hey traders I'm Maiko bosina and in this
video I'm gonna give you a high-level
walkthrough of the thinkorswim trading
platform let's jump in to start we're
gonna download thinkorswim to our
computer now if you're an existing TD
Ameritrade client simply navigate to TD
Ameritrade comm and log into your
account once you're logged into the
website navigate your mouse to the trade
tab and below under trading platforms
you'll see a link for thinkorswim when
you click on that link you'll be
navigated to a page that allows you to
download thinkorswim click that button
and start the thinkorswim program
installer once you've completed
downloading thinkorswim to your computer
you'll notice that an icon now appears
on your desktop double-click this icon
to begin the login process once the
login screen appears enter your username
and password click login now as a new
user of thinkorswim it's important to
understand how the platform is laid out
specifically we have on the left our
left sidebar we'll talk about this in a
little bit and then the right we have
nine tabs that essentially hold all the
different features of thinkorswim and
within each of these tabs are different
sub tabs for example are nine tabs we
have our monitor tab trade analyze scan
market watch charts tools education and
finally help and below each of these
tabs are sub tabs for example under the
monitor tab we have activity impositions
account statement FX reports and
strategy roller and as we move from tab
to tab those sub tabs also change based
on whatever tab we are working in now
let's jump into our first activity and
that's going to be to setup our
left-hand side bar so for this
particular demo I'm actually going to
clean this entire side bar by default
we're set up with live news our trader
TV gadget a watchlist and if we click
this arrow down at the bottom you'll
notice that we have a quick chart also
enabled this is by default so if this is
your first time logging into platform
you'll see those four gadgets let's
clean that up I'm going to click this
gear wheel at the bottom of the screen
and you'll notice that we have all these
gadgets that I just
chose you and let's just let's delete
them all I want to show you what a clean
sidebar looks like and just click those
X's and you'll notice the only thing
left is our account info screen and that
is the one gadget you can't get rid of
you can hide it with this caret but you
can't get rid of it and really that's
because this is an important section for
every trader to have available to them
now let's set up our sidebar with two
gadgets trader TV and a watch list so
I'm gonna go to this plus sign if I want
to add a gadget and you'll notice our
whole menu of available gadgets appears
and we're gonna hit Trader TV allows you
to watch live news in real time every
day TD Ameritrade streams throughout the
market day market news information
different shows great great tool now if
I want to make this screen a little bit
bigger I'm just going to put my mouse in
this dividing line and we're gonna
stretch that out now we have a nice
large video player that we can have
docked to the side of our screen you
want to switch between TD Ameritrade
Network and other channels you can do
that right here but now we have our
trader TV set up I'm gonna pause that
for a second and then the next thing we
do is add a watchlist now this is
probably the single most used gadget on
the left-hand sidebar makes sense right
because as you're trading throughout the
trading day it's great to have a
watchlist available so you can keep
track of the markets so I'm gonna click
that and by default you'll see that we
have a default loaded watchlist that
we've created here at TD Ameritrade but
let's change this for example if we
change this menu from default you'll
notice a whole submenu appears and
you'll see we have our personal created
watchlist but then we have a number of
different public watchlist for this
example let's add the Dow Jones
Industrial Average which are the 30
stocks of the Dow we're gonna hover our
mouse over percent through G you'll
notice these are alphabetically listed
then I'm gonna go over here to our sub
menu and go down to Dow Jones Industrial
Average and just like that we have a
watchlist of the dow jones same thing as
we did with trader TV if we want to
enlarge this just hover your mouse over
that dividing line and we're going to
stretch that down if we need to see more
room we can click that up
the other thing if we want to close or
shrink trader
you'll notice our video players start
shrinking but then the available room
for our watchlist increases now let's
move on to our charts tab charts are
probably one of the most used features
of thinkorswim the charting package is
excellent there's a number of different
things you can do one thing that every
trader should know how to do is setup a
type of chart you want to see whether
it's a candlestick a bar chart but also
time frames so let me show you how to do
that so by default you'll see we're on a
one-year one day chart and you can see
that duration here in the left-hand
corner when you navigate the chart
you'll see that we are our mouse is
highlighting with crosshairs where we're
at now on the chart and as we move
throughout the chart the different
values up here from the opening price
high low close that's going to be based
on whatever candlestick we're looking at
if we want to switch between a different
drawing tool we can click this button
and we can change to a pointer so there
I've changed to a pointer now if I want
to zoom in on a section of the chart I
click my mouse hover it over and now we
can look at a closer version of this
chart over the last few months if I want
to zoom out I can click this magnifying
glass out if I want to zoom in you click
the magnifying glass to zoom in really
close either way it's a very simple
charting package to get used to here
with these basic tools now first thing
let's imagine we wanted to change this
to a bar chart well if you right-click
on the chart you can see that we have
this button called style well we have
another submenu from there and
essentially the the one we're gonna look
at is chart type so right now we're on a
candle but if we wanted to switch to a
bar a candle trend line chart we just
simply select right there and you'll
notice now our candlesticks are now bar
charts really easy to switch the other
thing you can do is you can go to this
gear wheel at the top chart settings and
essentially do a lot of different
customization from just general settings
of the chart adjusts things on your
price axis your time axis you can create
time frames for your chart which we'll
talk about here in a second but more
importantly and everyone asks about
this is appearance so what I just did
with a couple clicks we can go into this
appearance section we have that same
types of charts that we can choose from
let's switch back to candle you'll
notice our preview it has switched to
candle we can change the color of our
candle so if we want to go from a green
to gray whatever really you want to see
you can do right here it's a very widely
used feature of the platform to
customize your chart look once you're
ready with the changes you can hit apply
and okay and now you can see where we're
back to that candle setting with the
original colors that we saw when we
started next I want to show you how to
change the time frame so you'll notice
right now like I said we're on a
one-year one day chart if we want to
switch that to an intraday chart for
example there's this little drop-down
that says D which stands for day or time
frame setup and when we do that we'll
have some pre-loaded time frames so one
day one minute and you'll notice now we
were on a one day 1-minute chart and
that D changed to one M so it lets you
know you are now in a 1-minute chart and
we're looking at one trading day with
one minute candle increments so every
one minute of market data will be a new
candle if we want to switch that maybe
look at a five day five minute that will
change as well and more importantly if
you want to create your own custom time
frame well you just switch from
favourites it's a time frame and we just
switch to whatever day period we want to
see let's say we want to look at five
days and then go to a thirty minute you
can also move this bar at the bottom if
you want specific customized time frames
it's extremely customizable it I guess
is my point I'm trying to get at really
based on how you trade how you look at
the markets so now we're on a five day
five minute chart for this Intel example
next I'm going to show you probably the
most important activity that a trader
should know how to do on think or swim
and that is how to buy or sell a stock
first thing I'm going to do though is
I'm going to collapse the left hand
sidebar by clicking this button gives us
some more real estate so I can show you
the entire trade tab all products sub
tab and what we're looking at is
essentially the current market for Apple
stock
at the top here we have the stock name
the current the last traded price the
gainer lost for the day based on dollars
in percent as well as the current bid
and asked ET b stands for easy to borrow
so if you were shorting Apple would be
an easy to borrow stock and then where
is the stock listed it's currently
listed on the Nasdaq so if we click this
caret you'll notice we have an abundance
this section is an extremely important
section but how do you actually buy and
sell the stock well it's pretty simple
you could do in a number of ways the
first thing let's imagine we wanted to
buy a hundred shares of Apple stock I'm
gonna hover my mouse over the ask price
and you see there's a little buy badge
that shows up under my mouse if I were
looking to sell Apple you can see I
hover my mouse over the bid and a sell
button appears now if I click the ask
price you see an order appears at the
bottom to buy 100 shares of Apple at a
floating limit price based on the
current ask price and it defaults to a
limit order and a day order we'll talk
about this in a second I'm going to
delete this order real quick
one other thing I want to point out
let's bring back our sidebar you'll
notice we had a bid and ask price in our
watchlist columns so if I click on the
ask price from the watchlist guess what
that same order editor appears at the
bottom of our screen so moral the story
is any time you see a bid price and ask
price or a main price next to a symbol
name or lookup you can enter an order
from that part of the software so once
again let's click on the ask price I'm
gonna walk you through this order really
quick we have stock we're buying a
hundred shares of Apple current limit
price of 257 66 and it is a day order
which means if we were to place this
order it would be good for today's
trading date now let's say we just
wanted to get filled we can switch that
to a market order we also have a number
of different order types available in
this order editor but let's switch to a
market which means we will get fill that
the best available ask price hit confirm
and send now this section of the
software is extremely important it is
the order confer
Meishan dialogue this is where you have
your last chance to review an order
double triple check all of this before
you place your order when you're ready
hit Send and you'll notice up here at
the top we have some messages that
appeared we bought a hundred shares of
Apple and then it goes away so what
happened to that stock well this is
where we move over to our monitor tab
and monitor tab activity and position
sub tab this will be the area for you to
monitor all of your open positions as
well as your activity for the trading
day so for example remember we talked
about thinkorswim has tabs sub tabs and
sections well under the activity in
position sub tab section we have today's
trade activity and this is where you'll
see any of your working orders filled
orders you'll notice we have one fill
and that was the trade we just placed as
well as canceled orders now let's go
back and do one more example let's say
we wanted to buy another 100 shares of
Apple but this time we wanted to do it
if Apple dropped down to 250 dollars I'm
putting my mouse in there and I'm
entering a specific price that padlock
is now locked because it's no longer
floating with the current market and we
have a limit order that's good for the
day
and we're gonna hit confirm and send and
now if we go back to our monitor tab
activity and positions you'll notice we
now have a working order in our working
orders section and it's essentially all
the details we just looked at now let's
imagine where we say you know what I
want to place this order good till
cancels so that it works until either I
cancel it or Apple fills at 250 you can
right click now and thinkorswim the
right click of the mouse is extremely
important if you're on an Apple it would
be the command key in your mouse click
button but for PC users if you
right-click your mouse you'll see a menu
will appear and we can cancel the order
we can cancel and replace the order so
we want to cancel and replace this
particular order so I'm gonna change
that and I'm gonna go here and change
this to good till cancel everything else
stays the same I'm gonna hit confirm and
send and now you can see we've got a
message that our original day order was
cancelled we can close it out by
clicking the X and then monitor we go
back and you can see now we have a
order working good till cancelled so
what happened to our original order well
we go down to canceled and there it is
cancel orders buy 100 shares of Apple
250 limit for the day we cancel that
replaced it with this good till
cancelled order and you can see here we
have our filled order from a few minutes
ago so this is essentially we're gonna
keep track of all your orders for the
current trading day this will clear out
and reset every single day and all of
your order history will then be found
under the account statement sub tab
order history section now let's show you
how to trade a call option we went
through the process to trade stock now
we're gonna look at a process to how to
trade a call option essentially similar
we're just going to trade from a
different part of the platform so
instead of our underlying section here
where we have our bid and ask for the
stock price we're gonna go down into the
option chain I mean for the example that
we're gonna look at let's trade the
December expiration and if you want to
trade a call or a put option it's the
same process we have our calls on the
left or puts on the right we can show a
few more strikes under this expiration
series and as you can see we have that
same bid and ask column that we see for
the stock same process applies if you
want to buy an option we click on the
ask price if you want to sell an option
click on the bid price I'm gonna left
click my mouse on this 260 call in
December on Apple our order editor
appears our order quantity defaults to
10 you can change that by going to the
setup application settings order default
so we can go to options and let's change
that to 1 and apply those settings and
now I'm going to delete this and riku
the order up and look our order default
has changed to 1 same process we can
choose between limit order market orders
with options we generally want to use a
limit order so let's lock in that 625
hit confirm and send and you can see we
just got filled on our long 260 column
December on Apple if we go back to the
monitor page you'll now notice below our
stock position we have the December 260
call 1 contract and the same thing
applies with the PL open and day you're
gonna see those numbers vary from day to
day but now we have
a stock position and an option position
so you're probably asking how do I close
this position out what we recommend is
go to the monitor tab activity positions
page and right click or if you're on
Apple command and click your mouse to
queue up the order
so first let's close out our stock
position I'm gonna right click Apple
create closing order and then you'll see
an order queues up to sell 100 Apple at
the current price whatever your quantity
is whatever your underlying instrument
is when you right click and create
closing order it will automatically
populate the opposite of your existing
position let's do this as a market order
hit confirm and send and now you'll see
we were filled on our Apple so we've
taken that small profit from yesterday
and as you can see our quantity is now
zero and finally let's take a look at
the education tab and thinkorswim
starting with the education sub tab now
here we've embedded the TD Ameritrade
education center into thinkorswim so you
don't have to leave the platform to get
access to the great education provided
here at TD Ameritrade specifically you
can get access to videos recommended for
you upcoming webcasts in-person event
schedule different coursework that we've
created to help you learn different
strategies and products as well as
thinkorswim tutorial videos now all of
this can also be navigated through this
section here if you want to learn about
different products and different
portfolio strategies all that is exactly
as it would be as if you were logged
into TD Ameritrade comm one other thing
I want to show you is the support chat
feature up here in the right hand corner
click support chat and under Live
Support tab if we hit create support
request we can send a text message to
our trade desk right here from the
platform let's say you needed help with
an order type that and hit create
request and then a message will be sent
to our trade that's one of our
representatives will receive that and
start speaking to you over chat they can
look in and check out your screen and
answer any questions you have regarding
any issue with the platform it's a great
feature if you don't want to give us a
call
or if you're unable to and that's a look
at thinkorswim for more information head
over to the Education Center at TD
Ameritrade calm and don't forget to
watch the videos on our YouTube channel
for more in-depth walkthroughs and
tutorials of thinkorswim head over to
the thinkorswim Learning Center at TLC
thinkorswim comm
you