Schwab automated trading
Automate options trading in your Charles Schwab account
Whispertrades connects to your Schwab account through Schwab's official API and trades your options strategy for you. You define the rules in the browser; the bot places the orders in your account. No code, no VPS, no monthly subscription, and full support for accounts that moved over from TD Ameritrade.
The short answer
Does Schwab allow automated trading?
Yes, through an authorized connection. Schwab supports approved third-party access to your account, and that is how Whispertrades places trades for you. You grant access at Schwab, and you can revoke it at any time. Schwab does not offer a built-in bot for retail options strategies, so Whispertrades provides the automation layer on top of your account.
You keep full control and full ownership. Your money stays at Schwab, every order clears through Schwab, and the bot only ever follows the rules you set. It is the same engine behind our automated options trading platform, connected to your Schwab account.
How to automate Schwab in four steps
- 1 Connect Schwab
- Authorize Whispertrades through Schwab's own secure login. Your Schwab credentials are never shared with us.
- 2 Build your strategy
- Set entries, strike selection, profit targets, stops, adjustments, and a schedule in the web builder. No code.
- 3 Backtest it first
- Prove the rules against years of intraday options backtesting data before real money is at stake.
- 4 Go live in your account
- Enable the bot and it trades your strategy in your Schwab account, or rehearse it on paper first.
Moved from TD Ameritrade?
Came from thinkorswim or TDA? You are in the right place
TD Ameritrade accounts, including thinkorswim, have moved to Charles Schwab. If you used to trade or hoped to automate options on TDA or thinkorswim, that account is now a Schwab account, and Whispertrades connects to it directly.
You do not need thinkorswim scripts or any programming. You rebuild your strategy once as plain rules in the Whispertrades builder, and from then on the bot runs it in your Schwab account automatically.
Native Schwab support
Not every options bot supports Schwab
Many automation tools connect only to a narrow set of brokers, and Schwab is often missing. Whispertrades supports Charles Schwab as a first-class broker, right alongside tastytrade and Tradier, so you can automate the account you already have instead of opening a new one somewhere else.
Prefer to compare your options first? See our options trading bot overview, or check broker and account details in the compatibility docs.
Your broker. Your account. Your money.
Your funds never leave Schwab
Whispertrades connects through Schwab's official API. You authorize the connection at Schwab, your money stays exactly where it is, and every bot order lands in your account like a trade you placed yourself. Whispertrades cannot move funds into or out of your Schwab account.
Pay per trading day, not per month
Your first bot costs $1.10 per trading day, and the per-bot rate drops as you run more. A bot with no open position is charged half, paper bots are always half price, and disabled bots are free. There is no monthly subscription: you pay only for the days your bots actually run.
See the full rate table on our pricing page.
- March 2021
- Trading live since
- 7.8M+
- Contracts traded
- 99.99%
- Uptime
Schwab automated trading FAQs
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Yes, through an authorized connection to your account. You approve Whispertrades at Schwab, and you can revoke access whenever you want. Schwab does not include its own retail options bot, so Whispertrades supplies the automation while your account stays entirely at Schwab.
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Yes. TD Ameritrade accounts, including thinkorswim, are now Schwab accounts, and Whispertrades connects to them as Schwab accounts. There is nothing to migrate on our side: connect the account and build your strategy.
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Yes. You do not need thinkorswim scripts or any code. Rebuild the strategy once as plain rules in the Whispertrades builder and the bot runs it in your Schwab account from then on.
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No. Every rule is configured in the web builder, and Whispertrades handles the Schwab connection for you. There is nothing to program and no server to keep online.
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Short and long puts and calls, credit and debit spreads, straddles, strangles, iron condors, iron butterflies, and any other structure built from long and short calls and puts. Whispertrades trades options, not shares.
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No. Your funds stay in your Schwab account the entire time. Whispertrades places orders through the authorized connection but can never deposit or withdraw money.
Automate your Schwab options trading
Connect your Schwab account, backtest a strategy, and put a bot on it. Rehearse on paper first and go live when it has earned it.