9 Steps to Master thinkorswim mobile for iPhone

For trading on the go, Schwab thinkorswim® mobile for iPhone puts one of the industry’s most powerful trading and investment platforms right in your hand.

New to thinkorswim mobile? Here are nine steps to get started.

Step 1: Download thinkorswim mobile

Whichever iPhone model you use, it takes only a few seconds to download thinkorswim mobile:

• On your iPhone home screen, tap the App Store and search thinkorswim.

• Find the app called thinkorswim: Trade. Invest. Tap Get.
• When your download is complete, tap Open.
• Don’t have a Schwab account? Tap Open an account right below where you log in. You’ll be redirected to schwab.com to complete your application.

Step 2: Log in and set up thinkorswim for your Schwab accounts

•  Log in to thinkorswim for the first time using your Schwab credentials.
• Accept necessary disclosures.
• You’ll see a series of welcome screens—they’ll help you configure your thinkorswim mobile app. Note that you can always adjust these choices later in settings.
• To begin, tap Enable Notifications to receive push notifications for login requests, price alerts, order fills, messages, and breaking news. Tap Next to continue.

• Next, the Biometrics screen prompts you to enable login with Touch ID or Face ID, based on what your device supports. You can do this after you have completed the welcome screens by tapping the More tab and then selecting Settings. Tap Next to continue.

• Next, choose your app’s look and feel. Select either Light Theme (light background) or Dark Theme (dark background), and then tap Next to continue.

• The final screen, In-App Help, explains how you can get help or learn more about thinkorswim mobile. The help icon appears throughout the platform to explain key features on that screen. Tap it to access helpful how-to information. 

• Tap Done to exit the welcome screens. Now, let’s look at the key tabs you’ll use on thinkorswim.

Step 3: Navigate thinkorswim mobile with the tab bar

Use the five primary tabs on the tab bar, located at the bottom of the screen, to navigate the app:

• Overview: A quick and customizable view of all your account information—what you own, what you’re tracking, and where your positions stand in real time.
• Watchlist: Where you build and monitor lists of investments you want to track.
• Trade (also known as Quick Trade): Your main stop to analyze, buy, or sell investments on thinkorswim mobile.
• Positions: Where you’ll find the current value, status, and balances for all positions in your Schwab account—and robust tools for analysis.
• More: Additional thinkorswim tools you’ll need—and the functionality to customize your tab bar with your favorite tools. 

Step 4: Customize your Overview tab and select an account

The Overview tab consolidates key account and trading info all in one place. Also, it’s where you can switch from one account to another or access the paperMoney® platform for virtual trading.

First, let’s customize the Overview tab. Note that any custom settings you apply to your paperMoney accounts won’t be applied to your Live Trading accounts—or vice versa—because thinkorswim allows you to set those separately.

To proceed:

• On the tab bar, tap Overview. 

• Tap the gear icon.
• Choose the widgets you want to appear on your Overview tab for your paperMoney and Live Trading accounts. There are two kinds:

• Visible widgets lists widgets that already appear on your Overview tab. To hide a widget, tap the red minus icon.
• Hidden widgets lists widgets that are not displayed on the Overview tab. To show a widget, tap the green plus icon.

• To reposition any widget, touch and hold its stacked bars icon until it’s selected, then drag it into position.
• Tap Done.

The Overview tab features several widgets to help you monitor your account information, watchlists, and key news and events regarding your holdings. Tap widgets with an arrow icon to view more detailed information related to that widget.

Here are the available widgets:

• Markets: Provides live data on major market indexes.
• My Position Movers: Highlights your positions based on the largest daily change.
• Account Balances: Displays your current account value and the amount of funds available for trading.
• Orders: Tracks the status on any orders you’ve made.
• Watchlists: Allows you to track all watchlists you’ve built on any platform on the thinkorswim suite.
• Calendar: Lists scheduled and potentially market-moving events, including dividend announcements, earnings, conference calls, splits, and more.
• Portfolio Digest: Shows real-time market headlines for all your positions.
• Trader TV: Broadcasts Schwab Network and CNBC (U.S., Europe, and Asia) throughout the trading day.
• Chatrooms: Connects you to thinkorswim’s live public chatrooms.

Finally, you can use the Overview tab to select which account (or accounts) you want to use.

• Tap the menu displaying the name of your current account(s).
• On the Select Account screen, select either a paperMoney account—where you can practice trades before you make them with actual money—or a Live Trading account to buy or sell with your funds. 
• Tap the account you want to use.

Step 5: Build a watchlist

The Watchlist tab helps you create and track a list of stocks, funds, and other investment symbols. Best of all, any watchlists you create are shared across the entire thinkorswim platform on mobile, desktop, and the web.

To create a new watchlist:

• Tap Watchlist on the tab bar.
• Tap the menu displaying the name of the current watchlist.
• Tap Create New Watchlist.

• Give your new watchlist a name, then tap Next.
• Enter the symbol or name of the company or index you want to add.
• Tap the green plus icon to add the stock or index to your list.
• Repeat searching and adding until you’ve selected all the items you wish to track.
• When your watchlist is complete, tap Done.

You have now created your first watchlist. Each watchlist contains a wealth of information about each item in the list. Scroll the columns to see all the information that’s available.

These columns can also be customized by following these steps:

• Tap the gear icon.
• On the Watchlist Settings screen, select from more than 100 fundamental and technical analysis columns and place them in the order that works best for you. 

• To add a column, scroll down to Available Columns, then:

• Search for an indicator by typing the column name in the search bar. A list of potential column choices will appear immediately.
• Or, browse through a list of available columns by tapping the arrow symbol next to any of the 10 categories beneath the search bar.

• Once you’ve found the column you’re looking for, tap the green plus iconto add it to the bottom of your Watchlist Settings screen.
• To move the column to a higher position, touch and hold its stacked bars icon until it’s selected, then drag it into position.
• Tap Done.

Digging deeper with the thinkorswim quote details screen

Tap any symbol in a watchlist to open its quote details screen. Use the menu below the price information to access helpful data that can help you analyze that investment:·        

• Tap Chart to view a price chart with hundreds of studies and drawing tools to help your analysis.
• Tap News for real-time news and information.
• Tap Options to access the option chain.
• Tap Level II quotes (available with subscription) to view the full order book (all bid and ask prices; only available on certain symbols).
• Tap Profile to analyze a stock’s value using Trefis forecasts (only available on certain stocks).

Step 6: How to buy a stock on thinkorswim mobile

The Trade tab—also known as the Quick Trade tab to many long-time thinkorswim users—lives up to its name. You can buy or sell in a few quick taps or access columns of data to study your trade a little further.

To place a trade:

• Tap Trade in the tab bar.
• Either enter the symbol of the stock, fund, or other investment you want in the search field or select a symbol from your Recently Viewed list.
• After finding the symbol, tap its name.
• If you don’t  already have a position in this security, the order will default to a buy order on the Trade Ticket screen.
• Select the order type by tapping Limit and then select the type of order you’d want from the list. For this example, we’ll proceed with a limit order.

• Select the time in force for your trade. Tap Day to open the menu and select how long your trade will be active.
• Adjust your price by tapping the plus or minus icons to move the price up or down. Another way to edit your price—tap on the field and type it in.
• To select the quantity type for the trade, you can either select:

• Shares:The number of shares you want to buy.
• Percent of Positions:The exact percentage of an existing position you want to buy or sell.
• Dollar Amount: Maximum amount of account funds you want to use to trade.

• If you have multiple linked accounts, tap Account to select the account to place the trade in.

Customize your Trade Ticket

Tap the gear symbol to add more detailed information, including Account Balances and Risk Profile or to set the cost basis for your trade. 

• To continue to the trade confirmation, tap Review.
• Review the order on the Order Confirmation screen. To make changes, tap Edit. 

• If everything looks good and you want to place the order, tap Send.
• To review your order, tap More in the tab bar and select Orders. You’ll find all working, filled, canceled, and saved orders here. 

Step 7: How to trade options on thinkorswim mobile

Researching and executing an options trade on thinkorswim mobile is easy—it can be done from the quote details screen for any optionable symbol.

Let’s start with a basic options trade—writing a covered call on a stock you already own. 

To sell a covered call for a stock you already own:

• Tap Trade in the tab bar.
• Find the underlying security for the option you want to trade. You can do that by either typing the symbol in the search bar or finding the symbol in your Recently Viewed list.
• After finding the symbol, tap Option Chain. 

• Select a Spread—we’ll use Single for a covered call.
  
• Tap the number of Strikes to display on the chain.
• Select Exchange if you have a specific exchange in mind or select Best to let thinkorswim route your order to where it’ll receive the best execution.

Next, select which option to sell. To begin, tap an expiration to expand the option chain, then:

• Select the option you want to sell. In the option chain, you can sell an option by tapping its Bid price and buy an option by tapping its Ask price.
• To begin a Trade Ticket for a covered call, tap the Bid price for your option.
• Now, begin filling out your Trade Ticket. First, select your order type. To do this, tap Limit to open the menu and select an order type. For this example, we’ll use a limit order.
• Next, select the time in force for this trade. Tap Day and then select the amount of time you’d like your trade to be active. For options, you can select either Day or Good Till Canceled (GTC).
• Now, select the price for your limit order. To do this, select your price by tapping the plus or minus symbols to adjust the price up or down.
• Tap the Quantity drop-down menu to decide how many contracts to trade. You can determine this in three ways:

• Quantity: The number of contracts you wish to trade.
• Percent of Positions: The exact percentage of an existing position you want to trade.
• Dollar Amount: Maximum amount of account funds you want to use to trade.

• If you have multiple linked accounts, tap Account to select the account to place the trade in.
• To continue to the trade confirmation, tap Review.
• Review the order on the Order Confirmation screen. If you wish to make changes, tap Edit.

• If everything looks good and you want to place the order, tap Send.
• To monitor the status of our order, tap the More tab and select Orders. You’ll find all working, filled, canceled, saved orders, and order history on the Order screen. 

Step 8: Analyze and close positions in the Positions tab

Once you’ve established a position, the thinkorswim Positions tab allows you to track, analyze, and close or roll any position you hold at Schwab. 

You can customize your Positions screen to fit your needs. For example, you can add columns based on studies and fundamental data. Or, you can also sort all your positions by each column by tapping the column header. 

Now let’s close a position. For this example, let’s assume you’re closing a long stock position.

• Tap the Positions tab.
• Select the checkbox next to the stock position you want to close.
• Tap Close Selected.

• Next, the order editor appears. Like previous orders, determine the order type, time in force, and price for the trade. Note that the quantity of shares is already preselected to close your entire position. You can adjust this quantity to sell only a portion of the shares.
• If you have multiple linked accounts, tap Account to select which to place the trade in.
• To confirm the trade, tap Review.
• Review the order on the Order Confirmation screen. If you wish to make changes, tap Edit.
• If everything looks good and you want to place the order, tap Send.

Analyze your trades via the Positions tab

The Analyze screen lets you evaluate the potential profitability and risk of your positions and helps you stress-test all or part of your portfolio. Here’s how to get there:

• Tap Positions in the tab bar.
• Select the box next to each symbol you want to analyze or check the box next to Symbol at the top of the list to analyze your whole portfolio.
• After selecting a box, the Analyze bar will appear at the top. Pull down this bar to access the Analyze screen.

• The Analyze screen now appears at the top of your Positions tab. Use this to review a trade’s risk profile, beta weight your portfolio, or evaluate price slices.

Step 9: Find support, education, and more—on the More tab

If you need live help or want to build your trading knowledge, Schwab thinkorswim mobile has you covered—just tap More in the tab bar.

The More tab is your connection to up-to-date information on account information, orders, and Schwab thinkorswim mobile’s help resources, including live chat support, In-App Help assistance, and a growing library of educational videos and content.

• Orders: This tab consolidates all working, filled, canceled, and saved orders as well as your complete order history.
• Alerts: You’ll see all active, triggered, and canceled alerts set for your accounts. Also, create new alerts that will appear across the entire thinkorswim suite of platforms—mobile, desktop, and web.
• Balances: View detailed balance info for your Live Trading and paperMoney accounts. 
• Messages: This tab summarizes all account messages, including order and alert notifications and release notes to keep you up to date with the latest thinkorswim upgrades.
• Transfers: Tap to make cash transfers in and out of your Schwab brokerage accounts.
• Calendar: You’ll find earnings announcements and earnings calls, dividends, splits, and other significant trading events for your holdings.
• News:A comprehensive crawl of market news.
• Trader TV: Daily live coverage of the markets, investments, and money news by Schwab Network’s analysts and market experts, as well as live, commercial-free feeds from CNBC’s U.S., Europe, and Asia channels.
• Chat Rooms: You’ll find multiple Schwab platforms covering thinkorswim, market news, trading education, and more.
• Settings: You can adjust app settings for thinkorswim mobile, including account options, login and security, notifications, help settings, watchlists, and more.
• Help: Chat support is a place to leave feedback and access Schwab’s extensive education offerings.
• Logout: Tap Logout to sign out of thinkorswim mobile.

For example, to move Settings into the tab menu:

• Touch and hold Settings until it becomes highlighted and starts to wiggle.
• Drag the Settings symbol into the tab menu.
• Tap Done to set everything in place.

Need to chat?

Live chat support is available every trading day. To access chat:

• In the tab bar, tap More, then Help.
• Select Support Chat to reach thinkorswim’s Trade Desk featuring live help support before and after U.S. exchange hours.

Want to keep learning?

Schwab thinkorswim mobile is built for that too. You’ll find how-to videos for thinkorswim mobile in the App Help Videos library as well as additional helpful explainers and more under Trader Education. 

Bottom line

Schwab thinkorswim mobile lets you analyze, trade, and invest on the go while keeping you connected to the rest of the thinkorswim product suite on desktop and the web. Tap the App Store on your iPhone to get started.