbers tocall humans or videotutorials to avoidthem. Your choice.

BEFORE YOU BEGINIn a nutshell, the thinkorswim platform is divided into two partsthe letsidebar and the main window, which contain all the pages of functional-ity. Heres a rundown of those pages and the icons youll nd on them.

THE PAGES

If you havent traded on a professional-grade platform before, thinkorswimmay seem overwhelming at rst. But its actually fairly easy to navigate.Essentially, there are eight pages to the platform, all accessible by the tabs inthe top navigation bar of the main screen.

Heres a quick rundown of what they are and why they exist:

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

how

tonavigate

andresea

rch


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SETUP

Some traders like their eggs scrambled, others like them fried. And all thesame, they like their trading platform to look and feel a certain way as well.Some functions may not be important to you, while they are to others.

You can customize your platform until its just right. Heres how:

1From the top right of any page in the platform, click the Setup but-

ton. This will open up the setup menu.2Choose everything from the default data for your positions to howyoud like to receive notications from us.

ICON NAME FUNCTION

Left-click to open an extensive menu thatlets you enter custom orders, view charts,analyze positions, and more.

Click the arrow down to un-hide WorkingOrders, option series, and so on, then clickback to right arrow to re-hide.

Congures Left Sidebar and trading gridson Trade Page.

A shortcut to customizing the watchlist

youre viewing, or to toggle to a differentwatchlist.

The thinkorswim color-coded clipboard, itsa shortcut to link a symbol to different sec-tions/pages on the platform (see next).

A shortcut to create a new watchlist orswitch to pre-dened watchlists.

Detaches the current section in a separatewindow that you can re-position any-where on the screen.

Click to print the current screen or exportto a spreadsheet.

Set the date and/or view different datesfor analysis.

Opens Symbol Field Table for a ready list-ing of symbols for indexes, futures, forex,and so on.

Opens up the Message Center in the LeftSidebar.

Blue Dot

Blue Arrow

Wrench

Grey Dot

Link

Sprocket

Detach Icon

Print Icon

Calendar

Double DownArrows

Message Center

LITTLE BLUE DOTS AND WRENCH THINGIES

Before the fun begins, you should be aware of a few important shortcuts youllbe thanking us for later. thinkorswim is loaded with icons and symbols that,when clicked on, take you quickly from one area of the platform to another.

If you see one of the following icons, dont be shy. Click on it. Go for it. See whathappens. But if youre feeling less adventurous, check this partial cheat sheet.

1.click

setup

2.customize amasterpiece

TIP: displaymargininstead ofbp effect*

*WHATS MYMARGIN?Many of the pagesof the platform dis-play BP Effect (buy-ing power effect),

which is essentiallyhow much the posi-tion will reduce yourpurchasing power.However, under theGeneral Tab in theSetup screen, youcan switch this toMargin REQ (marginrequirement), soyou can view howmuch margin aposition youre ana-lyzing or about totrade would require.(seem image)


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Its that simple. Once you set up your links, you can set link boxes acrossmultiple features on the platform to change simultaneously to the stockyoure researchingincluding gadgets, Widget 360, and even CNBC.

5Now head back over to Charts and youll see a chart of the symbol youhighlighted.

5.go tocharts

set to

redalready set

to MWSE vialink box

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

LINKING:A BETTER WAY TO CUT AND PASTE

Hyperlinks serve as a de facto clipboard throughout the platform. You cansave up to nine different items on the clipboard, all color-coded so theyreeasier to remember. The idea is to let you view the same stock as you togglefrom Quote to Chart to Trade without making you type in the same symbol(s)every time. (Have you seen the length of an option symbol lately?)

Try linking a quote from the Quote screen in the MarketWatch Page toa chart in the Chart Page.

1At the top right of the Quotescreen, click on the icon with thethree colored boxes ( ).2Choose Red.3Go to the Chart Page and do the same at the top of a chartnext to the symbol box.

4Now head back to the MarketWatch page, and highlight a stock.

1.click

link icon

2.choose

red

4.choosesymbol

redclipboard

3.go tocharts

TWO BIRDS,ONE STONELinking the LeftSidebar to theTrade tab is a coolway to streamline

your trading. Forexample, choosea link color for thewatchlist gadget,and the same colornext to the symbolbox on the TradePage. Now, whenyou click on anysymbol in a watch-list, youll populateall the data in theTrade Page as well.


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DUE DILIGENCE, MEET FUNThe remainder of Part 2 walks you through the main features of six of thepages that deal mostly with scanning and researching trading ideas. Well dis-cuss in detail how to actually enter trades and monitor your positions and ac-count balances in Part 3 of thinkManual. Feel free to read it from front to back(awkward), or simply use it as a guide when you get stuck (more practical).

bACCOUNT INFOPrettyself-explanatory, but in anutshell, youve got abirds-eye view of your cashavailable, option buyingpower, and if youve opened afuture or forex account, youllsee those available balancesas well. Click any of the littleblue dots to the left totweak what is displayed, such as hiding your balances.

bSUPPORT/CHAT Need some help? Want to chat online with other trad-ers? Interact with market gurus? Click on Support/Chat in the upper LeftSidebar and youll see a new window pop up with tabs at the top for LiveSupport/Chat Rooms/Audio Settings/Seminars.

Its a good thing tools arent judged by their names, because theres reallyjust nothing sexy about Left Sidebar. But despite its potential identitycrisis, as the title of this section suggests, it really is the gateway to theuniverseof thinkorswim, anyway. With the Left Sidebar, you can short-cut the rest of the platform or access all of its functionalityview youraccount balances and buying power, live chat rooms, custom watchlists,live CNBC, and yes, even video games.

The Left Sidebar:GATEWAY TO THE UNIVERSE

Heres a rundown of what youll nd in the default view (which you canalways customize later):

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

customizeelds

bLIVE SUPPORTWe understand that many traders may enjoy the solaceof their own voices, but not of others. So, if the thought of talking tocustomer service directly repulses you, you can always chat one-on-oneonline with a live human being through instant messaging without utteringa single word. Just type in your questions and in godlike fashion, answers willmiraculously appear:

1Click the Live Support tab to be connected immediately to a

representative.2Click Create Support Request.3In the drop-down menu to the right of To:, click the one that suits you.4Start typing your question or telling your life story.5Click Create Request.

RA real person from the appropriate department will respond veryshortly. And since its a chat, you can share your trading screen with clientservice so they can see exactly what you are looking at. Not only that, butwell stick with you until you get your answer.

1.click livesupport

3.pick your

topic

4.type yourrequest

2.create

supportrequest

5.create

request


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THE LEFT SIDEBAR > CHAT ROOMS / WATCHLISTS

Want to join in the conversation? Just start typing your thoughts/questions/comments/whatever in the box at the lower left and clickSend. But please,keep it (relatively) clean, thinkorswim is watching!bCHAT ROOMSMoving further along, youll see the tab markedChat Rooms.

As you can see, we have all sorts of chat rooms. Active traders often gravitateto Market Cast, while currency traders head over to Global FX Chatjust toname a few of the more popular virtual meeting spots. Feel free to join in or bea creepy voyeur and just watch the conversation.

By the way, be sure to check out Global news, which is a breaking news room

where only news event and facts are announced. No chatter, just facts.

To show you what a Chat Room looks like, heres a sample from Global FX Chat:

followthe chat

be thechat

clicksend

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

RClickWatch to view/listen to the broadcasts. And as you see, we ar-chive, so take a look back for anything you may have missed.

And if you want to hear or see whats going on in any of the rooms, check theListen box for audio only, or the Watch button for streaming video if itsavailable.

To hear gurus discuss the market, give out platform tips, or just talk shop, click

Seminars.

bWATCHLISTSThe default watchlistyoull see when you re up thinkorswimfor the rst time is called, well, default.Go ahead and highlight a symbol in thedefault list and delete or change it. To add a

new symbol, simply click in the rst vacantsymbol box at the bottom of the list withnothing in it and add the symbol. If youdont know the stock symbol, type in aquestion mark (?) and hit Enter on yourkeyboard to bring up the Symbol Table.

arrowdown

default

type in

symbol

Aside from nurtur-ing your introvertivetendencies, amajor benet of ourone-on-one LiveSupport chats witha platform specialistis the fact that youcan expose yourtrading layout tothem so they canbetter assist.


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You can alphabetize the list by clicking on Symbol. Dont worry about losingyour work; thinkorswim automatically saves your screen when you log off.Or if you prefer to organize it in a way that makes the most sense to you,right-click on the header row and select No Sorting.

THE LEFT SIDEBAR > WATCHLISTS

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ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

Viewing Other Pre-dened Watchlists

There are about as many pre-dened lists in thinkorswim as there arerocks on a beach. So rather than name them off, just do the following:1Click the gray dot to the left of Symbol, or click the little sprocketicon ( ) at the top right of the widget to access thecategory menu.2Switch lists between categories by clicking the left/right arrowsnext to the sprocket icon.

1.click

sprocket

2.choose

a categorythen your

list

Creating Your Own Watchlist

If you dont like what you see, make a list of your own. Custom listswill show up in the menu under Personal. (The TD Ameritrade listsare under the Public menu.

1Click the sprocket icon, top right again.2Then select Create New Watch List.

This will bring up a New Watch List box.

3Give the list a name.4Start typing symbols in the quote table below Symbol on the left.5Click Save.

1.click

sprocket

2.create

watchlist

5.save it

4.enter

symbols

3.give it

a name

HOW TO IMPORT A

WATCHLISTAnother way tocreate a watchlistis to simply bring ina pre-existing listof your own fromanother le on yourcomputer.

1SYMBOLS ARECASE SENSITIVE(ABC is not abc)2Create a commaseparated (or lineseparated list ofsymbols) and saveto a le (.TXT) or

copy the list to theclipboard3Click the gearicon on the watch-list Gadget4Click Import5Choose FromFile or From Clip-board, dependingon #16Click Import7Name thewatchlist8Click Save9Have an Espresso(Double Ristretto)


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bGADGETS Not every second of the trading day needs to be action-packed, but leaving your trading screen at acritical moment could mean missing a greatopportunity. The Gadgets are designed tohelp you stay well-informed and stave offboredom as you watch the markets duringthose inevitable slow moments.

The rst choice on the pull-down menuallows you to delete a particular Gadget.The real fun begins just below that menuoption. Heres a run-down.

RTo access the Gadgets, click the iconnear the top left of the trading platform.

Once you click, youll see a drop-downmenu with a potpourri of Gadgets toenlighten and amuse you.

gadgets

THE LEFT SIDEBAR > GADGETS

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

RLive NewsLive News gives you live streaming headlines from Dow Jones News. And toboot, we augment the Dow feed with other feeds like Midnight Trader andBenzinga, which offer even better after-hours coverage.

If there is an important news story in business, around the globe, or on Mars,its probably going to show up on the Live News tape. To get the full story, clickon the title.

1Click the left button at the top right of the Gadget or the AllCategoriesbutton at the bottom to select other types of news. Thisopens the Categories menu.2Choose as many of the pre-sorted lists of categories from the Categorymenu as your heart desires.

RUse the NewsNot only can you read the news,but you can trade from it tooright from this little widget.Clicking on a category such asPre-Market Movers brings up awatchlist that you can trade from,

just like any other watchlist.

You can lter stories into variouscategories to t your needs. Justlike a watchlist, you can tradethe stock, analyze a trade, and anumber of other things.

1.click formenu

2.choose

categories


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RQuick QuoteWhen you need a quick marketquote and youre happy with just thelast price, net change, bid, and ask,simply type in the symbol and hitEnter on your keyboard.

RMarket DepthSee the bid and ask prices of anysymbol on every exchange. Butyou cant input a symbol directlyinto the widget. To get this Gad-get to work:

1Right-click a stock symbolfrom a watchlist (see below).2Select Market Depth inthe drop-down menu.

THE LEFT SIDEBAR > GADGETS

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

RWatchlistCompile a list of favorite stocks with a watchlist (see previous section). Itworks much like the Quick Quote gadget except that it allows you to followmore than one symbol at a time. And watchlists have icons in the symbolbox to the right for breaking news, earnings, dividends, etc. Click on theicon and read all about it.

RQuick Chart & DashboardQuickly access any thinkorswim chart or dashboard for any trading instru-ment. While there are separate pages each for multiple dashboards andcharts, sometimes you want a quick peek of just one without leaving what-ever page youre working from in the main window.

RTime & SalesThis little guy displays a runninglog of the time of the last sale, theprice, and the size of the transac-tion for any symbolall in real time.

RLive AudioIf you want to hear a particular radio station, this is whereyou go. There are some default public radio stations, but if you have a customstation that you want to stream, you can enter that, too. Rock on, dude.

RScratch Pad & CalculatorIn case you need to borrow one

RCNBC Live TVAs the name implies, you can keepone eye on trading screens, another

on a ranting Jim Cramer, and gulp cof-feesimultaneously.


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Its one thing to know what will happen to your trade when youre righton direction. But what about when youre wrong? What do your stress

tests show? Oh, you dont know? You should. Thats what the AnalyzePage is for.

When you want a closer look under the hood of a potential trade, the Ana-lyze Page lets you see your trade and all its potential outcomes before youplace your order. You can analyze your original position, view the results ofpotential adjustments, and perform volatility and probability analysis, allprior to entering that trade. And all with live data.

The Analyze page consists of the following subpages:

bAdd Simulated TradesbRisk Prole

bProbability Analysisb thinkBack

1Enter SPX in the symbol box.2Click the Ask price (here its 14.40).3View the data in the section labeled PRICE SLICES (see next section).4Adjust your position in the POSITIONS AND SIMULATED TRADESsection at the bottom of the screen.

RPrice SlicesOnce youve got a trade ready for analysis, you can answerthe question, How much money will my trade make or lose if the underly-ing moves by some amount?

To set up your analysis:

1.enter

symbol

2.click ask

price

3.view slice

data

4.adjust

position tochange slice

data

(continued) >>

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

Before you can analyze a trade, you need to tell the software what to analyze.You may notice that the Add Simulated Trades screen looks an awful lot likethe All Products screen on the Trade Page. Thats by design. If you were topull up an option chain from the Add Simulated Trades screen, you can jumpright into your due diligence without coming in from the Trade Page.

Just as you can pull up any strategy to trade from the option chain in theTrade Page, you can analyze any strategy right from the Add SimulatedTrades page.

With any simulator, garbage in = garbage out. Its easy to fool yourself if youdont put in realistic prices. Or if you analyze non-standard products (e.g. VIX).To keep things simple, say you want to analyze a long position on some SPXcalls (pictured). The current market on the August 1350 calls is 13.70 14.40.

RADD SIMULATED TRADES

Analyze Page:STRESS-TEST WITHOUT THE WORRY


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The Risk Prole tool on the Analyze page makes stress testing your trad-ing ideas easy. By doing the math for you and drawing pictures of all theP/L possibilitiesincluding the odds of making a prot (or not), itll help yougure out which option strikes to buy, which spreads to sell, or whether youeven want to take the trade at all.

To start looking at your beautifully picturesque trades, click the Risk Proletab in the main submenu at the top of the Analyze Page. There youll see aP/L graph of your trade right before your eyes (pictured):

ANALYZE PAGE > ADD SIMULATED TRADES / RISK PROFILE

Price Slices allow you to establish any what if scenario you want. Much likechess players who have to think many moves ahead, traders have to considermultiple outcomes in order to craft their trading plans. Price Slices allow youto think several moves ahead, making sure that Plan B is well thought outlong before Plan A fails. Theres no limit to the number of Price Slices youcan add, which gives you some powerful insight regarding what your trademay do if the stock goes up or down by a specic dollar amount, by a given

percentage of the stock price, or by any number of standard deviations.Each Price Slice represents a stock price, where you can set markers forwhere your trade is now and where it needs to be, whether its a percent-age away from the current price (% step), dollar amount away ($ step),standard deviation based on volatility ( step).

In the Price Slices table, you can analyze option greeks, P/L at the open, P/Lfor the day, and the BP Effect (buying power). For each slice you can directlytype in a different price and you can also set as many slices as you want simu-lating different scenarios.

The software defaults to three slices (+10% [above current price],Live[current price], and -10% [below current price]). If youd like to change

these, click on the Set Slices button (pictured) in the PRICE SLICES tab tobring up a menu of parameter choices. (Caution: if you add slices, this willdefault back to three, and youll lose your added slices!)

RHow to Change Price SlicesTo add a slice, click the Add Slice button in thePRICE SLICES tab as many times as you want to add new slices.

To delete a slice, simply right-click on the slice or click on the little blue dotnext to a slice to bring up a menu, and select Delete Slice. To reset all theslices back to the three-slice default, select Reset Slices.

deleteslices

addslices

To adjust slices, either left-click each slice individually in the Mode column tobring up a parameter menu, or click the Set Slices button in the upper tab ofthe PRICE SLICES bar.

left-clickto change

or lock eachslice

click tochange all

slices

Theoretically, you can now see what will happen when the underlying moves

by any amount, over any time frame between now (white P/L line pictured)and expiration (red line)which happen to be the defaults. To add more thantwo P/L lines, click on the drop-down box at the top under the label plot lines.

The plot lines are an integral part of your visual analysis. At a glance, you cansee your position P/L at a given stock price.

currentplot line

(P/L) expirationplot line

priceslices

(continued) >>

RRISK PROFILE

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ANALYZE PAGE > RISK PROFILE / PROBABILITY ANALYSIS

If you want more plot lines prior to expiration, simply click on the PlotLines menu and select your favorite interval:

bDay StepThese allow you to dene your plot lines with specic days inbetween and watch a trade evolve over time.

bVol Step If you prefer to see how a change in implied volatility willaffect your position, use this setting. Once you select it, youll see asubsequent setting allowing you to customize the amount of volatilitypercentage points between steps.

bExpiration Step If you have a trade that crosses over multiple expira-tions, you can set the steps to view the trade at each of those expirations.

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All of these steps are designed to allow you to see how a trade evolves ascertain parameters change. The neat thing is that the parameters dont haveto change in real life for you to evaluate your position.

By the way, if commissions are an important consideration, you can include

them by clicking on the commissions drop-down menu above the graph.

RAnalyzing Existing Positions and Simulated TradesWant to dosome in-depth analysis on your existing positions? Your existing trades areautomatically made available for you to analyze them, so you dont have tospend time searching for them or transferring them to the Analyze Tab. Youcan also add new simulated trades. Either way, youre covered:

1In the Positions and Simulated Trades page, the rst pull-downmenu allows you to show all of your trades (Show All), to hide yourpositions, or to hide your simulations.2Click the little wrench icon on the right to change the dividend

yield, the volatility, or the stock price.3Watch your curve change as you change the parameters.

1.view or

hidepositions

2.click to

adjust yield,volatility &stock price

3.watch the P/Lchange as theparameters

change below

You can convert anystandard deviationmeasure to a vola-tility reading, likethe CBOE VolatilityIndex (VIX). Andvice versa. Say theimplied volatilityof stock XYZ is

24. Simply dividethat by the squareroot of the numberof calendar daysper year (365) toconvert that volatil-ity to a percent-age move in theunderlying. In otherwords, 24/19, orabout 1.26%. So a24 volatility meanswe expect XYZ tomove less than1.26% on 68% of alltrading days.

Want to get a quick reading on just how high or low a stock might go in thefuture? Select the Probability Analysis tab in the Analyze Page submenuand type in any stock symbol in the upper left corner.

Based on the options volatility readings, the curve of the graph you see inthe Probability Analysis Chart gives you the theoretical range of prices atwhich the stock will settle by its option expiration dates in the future (thoughindependent of any option position you may have on). The default range is68%, but you can input any number your little heart desires.

For example, in the following probability curve, HKNS has a 68% chance (1standard deviation) of trading within the range of 312.26 352.89 by the

July expiration. Put another way, the probability of the stock trading outside

of that range is 32%.

RPROBABILITY ANALYSIS

(continued) >>

Please note: Probability analysis results are theoretical in nature, not guaranteed, and do not reectany degree of certainty of an event occurring.


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ANALYZE PAGE > PROBABILITY ANALYSIS / THINKBACK

Why do these numbers matter? Trading is about probabilities. Its not a per-fect science, but If you were thinking about selling, say, a call vertical spreadand looking at a similar chart to the one pictured, you might think twicebefore selling July call strikes below 352. Thats not advice. Were just sayin

Just so you know, the probability curve isnt just about expirations. Drag yourmouse over any part of the probability chart, you can see probabilities aboveor below the plotted levels, sorted by specic dates and stock prices.

68%probable

range by Julyexpiration

priceslices

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thinkBack lets you analyze the P/L of positions using closing prices from anyday in the past.

The top half of the thinkBack screen looks just like the trade screen. The keydifference is that the right of the date box has arrow keys and a calendar

so you can select any previous days close and get option data to place andanalyze option strategies.

The bottom half of the page under BACKTRADES shows you a chart of theunderlying. This is where the thinkBack magic happens and lets you see whatthe underlying has done in the past.

RTHINKBACK

Heres how to analyze a buy order in thinkBack:

1Enter a symbol in the symbol box.2Right click the equity to open the buy menu, or left-click the ask onthe option chain to populate a trade in the thinkBack feature at thebottom of the page with end-of-day prices.3Adjust the purchase date of the equity or option.4Roll over any date between the purchase date and current date.

1.enter

symbol2.

right-clickto buy

stock, or

click askto buyoption

3.adjust thepuchase

date 4.roll over

prior datein chart for

P/L...

5....or manually

adjustcalendar date

In this image, you can see the proton our 7/24/10 purchase of 100shares of JOEM was $2,417. Not bad.Now if only it were the real deal

5Alternatively, you can manually adjust the P/L Date calendar

midway up the thinkBack screen to select a specic date and scrollthrough subsequent dates using the up/down arrow keys next to thedate box.

1.click thecute lil

calendar

2.click dateto go back

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You cant place trades without a good idea. Good ideas typically come fromsomeone or something ltering through the riff-raff. And since there aretens of thousands of possibilities, the market scanning tools on the Scanpage can help you sift through the vast universe of stock, futures, and forexmarkets to bring you some optimal choices based on your own criteria,

preset criteria, or what the crowd is trading.

We split the Scan page into the following subpages.

bStock HackerbSpread HackerbSpread Book

1Click Stock Hacker at the top of the page.2Under Criteria there is a drop-down box to select your criteria.Select% Change. Add two more criteria boxes for market cap and

volume by selecting Add Fundamental Filter twice at the top of theCriteria tab and choosing from the drop-down boxes that appear.[TIP: You can also search for technical setups, such as MACD or sto-chastics crossovers, by selecting Add Study Filter.]3Set your scanning range for each criteria by simply dragging the bluebracket lines back and forth, or type them into the min and max boxes.4Click Scan and out pops the list of results.5If you like any of the choices, click that magical blue dot to the leftof the symbol once again to chart, analyze, or place a trade.

What stocks t your criteria of liquidity, percent change, and market cap? Orwhat indexes moved more than 2% for the day? Find them on Stock Hacker.

For example: Imagine its an ugly day in the broad market, so you want toscan for some relative strength amid the rubble. You want solid names thatare holding modest gains, not some pink sheet runners. And you dont wantsomething that trades by appointment only (read: no volume). So you setminimums for market cap and volume.

How do you do this?

RSaving Scan Criteria If you want to save your scan parameters for futureaccess without plugging them in again, click the Save Scan Query buttonat the top. You can then easily access it later by clicking on the Load ScanQuery box at the top of the page, then choosing Personal.

1.click stock

hackertab

5.see scanresults 4.

startscan

3.set

scanningrange

2.choosecriteria

RPreset ScansYou can also load (and modify) some preset scans. Howabout the top 10 gainers on the Nasdaq or a list of new highs or lows? Clickon the Load Scan Query box and select from the Public or Top 10 choices.Or perhaps you have a scan idea of your own and are comfortable writing(orcutting and pasting) code. We let you add that too.

If you want to customize these presets even furthersay, to trade onlystocks that are trading higher than $20, for exampleyou can add newcriteria in the Criteria tab and click Scan.

Scan Page:WHAT STOCK SHOULD I TRADE?

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RSTOCK HACKER: Stock Scanning Made Easy

SIZZLE INDEX:Sometimes you justhave to follow themoney to get a goodidea. Our SizzleIndex screens forhigh options vol-ume as compared tothe previous 5 daysoption volume ina given name. Justpress the big orangebutton that saysSizzle Index andyoure good to go.


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An IRON CONDORis a four-leggedoptions combowhere you sell avertical call spreadsimultaneously

with a vertical putspread in the sameunderlying in thesame expirationcycle. You take ina credit, and if thestock expires belowthe lower-strikecalls or above thehigher-strike puts,you pocket theentire credit. Yourmaximum risk isthe larger of thestrike widths yousold, less the credityou took in for thecombo.

TheSpread Book page lets you see anyworking(not executed) spread or-ders of other TD Ameritrade clients that have been placed but not yet lled.Click on Scan, then Spread Book.

You can conduct broad-brush searches of any spread orders, or narrowdown. Suppose you want to search thinkorswim for open iron condor ordersin SPX:

Spread Hacker works pretty much like Stock Hacker, but instead of scanningfor stocks, it scans for options spreads.

How about if we scan for iron condors, for example.

1.choosespread

5.see theresults

4.click on

scan3.

setparameters

2.set

criteria

1Start in the top middle box marked Search. Left-click and chooseIron Condor.2Select your criteria. Lets scan for names with underlying pricesover $50, probabilities of prot between 50% and 60%, volatilitybetween 20 and 33, expiration between 27 and 91 days away, and aDelta between -10 and 10.3HitScan andvoil! Spread Hacker found several plays that t thecriteria.

SCAN PAGE > SPREAD HACKER / SPREAD BOOK

1In the symbol box, type in SPX.2Click on the spread box and choose Iron Condor.

3Click Reresh on the upper right and, bam!the screen lls withSPX iron condors that other traders on thinkorswim are trading.4Pick one you like and click the blue dot to the left.

1.enter

symbol

2.pick

spread

3.hit

refresh

4.selectspread

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Any option order that involves simultaneously trading more than one optionclass is considered a spread order. There was a time you would have to callthose into a spread broker, and he or she would literally stand in a tradingcrowd and work the order, bidding for one option series and simultaneouslyoffering (or bidding on) another onehoping he didnt get caught leaningagainst a non-existent bid or offer, or grabbing a bite to eat while the spreadtraded through his limits.

Fortunately, things have improved since then. Most spreads are entered andexecuted electronically, and you can view many of these spread orders rightfrom thinkorswim.

RSPREAD HACKER: Spread Scanning Made Easy

RSPREAD BOOK: CrowdsourcingYour Next Trade Idea


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1Click on the blue dot corresponding to the left of the order you like.2Click on Create Duplicate Order. The standard order screen pops upunderneath. (CAUTION: Creating duplicate orders also duplicates thecontract size from the Spread Book. Be sure to adjust before sending.)

3Now you can Conrm and Send as is, modify by changing thequantities, the price, etc., or change your mind completely and hitCancel.

And wouldnt you know it, one of the iron condors strikes your interest. Infact, you want to enter that same order. Heres how:

1.opendialog

box

conrm,change, or

cancel

2.createorder

SCAN PAGE > SPREAD BOOK

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We split the MarketWatch page into the following subpages.

bQuotebAlertsbWatchbHeat MapbCalendar

Once back on the Quote page, you can enter orders by clicking on a bid or askprice on the desired symbol, which will populate a trade screen that opensup at the bottom of the screen.

Add and remove the elds you desire. You can also arrange the eldson the Quote screen:

1Highlight the eld you want to move to.

2Click either Move Up or Move Down to arrange the elds in theorder you want them to appear in the quote screen columns. Or justdrag and drop them with a left mouse-click.3Click on OK and youre set.

clickhere

orderscreen

pops up

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Data. Its the lifeblood of any trader. We anticipate it, act on it, research withit, and plan everything around it. The MarketWatch page is lled with datathat puts the pulse of the marketplace at your ngertips.

Consider the Quotetab your nerve center. You can enter any name youwant on the screen by simply clicking on the box on the bottom left andtyping in the symbol. You can also remove names by clicking on them anddeleting the symbols.

The page defaults to the data elds shown, such as last, net, bid, ask, andso on. But by all means, change them. You can access a bevy of choices byclicking on the small grey dot (top left, next to Symbol) to open the drop-down menu. (Or alternatively, right-click on any column header.) Then clickon Customize and the following screen pops up:

Marketwatch Page:WHATS MOVING TODAY?

R

QUOTE


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MARKETWATCH PAGE > ALERTS

1Enter a symbol into the box in the upper left.2Click on the bid or offer and an Alert entry box appears near thebottom of the screen.3Set your parameters, such as Ask + Above + price of yourchoosing.4Click Create Alert.

Simple Alerts

Your alert will not only appear in the Alert Book at the bottom of the screen,but it will also appear anytime you pull up a chart on that symbol until the

alert has been hit or you cancel it.

1.enter

symbol

2.click to

set alert

4.sendalert

view alertbook

3.

set trigger& price

1From the Alert entry panel above, click on the box under Alert.2Scroll down to Study.

3Click on Edit. That will open up the Condition Setup box (pic-tured), where you will input the parameters for the 20-day movingaverage alert.

4At the top of the box, look for the Trigger Type menu and SelectComplex Formula.5Click Studymenu.6Scroll to Simple Moving Average. You will see Simple MovingAverage() in the formula box on the left.

Complex Alerts You can set alerts for much more detailed criteria.For example, you might want to know when a stock price has broken atechnical threshold such as the 20-day moving average. The followingexample uses PTYH.

4.set trigger

type

5-6.click

& selectstudy

1.click boxfor menu

2.selectstudy

3.click edit

8.set when

to

trigger

(continued) >>

The Alerts page functions much like the Trade tab, but with one majorexception. You dont actually enter orders, and you dont get lls. Instead,you can receive emails or popup alerts on your software based on the actionof the underlying instrument.

7.set

conditions

9.okey

dokey

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7Set your conditions in the right-hand box. For example,to use clos-ing price, hit Closenext to price, and to use the 20-day simple movingaverage, change the length to 20.8Set the Trigger If box to At Or Above and then 0.00 to theright.9Click OK and you will have set an alert, in this example, for whenPTYH closes above its 20-day simple moving average.

Say you want a visual on the Dow Jones components.

1Click on TOS Index Watch tab.2Click the drop-down box labeled 3Choose Public.4Scroll down and choose Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Click on theWatchtab to well, watch pretty much anything.

2.click drop-

down

3.select

public

4.chooseDow

MARKETWATCH PAGE > ALERTS / WATCH

View your results and run the cursor over the red and green graph to seewhich stock is which, as well as to ll in the quote table below the graph.

Or:

1Click the arrow down on TOS Index Details tab.2Click and choose list.3View stocks in order of performance.

1.cursor over

a bar forstock symbol,

and...

2....symbols

willpopulate

1.arrowdown

1.arrowdown

3.view listresults

2.selectwatch

list

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Moving lower, you may see lists of Dividend Alerts Earnings Alerts, Confer-ence Calls, and Splits. Simply click on the arrows on the left. For example, toget a list of earnings reports, click Earnings Alerts, then hit Refresh.

That will take you to this screen.

1Click on any one of the watchlists in the left menu (pictured is S&P100).2Look at the pretty colors and shapes.

clickarrow

clickrefresh

Heat Map is like night vision for traders. You get to see which stocks are movinand shakin in a vast market that would otherwise be difcult to penetrate.Heatmapping helps you spot opportunity in a visually intuitive format.

Heres how:

Green is up, red is down, and grey is unchanged. Bigger boxes are largerstocksin terms of market capand brighter colors are bigger moves.

1.pick a

list

2.view the

map

thatsgottahurt

As pictured, hover the cursor to see data, or click on a symbols box to bringup the drop-down menu for taking the symbol to thinkorswim charts, theTrade screen, and so on.

hovercursor for

details

click forfurther

navigation

MARKETWATCH PAGE > WATCH / HEAT MAP

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Click on the Calendar tab to see whats in store for the coming week as faras dividends, earnings, conference calls, splits, or events. Toggle the checkboxes next to the menu of events on the upper left to turn them on or off.

Toggle day/week/month at the top right. Click on any of the time or datecells inside the calendar and a box will appear below the calendar withdetails of the events for that time period.

MARKETWATCH PAGE > CALENDAR

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RCALENDAR

chooseeventtypes

clickevent for

details


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Surely youve seen those magical chart programs on TV? You know, theones being peddled as crystal balls that tell you exactly where any stock isheaded for only $3,995? Sorry to be a wet blanket, but they dont exist.

We split the Charts page submenu into three pages:

bChartsbFlexible GridbProphet

Changing the chart period:1Type in a symbol.2Click the Style menu at the top right of the chart.3Click path Daily(1y D) > 3 Months > Day.

There are more than 275 indicators on thinkorswim charts alone. You canalways bug client support for what a HeikinAshiDiff is, but for now, lets justshow you how to pull one up.

We start here with a basic chart of FAHN over the past year. The default chartis a one-year daily bar chart, with volume bars below. No other indicators.

But suppose you want to switch to candles as well as change the duration

of the chart to something shorter, like three months instead of one year.

(continued) >>

1.enter

symbol

2.click on

style

...choose3 months...

3.selectdaily(1yD)

...pick

Charts Page:SWEET, SWEET PICTURES

We cant promise to show you the future either, but we do have thinkor-swim Charts and Prophet charts that were quite proud of. And theyre free.So exible, they perform yoga, and contain more indicators than mostbroker/dealer platforms to help you nd that perfect setup.

thinkorswim offers two fully independent charting packages for the tech-nical analysis animal in all of usTOS Charts and Prophet. Why two? Whynot? Between the two, there are literally hundreds of unique indicators anddrawing tools to suit your needs. Additionally, since the two charting pack-ages use different data feeds, sometimes its useful to check both of themif something crazy is happening.

thinkorswim defaults to TOS Charts in the Charts Page, but you may ndthe interface of Prophet a little kinder. Gentler even. Play with both and

when you cant get from one what you can from another, the coin-tossdecision has been made. So have fun, technical geek.

R

CHARTS (TOS CHARTS)

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Voil, you get a chart that looks like this:

CHARTS PAGE > TOS CHARTS

Changing the chart type:

1Click the Style button, top right.2Click path Chart Type.3Select your preferred chart style. 1.

click onstyle

3.selectstyle

2.click

chart type

Now youd like to add some studies to the chart. Fortunately, thinkorswimlets you chart practically every study imaginable. And if a new one comesup at some unspecied date in the future (say, the Jet Pack Indicator),thinkorswim will quickly add that too. We tend to keep pace with new,cutting-edge indicators and well update the software accordingly.

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WHATS THATSTUDY?If you have a ques-tion about any ofthe criteria in thelist, in the Edit Stud-ies box, click on theitty bitty questionmark icon to theright of a study andit will open a helpfuldescription of thatstudy.


To add a study:

1Click the Studies button.2Move your cursor down to Add Study and view all the availablecategories.3Choose the category of study, then the study itself. The new study

will appear on your chart.

1.click

studies

2.mouse-over add

study

3.choose

category...

3.... then the

study

To edit a study:

1Click Studies in the upper right of the chart again.2This time, click Edit Studies. The studies you have already addedwill appear on the top middle of the screen.3Find the study you want to edit and left-click on it.4Customize and edit the criteria in the Properties box below it.5Click OK at the bottom right and youre done.

3.

selectstudy

TIPclick ?

for more infoon study

4.

changeparameters

Happy with your chart? Click on Save Studies Set under the Studies tabto save your work for future use.

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You can annotate and draw trendlines, Fibonacci retracements, orbasically anything you want on your charts.

1Click on the Drawings tab.2Pick your poison (i.e., Trendline).

3Click your mouse button once at the point on the graph you wouldlike the drawing to begin.4Move the mouse to the next trend point.5Click again and your drawing will appear.

How to doodle with lines and Fibs on your charts

(continued) >>

If you need to erase the drawing, simply click on it to highlight, and hitDELETE on your keyboard. To erase all of them, select the Drawings menuagain, then at the bottom, choose Delete Drawings.

So go ahead, play around, customize away. And dont worry if you forget to

save before you hang your hat for the day. thinkorswim keeps your lastsettings as the default until you revise them.

That said, if youve come up with an ingenious set of indicators and dontwant to repgrogram them every time you pull up a new chart, you can save itby clicking Save Study Set under the Studies tab. Just give it a name, and itwill be there next time you look.

RCustomizing your charts: Click the Styles tab above the chart andselect Settings.

From there, you can customize your chart settings to do a number of things,such as toggling the equity options expirations on/off, turning on the after-

hours prices, choosing pretty colors for your up bars, and ugly ones for yourdown bars. Heck, short of integrating a paint-by-numbers feature, you canpretty much customize it any way you want.

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Lets do an easy oneadjusting the size of your graph. Under the Styles tab,click on Settings, then Scales and Axis.

You can even add bars to the right of the chart. On the right of the Time Axissubsection at the bottom of the page, left-click on the right of Expansionand add as many bars as you like.

Then to change colors and overall appearance, click the Appearance tab.

RControl Panel Pushing Buttons: You may notice all sorts of buttons onthe thin bar to the right of each chart.

These turn on a few features that let you see the live markets and place tradesall without ever having to navigate away from the Chart screen. Theyre virtuallyidentical to the buttons found on the Active Trader screen discussed in the TradePage chapter. But in case you missed them, here they are again:

trade

time &sales

activetrader

charts

level 2quotes

bigbuttons

dashboard

live

news

Pops up the News screen

Gives you the Level 2 quotes

Opens the Dashboard

Pops up a chart with your preferred settings

Adds another set of order buttons between the chart and themarket boxes

Adds another Active Trader tab

Shows Time and Sales for the chosen position

Adds yet another set of order buttons above your chart

N

L2

DB

C

Btns

AT

TS

Trd

SYMBOL WHAT IT DOES

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Push a button and see what happens. Heres the Active Trader screen forFAHN, alongside its chart, after pushing the AT buttoncomplete with all thesame trade functionality as the Active Trader panels found in the Trade Page ofthinkorswim.

To trade right from the chart screen, simply right-click anywhere on the chart. Abox will pop up; simply click on Buy or Sell and the appropriate regular order

entry screen will appear.

Once the charts populate, you can input a symbol and adjust any one of theircharacteristics individually by selecting the icons above each one.


RViewing multiple charts at once:As crazy as it sounds, you can view up to32 charts at once on the chart page.

1On the regular Charts page, left-click on the white rectangle just tothe left of the little wrench thingy.2Highlight as many boxes as youd like to see charts on the page.Left click and voil! You have multiple charts to compare and contrast.3You can zoom in on one chart from the grid by double-clicking the

top of each grid cell. Once zoomed in, you can toggle through eachindividual chart via the arrows right above the chart. To return to thegrids, click on the larger arrow on the left.

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Youll nd Monkey Bars in the Study menu if you select All Studies andlook under M. To actually make them usable, go to the Style menu andclick Settings. Under the Appearance tab, change the Monkey Bar rowheight to AUTOMATIC. Youll thank us.

Monkey Bars display numbers in a bell curve that represents each instance aprice falls into a specied interval. The longest row of numbers in the studyis called the Monkey Bar. The Monkey Bar exposes the price level that wasmost frequently traded during the specied time period. The price rangesurrounding the Monkey Bar is where 70% of the trading activity takes place

for the specied time. We call that The Playground.Monkey Bars start recording at 3:30 p.m. and end at 3:15 p.m. the follow-ing day. This way a trader can have some reference point in the morning forhow the market traded in an overnight session. In fact, there is a differentcolor to represent each time zone. At a glance, you can differentiate the U.S.trading session from U.S. after-hours, from the Asia Trading session fromthe European trading session, etc.

RMonkey Bars: One of the coolest trading features known to man is ourvery own Monkey Barsa proprietary charting tool that takes traditionalfutures trading studies to a whole new level.

CHARTS PAGE > TOS CHARTS / FLEXIBLE GRID

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RHow to Use Monkey Bars: How can you use the Monkey Bar? Whenthe market is in an orderly bell-curve formation, it suggests balance andshows the short-term traders are in control. The short-term trader willusually trade around the Monkey Bar. Think of it as a magnet or meanthat usually attracts the markettypically in periods marked by lowvolume.

When the short-term traders have control of the market, long-term tradersmay enter when new highs or lows are made without volume. Longer-term

traders like to take advantage of the unfair pricing caused by these spikes.Thats because they are generally larger institutions and hedge funds and arelooking at the bigger pictureas such they are less sensitive to price entry.

When large funds come in and out of the market they are focused on whatthey perceive to be the new fair value. Since they are looking at longer timeframes, they can move the markets to new sustained highs or lows by thesheer volume. When the market pushes outside the playground withvolume, this is a sign that longer-term traders are in control.

The Flexible Grid is essentially a juiced-up version of Charts. You can accessall the regular charts features, but the default view of the four charts at onceis only the beginning.

What makes it exible? Not only can you resize all the graphs in the view,but you can also add as many charts as you want to set up and create, wella exible grid of charts, neatly put together.

addsymbols

adjuststyles add

studies

RFLEXIBLE GRID

(continued) >>

monkeybar


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CHARTS PAGE > FLEXIBLE GRID

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

The Flexible Grid is essentially a juiced-up version of Charts. You can accessall the regular charts features, but the default view of the four charts at onceis only the beginning.

What makes it exible? Not only can you resize all the graphs in the view,but you can also add as many charts as you want to set up and create, well

a exible grid of charts, neatly put together.First click the little wrench thingy in the upper right above any chart to turnon your Conguration Grid. Clicking one of the two + icons will add morecharts to the bottom or right of the chart selected, while clicking the / iconremoves them.

Simply hover the cursor over any border line and drag until its the size you like.

arrowdown forfeatures

entersymbol

accesorizeaway

Prophet has many of the same excellent features found in the TOS charts, butwith even more studies and styles to choose from.

You basically want to left-click on the arrows on the left-hand side of the page tond all that Prophet has to offer.

Like a study? Just double-click and it will show up on your graph. And if you wantto replace it ... double-click on another study. Easy.

For example, to check out MACD Histograms with Breakout signals, click onBreakout Studies and then double-click on the MACD.

Again, why have one set of charts when we can offer you two? Prophet is

a complimentary alternative charting system to the regular thinkorswimChart system.

RPROPHET

If you see something you like, click the big orange Trade Now button. It sendsyou right to the normal thinkorswim order entry screen.

The extra oomph in Prophet comes from its massive pattern recognitioncapability.

(continued) >>


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Say you want to look for trend-following candle patterns. Click on Patterns up top,then set the specs in the popup box. Click OK and Prophet gives you your choices.

1.choose

patterns

2.check it

3.selectpatterns

tab

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCHCHARTS PAGE > PROPHET

5.choices,choices!

patterns arehighlighted

Now choose a symbol from the Candle Patterns Symbols drop-down menu

on the left side of the screen and Prophet does the rest. If theres a candlestickpattern to be found, youll see it highlighted in yellow, as pictured here.


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myTRADE is an online community operated by an afliate and accessibleunder the Tools tab on PCs. (Sorry, not Macsyet. BUT, just because itdoesnt display in the software, doesnt mean you cant open up my-TRADE directly in a web browser at mytrade.com, using the same logincredentials.)

MyTRADE allows you to share real trades, and copy the trades of others youfollow inside your thinkorswim platform. Its also a great place to see howother traders are playing stocks you like. And to boot, you can lter by tickersymbol to hone in even further. Heres how to take someones cool trad-ing idea and make it your own. (If it works, you have bragging rights. If not,blame the other guy. Sweet.)

RStealing a Trade Idea Click the THINK SHARE tab in the myTRADE

window to see real trades other myTRADE users are sharing. If you seeone you like, you can copy it into your thinkorswim platform to trade oranalyze it.

Tools Page:TWEET. WATCH. LEARN.The Tools tab is your home for some of the newer features on the TOSplatform that are not necessarily essential to trading. Think social mediameets education meets information.

RMYTRADE

RTRADE FEEDS

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

The Tools submenu is split into the following pages:

bmyTRADEbTrade Feedsb thinkLogbCNBCbWidget 360

MYTRADE TIPS1. If myTRADE

sounds a bit like aTwitter feed, itsbecause it is a bitlike a Twitter feed.In fact, you can linkmyTRADE to yourexisting Twitteraccount. Under themyTRADE tab, clickon MyPage, thenclick on the ImportTwitter box andgo to town. You caneven just curateand import tweetswith $ to keep it astock feed.

2. When you nd afellow myTRADERwhose trades youreally like, click theirname to go to theirmyTRADE pageand click followto stalk them. Onceyou feel yourefollowing a greatgroup, the Every-one I follow optionon THINK SHAREwill really lter outthe noise.

1Click the Copy icon just to the right of the trade.2Click the Paste icon at the top right of the screen to the left ofthe Setup button.3The trade will pop up in the trade entry panel inside thinkorswim.4Adjust, analyze, or execute just like any other trade.

Trade Feeds essentially lets you organize your myTRADE information. Onceyouve picked your favorites, entered orders, or followed someone elsesorders, these items automatically populate in the elds on Trade Feeds.

To share a trade with others, just place your trade as usual on thethinkorswim software, and on the order-conrmation screen, check thebox Share on myTRADE. Thats it.

As long as you have a complete myTRADE prole, your trade will show upin the THINK SHARE feed. (To complete your prole page, just click on theMY PAGE tab and go to Settings its easy.)In addition, your trades will also go onto your custom myTRADE page (atwww.mytrade.com/yournamehere).

click topaste in

order entry

click tocopyorder

Please note: myTRADE is a service of tos RED. tos RED and TD Ameritrade are separate but afli-ated legal entities.


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So you set that alert on Friday. But since then, youve worked, traded,coached a Little League game, and watched a movie. In other words, youhave a life. The next thing you know, its Monday. Youve logged into yourthinkorswim platform, and a couple hours into the day, your alert goes off.Its as if you set it in 2006you cant recall why.

thinkLog is your cure and your de facto trading journal. Add notes intothinkLog and your Monday brain lapses will seem so yesterday. thinkorswimeven dates each entry for future reference.

Once youve clicked on thinkLog under the Tools tab, left-click on AddNew Note.

TOOLS PAGE > THINKLOG / CNBC

RTHINKLOG

click toadd note

writenote &save

Type in your note intothe popup box, then

hit Save. The noteswill now populate thethinkLog page.

RCNBCThat CNBC clip you heard in the background? Guess what, you dont haveto travel far to nd it now. Double-click on the built-in CNBC tab and thenchoose Play at the bottom of the screen.

Scroll around and play the clips you want. Or search for video clips via tickersymbol. Say you want to see videos on FAHN, for example:

entersymbol

click onclip

booya!


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TOOLS PAGE > CNBC / WIDGET 360

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH

RWIDGET 360This little tool displays options data such as open interest and implied volatil-itypretty much anything option-relatedin a visually intuitive format.

As an example, the charts in the next image look at FAHN implied volatility atthe top and open interest at the bottom. You can easily switch the elds, lookonly at certain strikes or expiration cycles, and so on.

RHow to Analyze in Widget 360 Suppose you need help picking the beststrike for your trade. Maybe you only want to see analytics on open interestvs. volume on the call options available for the next four expirations. To dothat, click on the View box and change All to Calls.

Now, suppose there is a particular strike option that is accompanied by a highamount of volume, you might anticipate support or resistance at aroundthat level in the underlying stock. This could be useful information in decidingwhether to buy or sell an option around that price. There are so many ways touse Option 360, well leave you to your imagination right here.

1Enter your symbol in the top left box.2Choose the option type you want to analyzie in the drop-downnext to View.3Choose the expiration cycles in the drop-down box next to Series.4Choose the number of strikes you want to analyze next to Strikes.5Choose what you want to analyze by left-clicking on either of thelower boxes and making your selection.

2.choose

type

1.enter

symbol

4.number of

strikes

3.next 4

expirations

5.upper

chart data 5.lower

chart data


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If you have a question thats not answered inthinkManual, fear notclick theHelp tab to access thinkorswim support. Talk to a human or checkthe video roster. Theres a good chance you can nd the answer online.

Under CONTACT INFORMATION at the top, youll nd the phone number toour support desk (800-672-2098) and email addresses to contact our clientsupport teams.

You can even downloadthinkManual here for everyone in your family.(Every child should have a copy.)

At the bottom of the page, youll nd an ample supply of audio and videotutorials that will walk you through pretty much every nook and cranny onthe thinkorswim platform.

Navigate further down the page, and youll nd a bevy of topical presenta-

tions. Click on any of those links to launch a screencast demo of the topic.Watch and learn, baby!

unlimitedcopies of

thinkManual.sweet.

thinkorswimrelease notes

phonenumbers &

emails

Help Page:WHENTHINKMANUAL JUST ISNT ENOUGH

HOWT

ONAVIGATE&RESEARCH


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How toTrade andWatch

PART III


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III

thinkManual

how

tot

rade

and

watch

RUBBER,MEETROAD

HOWT

OTRADEANDWATCH

Now that you knowhow to get around

thinkorswim, letsdig deep on just howto place trades andmonitor your posi-tions. These functionsexist on just two of thetabsMonitor Pageand Trade Pagebuttheyre so important,they deserve their ownsection.

If you log in to thinkorswim and nd yourself asking, How are my positionsdoing today?, How much did I make on FAHN this year?, or just, Wherethe hecks my money at?, never fearit all lives in the Monitor page.

Watching your account balance move in real time is as fun (or cruel) aswatching the markets move in real time. If youre one of those traders whowants to watch their account balance and position P/L rise and fall in real

time, this is where youll want to look.

Well split the Monitor page into the following subpages:

bActivity and PositionsbAccount Statement

RACTIVITY AND POSITIONS

Monitor Page: HOWS MY TRADE DOING?

This page is further broken down into two subsections:

bTodays Trade ActivitybPosition Statement

bTODAYS TRADE ACTIVITY This section tells you what youve done as wellas what youve tried to do today.

Working Orders This keeps a detailed account of your open orders. In otherwords, youve placed these orders, but they havent been lled yet.

Filled Orders Once your order has been executed (lled), it moves to theFilled Orders tab. (Youll also see ll notications in the Message Center.)


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OTRADEANDWATCH

bPOSITION STATEMENT The Position Statement is a detailed snapshotof what your positions are up to, grouped in alphabetical order by default.However, you can change that default at any time.

Group Your View

Your Option Legs To get details on your position, click the little blue arrowto the left of the underlying equity symbol in the list.

Youll now see all of the position specics for each entity that you trade,including a full breakdown of the option legs in your position. Here you cantrack all of the default vitals for each leg listed in the following table.

Customize Your ViewDont like the default data in the columns? No problem. Create your ownview by:

1In the Position Statement, far right, click the little wrench to launchthe customize feature.2Click the Customize Columns button that appears.3Add the data you want from the left menu of choices. Remove thedata you dont want from the right menu.4Click OK to see your bold new look.

You can organize the view of your positions in groups by type, capitalization,industry, and account, simply by clicking the drop-down menu next to Groupin the upper left of the Position Statement.

TIPIf organizing by industry, items that cant be categorizedsuchas SPX or other broad-based indexeswill fall under Non-classiableEstablishments.

click ongroup

arrowdown to view

positions

choosecategory

CLOSE OUTALL LEGS

If you right-clickon the blue arrowto the left of theequity symbol in thePosition Statement,you can send in anorder to close out allthe legs of a spreadat once, analyzetrades, or evencreate juicy rolls forthat calendar spreadyouve been tryingto gure out what todo with.

Cancelled Orders If your order doesnt get lled by the end of the tradingday, it gets moved here. Unless, of course, its a Good Til Cancelled (GTC)orderin which case, it stays in Working Orders until you manually cancel it(or a corporate action kills it rst).

MONITOR PAGE > ACTIVITY & POSITIONS

COLUMN WHAT IT MEANS

The number of options or shares in your position

The number of remaining days to expiration

The midpoint between the bid and ask for options and uses thebid or ask for equities.

The change in the Mark.

The option greeks of your position

How much a particular options value has changed since the dayit became part of your position

How much a particular option position has made or lost today

How much your combined option position in a particular under-lying reduces your buying power

Qty

Days

Mark

Mark Chng

Delta, Gamma,Theta, Vega

P/L Open

P/L Day

BP Effect

(continued) >>


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You can click on the P/L Open cell to view your trade history including entryprices, opening prices, current marks, and so on.

1.left-clickpositionon P/Lcolumn2.

view tradehistory &

prot

HOWT

OTRADEANDWATCHMONITOR PAGE > ACTIVITY & POSITIONS

1.click

wrenchthingy

2.click toopenmenu

3.add or

remove thecolumn data

you want

4.ok

Finally, there are two layout views to choose fromthe old school view andthe new school view. If youre a die-hard fan of old school, click the ReturnTo Old Layout button to go back to the way things were (vintage thinkor-swim, if you will). This wont change your scenery, just your interface.

In theMonitor Page, everything is then subtotaled, totaled, and presentedto you for review. And of course, while the markets open, all values are up-dated live, so you instantly know how your positions are doing and whetheryou really can buy baby a new pair of shoes.

TIPHow to Hide Your MoneyIf youre trading at work and you dont want your boss to accidentally ndout that your portfolio is worth more than his, you can hide your balancefrom her by simply clicking the little blue dot to the left of Option BuyingPower or Net Liq & Day Trades under ACCOUNT INFO in the Left Sidebar.Then check the box next to PRIVACY, and watch your money disappearunder the veil of asterisks (*******).

Your Bottom LineHow Much Can I Buy?And last, at the bottom of the Activity and Positions tab, you see yourmoneyhow much cash you have, available dollars to trade with, and youroverall prot and loss year-to-date (P/L YTD).

Forex traders: If you opened a forex trading account as well, those numberswill appear below your ACCOUNT STATUS.

If your account is in good standing, youll see the words OK TO TRADE ingreen letters.

If you dont see OK TO TRADE, youve either upset the trading gods or:

1Youre probably not allowed to trade.2Your initial funding hasnt cleared yet.3You have yet to fund your account.

Beta-Weighting

How much risk do you have in your trading portfolio, and how will you hedgeit? Dont know? Thats what the beta-weighting tool attempts to do.Using any optionable stock or index as the common denominator, the betaweighting tool converts the deltas of your individual positions into stock/index-equivalent deltas for you. The portfolio delta, then, is the sum of thestock-equivalent deltas.

For example, when you beta-weight a portfolio against, say, SPX (the S&P500 index), and it gives you a beta-weighted delta of 1,000 SPXs, theoreti-cally, that portfolio will make or lose $1,000 if the SPX moves up or down1.00 point.

(continued) >>

BETA-WEIGHTWITH FUTURESIf youre going tohedge with futures,keep in mind thatsome futures dontrepresent $1.00per point like stockdoes. One point inthe e-mini S&P fu-

tures, for example,represents $50.So, /ES has a deltaof 50. If you betaweight your port-folio deltas to /ESand see the result as+1,000 /ES deltas,you wouldnt sell1,000 futures to getthat delta to zero.Rather, you wouldsell 20 e-mini fu-tures, because 20 x50 = 1,000.


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MONITOR PAGE > ACTIVITY & POSITIONS

To calculate a hedge, if the beta-weighted deltas are positive, you wouldneed to short deltas in the stock or index (i.e. buy puts or sell a call verticalspread). If the number is negative, you would buy deltas (i.e. buy calls or sella put vertical spread).

You can even create separate groups of stocks, like energy stocks, high-techstocks, drug stocks, etc., and beta weight those separately to their ownindex symbols. If you click on the blue dot to the left of a position in thePosition Statement, you can choose to move to group. You can create anew group and name it anything you want. Then you can move other stocksto that group.

To see your beta weighted deltas:

1In the upper right corner of the Position Statement, check the boxnext to beta weighting. A symbol eld will open up.2Put your beta weighting index symbol in that eld, such as ABC or/ES and hit Enter on your keyboard.3Youll now see the deltas of your positions, as well as the total deltas,converted to the beta-weighted deltas.

HOWT

OTRADEANDWATCH

1.checkbox

2.enter

symbol3.total index-equivalent

deltas

Most of the categories here are self-explanatory. Click on any of the littleblue triangles to the left of each category to expand the cells and obtainmore detail. Here you can view all of your current equity, option, futuresand forex positions, as well as the P/L for the current year (YTD).

For kicks, you can also view all your trades for a particular equity by typingthe symbol in the upper left symbol box and entering the number of days(up to 60) that youd like to review.

RACCOUNT STATEMENT

By the way, when looking at Commissions YTD, in the bottom right cornerof the screen, no matter what time period youve selected for the currentyear, the year-to-date number will always be current year-to-date.

numberof days to

view

year todate

P/L

totalloot

currentholdings


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If you dont know the actual stock symbol, just start typing the name ofthe company youre looking for. Assuming you got the spelling right, it willmagically appear on the list that comes up. Click your companys namewhen you nd it.

When your quote appears, youll see the following data populate just below:

If you havent a clue what to type (perhaps an obscure index), then

1Click the double-down arrows to the right of the symbol box toopen the Symbol Table window.2Select a category tab.3Scroll through the category until you nd what youre looking for,and click on it.

1.doubledownarrow

2.select

tab 3.scroll tilyou nd

it

QUOTE JARGON WHAT IT MEANS

The last trade price for the asset (or last calculated value for anindex) and the exchange (X) that posted the trade.

The change in last price since the close of the previous day. Thisvalue only updates during regular U.S. trading hours, and maybe adjusted to reect dividends or stock splits.

Bid pricethe published price and the exchange (X) publishing thatprice. This shows what someone is willing to pay for the asset.

Ask pricethe published price and the exchange (X) publishingthat price. This shows the price someone is willing to sell anasset for.

Last X

Net Chng

Bid X

Ask X

(continued) >>

Ready to trade the markets in real time with the coolest set of tools on theplanet? Well assume thats why youre here.

If youre trading stocks and options, most of the action happens on the AllProducts page. You can get quotes for literally all products traded throughthe thinkorswim platform, including stocks, options, futures, and forex. Andonce youve got the quote youre looking for, you can populate an order tickettwenty ways under the sun.

bUNDERLYING Underlying is just a fancy word for the stock, index, future,or whatever instrument it may be that underlies your trade. To get a quoteof the underlying instrument you want to trade, your rst job is to pick asymbol, type the letters into the ll-in box directly under the All Products tab(pictured), and hit Enter.

Since the trades are where the rubber meets the road, its worth breakingeach one down.

We split the Trade submenu into the following subpages.

bAll ProductsbForex TraderbFutures TraderbActive Trader

The All Products page is split up into three parts:

bUnderlyingbTrade GridbOptions

entersymbol

RALL PRODUCTS

Trade Page:ITS WHY WERE HERE

HOWT

OTRADEANDWATCH

market

net &percent


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QUOTE JARGON

MORE QUOTE JARGON

WHAT IT MEANS

WHAT IT MEANS

There are two numbers here. The rst number is the number ofshares X 100 that the bid price represents. The second numberis the number of shares X 100 the ask price represents.

The total number of shares reported traded for th

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Think or Swim Manual