Charles Schwab Review

Already one of our favorite online brokers, in our latest testing Charles Schwab rose to earn our five-star Overall rating, thanks to porting over TD Ameritrade’s excellent thinkorswim platforms and enhancing several features.

Pros & Cons

Overall summary

Charles Schwab is a top-rated broker on the following guides

• Best Stock Brokers
• Best Trading Apps
• Best for Beginners
• Best for Penny Stocks
• Best for High Net Worth
• Best for Day Trading
• Best for Futures
• Best for Options
• Best for Paper Trading

Investment options

Like other industry leaders, Charles Schwab delivers a full roster of products and services. Schwab offers everything from stocks (including fractional shares) and options trading to fixed income and retirement guidance. The only gap in the offering is the lack of cryptocurrencies now that forex has officially rolled out to futures-enabled Schwab customers via thinkorswim. To learn more about the forex offering, check out the Schwab review over at our sister site ForexBrokers.com.

Every imaginable account type is available, including individual, traditional, Roth, rollover, spousal and beneficiary IRAs; 529 plans, charitable accounts, and estate and trust accounts are there too.

» Dive deeper: Learn more about Schwab's retirement options in our Charles Schwab IRA review.

Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin are not available to trade at Charles Schwab.

Futures: As of May 2024, futures trading is available on thinkorswim to customers whose accounts have been approved (like options trading, it requires an application). Futures-enabled accounts are also able to trade forex. Schwab’s previous futures trading platform, StreetSmart futures, is now officially retired.

Human support: Schwab has an interesting local branch setup. Some offices are owned by Schwab, while others are independently owned franchises with Schwab branding that exclusively service Schwab customers. The franchise relationship is clearly disclosed to customers. I use a local franchise office and, in the few times I’ve contacted the branch leader, found service to be excellent and notably personal.

For goal-focused investors, Intelligent Portfolios Premium offers clients with $25,000 in assets unlimited one-on-one guidance from a certified financial planner (CFP), for $30 per month and a $300 one-time planning fee. That’s darn cheap, considering that many independent CFPs routinely charge $250 per hour.

Schwab is a standout for high net worth investors. Households with over $1 million at Schwab are automatically eligible for concierge services. Those with up to $10 million are enrolled in Schwab Private Client Services, while those with over $10 million are set up with Schwab Private Wealth Services. Both levels are eligible for priority support, enhanced pricing, pledged asset lines, a sweetened American Express Platinum card, and curated experiences with Schwab thought leaders.

Private Wealth clients also get an integrated banking experience with an assigned senior banker.

Commissions and fees

At Schwab, listed stock and ETF trades are $0, and options trades are $0.65 per contract, in line with other major brokers. Competitor tastytrade offers better stock options pricing and a terrific platform designed for option traders. That said, Schwab remains one of our top picks for free stock trading.

Penny stocks: Schwab charges $6.95 for OTC trades. If that’s what you gravitate toward, take a look at our penny stock trading guide, because some other brokers don’t tack on a fee.

Fractional shares: Customers can purchase Schwab Stock Slices, which are fractional shares of any company in the S&P 500. The minimum purchase is $5. That should satisfy most investors, but some brokers offer fractional shares of ETFs, more stock choices, and permit investing as little as a dollar into a fractional share.

Mutual funds: Mutual fund fees are complicated at Schwab. Some transaction-fee mutual funds cost as high as $79.95 to buy. However, unlike most brokers, Schwab only charges for the original purchase. There is no charge for selling, and fees are waived for transactions under $100. For investors seeking no transaction fee (NTF), no load (NL) funds, Schwab offers 3,334 OneSource funds.

Other fees: If using the Schwab automated phone system to place a trade, a $5 fee will be added to the order. There is a $25 additional fee for broker-assisted trades.

Mobile trading apps

Schwab’s mobile suite should satisfy everyone except for the most active professionals and a few highly specialized traders. There’s Schwab Mobile for occasional and long term investors and, new for this year, thinkorswim mobile for active traders.

The flagship app is responsive, easy to navigate, and attractively designed. It’s well stocked with data, video feeds, and Schwab’s market commentary and research. There’s some killer trading content on the flagship app.

Key enhancements this year to the Schwab app include stock alerts, streaming quote data, updated watch list functionality, and more order entry choices, such as conditional orders. Thinkorswim remains one of our favorite apps for active and experienced traders.

Market research: Schwab provides a rich palette of market research in its flagship app. There’s live video from CNBC and the Schwab Network, the Schwab Market Update, and a host of third-party commentary. Be sure to hit the Market Insights page for Schwab’s in-house commentary and explainer pieces.

Active trading: The thinkorswim app is where the active trading action can be found. I counted over 350 chart studies, including candlestick and classic chart pattern recognition. When you suffer from chart fatigue, feel free to move to ladder trading, or just pop up order tickets from the real time and highly customizable watch list, which also has hundreds of column options.

Options trading: When you trade from within the Schwab mobile app, the Options tab comes with over 26 strategies, including multi-legged spreads and combinations. Building multileg positions on the fly is a much more pleasant experience on thinkorswim.

I counted only 17 predefined strategies on thinkorswim, fewer than the main mobile app, but its options chain, as you can probably guess by now, can be tweaked with a choice of 31 columns. The risk diagram is hidden at the bottom of the order ticket and doesn’t use implied volatility. It’s sufficient for casual traders, but I’d prefer to see it more visible.

Schwab Assistant: Schwab Assistant is an AI-powered tool that lets you use voice commands from within the Schwab Mobile app to carry out basic operations, such as checking quotes or market news, and you can even ask to speak to a live representative. It worked smoothly during my test.

Tap to see a demo of Schwab's mobile trading app in action.

Other trading platforms and tools

Schwab’s legacy trading platforms, StreetSmart Edge and StreetSmart Central, have now ridden off into the sunset to make room for thinkorswim. I skimmed through a few Reddit posts from StreetSmart devotees who are upset about losing them, but I see thinkorswim as a major upgrade. Casual traders might find thinkorswim Web (a sort of “thinkorswim Lite”) easier to learn than the much more complex thinkorswim desktop.

Thinkorswim desktop ran well on my Windows machine, but, as this review was being written, there were some quirks in the Mac version. An escalated call to tech support was able to resolve the issue.

Once you do get up and running, you can take two approaches to learning thinkorswim from scratch: 1) you can start by watching the extensive tutorials, or, 2) you can do it my way, which was me randomly clicking on links and buttons and windows until, yeah, finally giving up and watching the tutorials. Choose the first method and save yourself the frustration. If you do get overwhelmed, there’s always streaming video and a Tetris widget to help you reset.

Thinkorswim desktop charting: thinkorswim’s advanced charting capabilities are among the best in the business (TradeStation and Fidelity are also charting standouts). A few mouse clicks will bring up a dozen charts streaming real-time data. Even the pickiest trader will be satisfied with the astounding array of chart studies. If you can’t find what you want (that’s very unlikely), you can custom code it yourself via ThinkScript.

Thinkorswim desktop trading tools: Highlights include paper trading (new to Schwab this year), advanced earnings analysis, plotting economic (FRED) data, social sentiment charts, backtesting with thinkOnDemand, and trading against historical market data. You can create and conduct real-time stock scans, share charts and workspace layouts, and perform advanced options analysis. The rabbit hole goes deep.

Thinkorswim desktop earnings analysis: If you trade on expected earnings, the thinkorswim earnings analysis tool is a favorite for planning ahead for earnings releases and assessing each company's results afterward. It plots price action and volatility before and after previous releases and pulls data from Wall Street analysts and crowd-sourced ratings from Estimize to plot EPS estimate ranges alongside actual results.

Thinkorswim Web trading tools: While thinkorswim Web looks simple on the surface (and it is), there are a handful of advanced functions underneath the hood. For example, you can place multi-legged options orders and choose from six default strategies.

When you create an order, it is saved on the same page as the ticker symbol, so if you abandon the order, switch to another ticker, and return to the original symbol, your abandoned order will still be there until you execute or delete it. I have mixed feelings about that. It seems convenient, but it could also get confusing in a raging market.

Research

The website’s research pages were recently redesigned. The beta research experience has an updated design for the U.S. markets, and I’ve grown to prefer it over the “classic view,” which is still available.

Stock research: Beyond offering traditional third-party ratings and reports, Schwab offers a proprietary research report that includes summary ratings from other providers and its own Schwab Equity Rating (SER). Documentation for over 20 years’ worth of SER performance is provided. It’s impressive enough for me to consider including the SERs in my investing decisions.

ETFs and mutual funds research: If you’re researching ETFs and mutual funds, there’s a lot to like at Charles Schwab. Schwab covers all the bases, including ratings, reports, and in-depth screening.

Market news and commentary: There’s Argus and Morningstar research, which is nice, but I prefer Schwab’s extensive in-house research from its all-star cast of experts, including Liz Ann Sonders, Jeffrey Kleintop and Kathy Jones. There are thematic pieces, explainers, and economic data. If you like streaming video content, you have choices. There’s also CNBC and the Schwab Network.

Education

Charles Schwab delivers a thorough educational experience that will satisfy beginners and inspire experienced investors to keep learning. A bargeload of useful trading content suddenly popped up on Schwab this year, with much of it likely coming from TD Ameritrade.

Learning center: The article library in Schwab's Knowledge Center covers key investing topics, from stock trading to retirement. Additionally, free webinars are offered each month to current customers, and PDFs of webinars are archived for reviewing on demand. Progress tracking and quizzes are very welcome new additions.

Schwab Coaching: I was ecstatic to see Schwab roll out live coaching. TD Ameritrade had live trading seminars that blew me away. It’s fantastic to see that at Schwab. I watched a session with James Boyd and he was on fire, asking questions of his audience and responding to them by name. That’s trading education in beast mode.

Customer service

To score Customer Service, StockBrokers.com partners with customer experience research firm Confero to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the United States. For this year's testing, 135 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks, with wait times logged for each call.

Customer service representatives were asked for assistance or details in several areas of broker services, including account opening, trading tools, apps, rollovers, active trading, and more. Here are the results for Charles Schwab.

• Average Connection Time: <1 minute
• Average Net Promoter Score: 9.3 / 10
• Average Professionalism Score: 8.6 / 10
• Overall Score: 9.1/ 10
• Ranking: 3rd of 13 brokers

Banking services

Charles Schwab offers convenient cash services. Its captive bank has over 400 service locations and is a registered member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures bank deposits up to $250,000.

Final thoughts

If you think of Schwab as your grandfather’s online broker (as I used to), you need a refresher (as I did). The Schwab of today feels 20 years younger. It’s now a vigorous competitor with responsive platforms, thought-provoking research and commentary, and a client experience to fit any preference.

Here are my top takeaways for Charles Schwab in 2024.

1. Calling Charles Schwab an “online broker” is like calling Amazon an “online bookseller.” Schwab can provide you any level of service you want short of calling you with a hot stock tip, and, how often do hot stock tips work out, anyway?
2. The TD Ameritrade acquisition is a win for Schwab customers. TD Ameritrade customers will be relieved to find a lot of TD Ameritrade DNA was retained by Schwab.
3. Schwab's thinkorswim platform is one of the best trading platforms in the industry. It won our 2024 Annual award for #1 Desktop Stock Trading Platform and its advanced charting capabilities are among the best in the business.

Did Charles Schwab buy TD Ameritrade?

Yes, Schwab entered into an agreement to buy TD Ameritrade for approximately $26 billion of Schwab stock in November 2019. The deal closed in October 2020. Schwab clients now gain access to TDA’s excellent thinkorswim platforms as well as vastly upgraded trading abilities and educational content.

Is Charles Schwab good for beginners?

Charles Schwab is among our top five best trading platforms for beginners. New investors will benefit from Schwab's excellent research and support. There’s even live coaching for traders via Schwab Coaching on YouTube.

Does Schwab have hidden fees?

Schwab does not have hidden fees, but other firms, such as Fidelity Investments, for example, do state their fees more clearly. Schwab’s pricing page is filled with footnotes. The broker also makes money from payment for order flow, or PFOF, as do almost all online brokers.

Is Charles Schwab safe?

Founded in 1971, Charles Schwab has a great history of reliability in the investment industry. It’s regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA), and, for its banking services, the FDIC.

Can you buy fractional shares on Charles Schwab?

Yes, Schwab’s fractional shares, called “Stock Slices,” allow smaller investors to diversify their risks across different companies and industries. With over 500 stocks available, Stock Slices provide more than enough choices for individual stock investors. That said, some brokers allow fractional share purchases of exchange-traded funds, which can offer even more diversification.

How much money do you need to open a Charles Schwab account?

Schwab does not have a minimum deposit requirement to open an account. It also offers Stock Slices, which allow you to buy fractions of shares with as little as $5; and it offers mutual funds with minimum investments of $100.

About Charles Schwab

Headquartered in Westlake, Texas, Charles Schwab was founded in 1971 and is one of the largest brokerage firms in the United States with more than 34 million active brokerage accounts and $7.65 trillion in total client assets as of October 2023. Charles Schwab is also a significant player in the retirement space. In October 2020 Schwab acquired fellow online broker TD Ameritrade, now a Schwab subsidiary.

Charles Schwab 2024 Results

For the StockBrokers.com 2024 Annual Awards, announced on Jan. 23, 2024, all U.S. equity brokers we reviewed were assessed on over 200 different variables across eight areas: Commissions & Fees, Investment Options, Platforms & Tools, Research, Mobile Trading, Education, Ease of Use, and Overall.

StockBrokers.com also presented “Best in Class” awards to brokers for additional categories Beginners, Options Trading, Futures Trading, Day Trading, IRA Accounts, Investor Community, Penny Stock Trading, Bank Brokerage, High Net Worth Investors, and Customer Service. A “Best in Class” designation means finishing in the top five brokers for that category.

For more information, see how we test.

Category awards

Industry awards

Historical Rankings

We've been reviewing Charles Schwab longer than anyone else on the internet. Every year since 2011, we've spent hundreds of hours collecting data, testing platforms, and writing reviews. Here's how Schwab has fared over the years:

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Trading fees

Account fees

Margin rates

Investment options

Order types

Beginners

Stock trading apps

Stock app features

Stock app charting

Trading platforms overview

Trading platform stock chart features

Day trading features

Investment research overview

Stock research features

ETF research features

Mutual fund research features

Options trading overview

Banking features

Customer service options

References

Schwab Acquisition of TD Ameritrade

About the Editorial Team