thinkorswim, any thoughts...

Hi

Any thoughts or experiences with thinkorswim broker?

Regards,
lucidlamp

quality broker, great for options just okay for forex but they are the best for options and Tom the owner is a great guy

I know they don't charge commissions, but what about spreads and daily interest accruals? Here's what their site says about the latter:

Credit: Fed Funds - 1.90%*
Debit: Fed Funds + 5.45%**
* Interest paid on daily average balances over $500. Additional schedule available for credit balances over $25,000.
** Additional schedule available for debit balances over $50,000.

This seems pretty insane for carrying shorts to the next day - can anyone shed some light on carry-trading with these guys? If I am to be ass-raped like this for holding AUD/USD short overnight, then it's a huge red flag.

Those rates are for cash balances and stock margin debits, and they're very uncompetitive, that credit rate is basically zero.. (and it is zero for forex accounts there - "Interest is paid on active positions not on resting cash."). Swap rates for currency pairs would fall under a different table, which they don't appear to show on their website..

TOS is probably an ok shop, but InteractiveBrokers simply has the edge in every major category - commissions, products, interest rates, FX spreads, etc.