INVESTools
Encyclopedia
Thinkorswim brokerage (corporately styled as "thinkorswim"), with its Investools division, is an American company offering live and online investor education services.
In addition, through its brokerage subsidiary, Thinkorswim, Inc., Investools provides services to more than 71,175 funded trading accounts for self-directed option
traders and institutional users who invest in equities, exchange-traded fund
s, futures
, mutual funds and bonds
.
Revenue for 2007 was a record $318 million, including the operations of Thinkorswim from February 15, 2007. Client assets were almost $2.6 billion at December 31, 2007. The average client account is $45,000, significantly above industry average. Active subscribers to its education programs were 102,800.
Investools Inc. offers investor education and brokerage and related financial products and services for self-directed investors. Investools Education Group offers a range of investor education products in a variety of interactive delivery formats, including instructor-led synchronous and asynchronous online courses, in-person workshops, one-on-one and one-to-many online coaching programs and telephone, live-chat and email support. Thinkorswim Inc., Investools’ online brokerage firm services self-directed stock, options and futures traders. Thinkorswim offers customers a broad range of products including equity securities, fixed income, index products, options, futures, other derivatives and foreign exchange. thinkorswim provides front end trading platforms that allow its customers to trade electronically and provides trading tools and analytics.
Subsidiary Thinkorswim, Inc. is a brokerage firm registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
(FINRA), a self-regulatory body.
In addition, through its brokerage subsidiary, Thinkorswim, Inc., Investools provides services to more than 71,175 funded trading accounts for self-directed option
Option (finance)
In finance, an option is a derivative financial instrument that specifies a contract between two parties for a future transaction on an asset at a reference price. The buyer of the option gains the right, but not the obligation, to engage in that transaction, while the seller incurs the...
traders and institutional users who invest in equities, exchange-traded fund
Exchange-traded fund
An exchange-traded fund is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds, and trades close to its net asset value over the course of the trading day. Most ETFs track an index, such as the S&P 500 or MSCI EAFE...
s, futures
Futures contract
In finance, a futures contract is a standardized contract between two parties to exchange a specified asset of standardized quantity and quality for a price agreed today with delivery occurring at a specified future date, the delivery date. The contracts are traded on a futures exchange...
, mutual funds and bonds
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
.
Revenue for 2007 was a record $318 million, including the operations of Thinkorswim from February 15, 2007. Client assets were almost $2.6 billion at December 31, 2007. The average client account is $45,000, significantly above industry average. Active subscribers to its education programs were 102,800.
Investools Inc. offers investor education and brokerage and related financial products and services for self-directed investors. Investools Education Group offers a range of investor education products in a variety of interactive delivery formats, including instructor-led synchronous and asynchronous online courses, in-person workshops, one-on-one and one-to-many online coaching programs and telephone, live-chat and email support. Thinkorswim Inc., Investools’ online brokerage firm services self-directed stock, options and futures traders. Thinkorswim offers customers a broad range of products including equity securities, fixed income, index products, options, futures, other derivatives and foreign exchange. thinkorswim provides front end trading platforms that allow its customers to trade electronically and provides trading tools and analytics.
Subsidiary Thinkorswim, Inc. is a brokerage firm registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
In the United States, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., or FINRA, is a private corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization . FINRA is the successor to the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. ...
(FINRA), a self-regulatory body.
History
Thinkorswim, Inc. was formed through multiple company mergers and acquisitions:- In 1997, Telescan, a provider of stock charting and screening tools, was founded by Dr. Richard Carlin in Houston, Texas.
- Also in 1997, Online Investors Advantage, an investor education company, was founded.
- In 1999, Thinkorswim, Inc. was founded as an online brokerage specializing in options.
- Also in early 1999, an international investor education company, ZiaSun, acquired Online Investors Advantage (later referred to as "Online Investor Toolbox").
- in 2000, Lee Barba, now the CEO of Thinkorswim, started as CEO with Telescan.
- On December 6, 2001, ZiaSun merged with Telescan to form Investools.
- In January 2005, Investools purchased Prophet Financial Systems, Inc. and embarked on a re-architecture of the Investor Toolbox. Prophet's founder, Tim Knight, was made the Senior Vice President of Technology. In May, Investools common stock was listed on NASDAQNASDAQThe NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
in May 2006 and added to the Russell 3000Russell 3000The Russell 3000 Index is a stock market index of US stocks.The ticker symbol is ^RUA.This index measures the performance of 3,000 publicly held US companies based on total market capitalization, which represents approximately 98% of the investable US market.-Annual returns reflected by the Russell...
, 2000 and Microcap indexes on June 30. - In January 2006, Thinkorswim acquired Arrowhead Solutions, a privately held, institutional sell-side trade order management systemOrder management systemAn order management system, or OMS, is a computer software system used in a number of industries for order entry and processing.- Electronic commerce and catalogers :...
provider. - In September 2006, Investools announced a merger with Thinkorswim. In February 2007, the company completed the merger with Thinkorswim and its ticker symbol was changed to SWIM. In June 2008, the group adopted the name of its brokerage subsidiary, Thinkorswim, for its corporate identity, changing the listed holding company's name from Investools, Inc. to Thinkorswim Group Inc. New York investment banking firm Paragon Capital Partners, led by David Adler and Michael Levy, initiated this transaction, and acted as INVESTools' financial advisor in connection with the proposed merger and with respect to the financing of this transaction. [link to press release] This transaction combined INVESTools' education capabilities with thinkorswim's best-in-class trading platform, creating a unique business model with the ability to offer differentiated product offerings for the retail investor. At the time of the transaction, thinkorswim had been a portfolio investment of Technology Crossover Ventures. [link to press release
] - In May 2008, the company announced that it was cooperating with an informal U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into presentations used during sales meetings.