Guide
Can thinkorswim do automated trading?
Partly. thinkorswim can alert you and place conditional orders, but it does not run an options strategy for you unattended. Since thinkorswim is now part of Charles Schwab, the practical way to fully automate options is to connect an automation platform to your Schwab account. Here is what thinkorswim does natively, and how to go the rest of the way.
What thinkorswim can and cannot do on its own
thinkorswim is a powerful trading platform, and it does include a few pieces of automation:
- Alerts on price and study conditions, so you get notified when the market meets a rule.
- Conditional orders such as one-cancels-other and trailing stops, which manage an order once you have placed it.
- thinkScript for building custom studies and testing ideas on the chart.
What it does not do is run a full options strategy hands-off: watch for your entry, open a multi-leg position, manage it to a profit target or stop, and repeat, all without you at the screen. That is the gap an automation platform fills.
thinkorswim is now part of Schwab
TD Ameritrade accounts, including thinkorswim, have moved to Charles Schwab. That matters here because it means your thinkorswim account is a Schwab account, and Schwab supports authorized third-party connections. Whispertrades uses that connection to automate options strategies in your account, with no code and no thinkorswim scripts required.
See the full walkthrough on our Schwab automated trading page.
How to automate options in your thinkorswim account
The steps are the same as automating any Schwab account: connect the account, build your strategy as rules, backtest it, and go live. You do not rebuild anything in thinkScript; you describe the strategy once in a web builder and a bot runs it for you.
For the full walkthrough, see how to automate options trading, and prove the strategy first with intraday options backtesting.
thinkorswim automation FAQs
-
Not a hands-off options strategy bot. thinkorswim offers alerts and conditional orders, but to run a strategy automatically you connect an automation platform to your account. Because thinkorswim is now a Schwab platform, Whispertrades can do that through your Schwab connection.
-
thinkorswim is now offered by Charles Schwab after TD Ameritrade moved to Schwab. Your account is a Schwab account, which is what Whispertrades connects to.
-
No. Whispertrades is no-code. You build your strategy as rules in a web builder rather than programming thinkScript, and there is no server to maintain.
-
Options strategies built from long and short calls and puts: spreads, straddles, strangles, iron condors, and more. Whispertrades trades options, not shares.
Automate your Schwab and thinkorswim options
Connect your account, backtest a strategy, and put a bot on it. No code, no scripts.