Overview of thinkorswim and Active Trader Pro
Charles Schwab (thinkorswim) and Fidelity (Active Trader Pro) are two giants in the brokerage business. They both attract a lot of
customers for short-term and long-term investing alike. Is one of them ahead of the other? Let our
research help provide the answer.
Cost Comparison
| Broker Fees |
Stock/ETF
Commission |
Mutual Fund
Commission |
Options
Commission |
Maintenance
Fee |
Annual IRA
Fee |
|
thinkorswim
|
$0
|
$49.99 ($0 to sell)
|
$0.65 per contract
|
$0
|
$0
|
|
Fidelity
|
$0
|
$49.95
|
$0.65 per contract
|
$0
|
$0
|
Services
| Broker Review |
Cost |
Investment Products |
Trading Tools |
Customer Service |
Research |
Overall Rating |
|
thinkorswim
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fidelity
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Promotions
Charles Schwab: Get thinkorswim platform and $0-fee trades at Charles Schwab.
Fidelity: None right now.
Category 1: Available Investments
Fidelity:
If you open a self-directed Fidelity account, you’ll be able to trade these assets:
- Stocks, including foreign and over-the-counter instruments
- Fixed-income securities
- Funds (closed-end, mutual, and exchange-traded)
- Annuities
Besides its self-directed accounts, Fidelity offers a lineup of managed account solutions. At the start of the list is Fidelity Go, a robo service. It charges no advisory fee below $25,000 and 0.35% per year for balances of $25,000 or more. It invests in Fidelity mutual funds, including funds with zero expense ratios. The broker’s traditional programs cost more and provide a lot more in return.
For both types of customers, Fidelity offers a lineup of insurance products that includes both life and long-term care.
Charles Schwab:
Schwab offers investment-advisory and brokerage accounts through in-person and online channels. The
in-person accounts are opened through financial advisors at local branches. These more traditional accounts
can be either self-directed or advisory accounts. Naturally, they can come with higher fees and minimums than
online accounts, which are also available through Schwab. Both managed and self-directed accounts are available
online, and here we find the lowest fees and minimums.
Self-directed traders will find the largest selection of investments at Charles Schwab. The list includes:
- Forex
- Futures
- Stocks, excluding foreign exchanges but not the OTC marketplace
- Bonds
- Funds (all 3 types)
- Annuities
Winner: Charles Schwab
Category 2: Margin Accounts
Why trade with your own money when you can trade with someone else’s? Each broker-dealer in this comparison provides margin trading, so you only need to put up some collateral.
Fidelity:
Fidelity starts at 11.825% and drops its rate to 7.525% for loans above a million dollars.
Charles Schwab:
Like Fidelity, Charles Schwab charges margin interest on a sliding scale. The company begins at 11.825% and pauses at 10.075% with a margin debit of $250,000 or more. Loans above $500,000 at Charles Schwab receive negotiated (and unpublished) rates.
Winner: Even
Category 3: Websites
Fidelity:
The Fidelity website is well-designed and easy to use. During our trial of it, we found the search bar in the upper-right corner to be very helpful, although there is also a watchlist and a very helpful top menu which could be starting points.
Fidelity has retired its pop-out trade ticket, so all orders are now submitted through simple web pages. The broker’s order ticket nevertheless does have some good features. These include a share calculator, eight trade types, and five time-in-force choices. Fidelity also now has Trader+ Web for clients who want a more advanced browser-based experience.
Fidelity’s charting software has not changed much. It continues to have many good features. These include the ability to save a chart, export it as a spreadsheet or image, detach it into its own window, or print it. There's also a link to a video that shows how to use the charting software. And of course there are many tools that can be used in full-screen mode.
Charles Schwab:
Charles Schwab’s website also has a good charting program. Like Fidelity’s site, a chart can be detached into its own window and saved. However, there is no video for chart education, and a graph cannot be saved as a spreadsheet. Charles Schwab’s software does of course include many tools that can be used with full-screen capability.
Although Fidelity has retired its pop-out trade ticket, Charles Schwab continues to use its trade bar SnapTicket. This we consider a very good thing because the widget delivers a great trading experience. Located at the bottom of the screen, SnapTicket can be used to submit orders without the need to go to a web page. It displays a small graph, shows real-time trade data, and even has a rapid-fire mode.
Other areas of Charles Schwab’s site are easy to access thanks to a user-friendly top menu. Here, other tools will be located. These gadgets include bond ladders, more sophisticated order tickets, software demos, and a portfolio planner.
Winner: Charles Schwab
Category 4: Desktop Programs
Fidelity:
Active Trader Pro is Fidelity’s desktop program. It works on both Mac and Windows, and it is capable of satisfying very demanding traders.
During our review of the platform, we found it powerful yet easy to use. Color-coded Level II quotes are integrated. The trade ticket has the same eight order types as the website (four of them are trailing orders) and six duration choices (the extra one is a custom feature).
Besides the default order ticket, there are others on ATP. A conditional order form has triggers and conditional orders. A discrete order form must be used to incorporate direct-access routing (we found four venues).
Besides the very useful trade tickets, Fidelity’s desktop system also streams live Bloomberg TV and has a time & sales window.
Charles Schwab:
Not to be outdone by its rival, Charles Schwab even provides a Linux download for thinkorswim, although support there is more limited. Its very strong desktop trading environment includes forex and futures dealing boxes, which of course are missing on Active Trader Pro.
thinkorswim has just one trade ticket, but it can be used for direct-access routing (we found just two venues) and complex orders. Examples include blast all, order cancels other, and first triggers all. There are no less than fifteen order types.
Bloomberg won’t be found on thinkorswim, but CNBC and Charles Schwab Network will.
Winner: Charles Schwab
Category 5: Mobile Apps
Fidelity:
During our review of Fidelity’s mobile app, we found a lot to like about it. Charts have technical studies, multiple graph styles, comparisons, and technical indicators. A graph can be displayed either in vertical or horizontal format.
The app’s order ticket has the same eight order types as the website, and there’s a simplified version that can be used to make order entry a little faster.
Fidelity has added plenty of market news to its app. It uses thumbnails for news articles. Market movers are shown in tile format, and there’s quick data on sectors and geographic regions. An artificial intelligence is an added highlight.
Charles Schwab:
There is no AI on Charles Schwab’s apps (there are two of them), but they provide a lot of other tools. The trading app is called thinkorswim (not surprisingly). It has lots of technical studies on its charting program and a very advanced trade ticket.
The regular app offers market news, an economic calendar, bill pay, and lots of other goodies. It too can be used for trading. The order form has plenty of trade types and a discrete sell short button.
Winner: Charles Schwab
Category 6: Security Research
Fidelity:
On the Fidelity website, we found screeners for every asset the broker offers. The mutual fund screener doesn’t have the ability to search by load status, which is one weakness. But all of the screeners have many search variables, which generally make them very helpful.
Stock profiles at Fidelity have huge amounts of information on them, including ESG data, technical analysis scores from Recognia, information on top competitors, analyst reports, and much more. For Uber, we found ten reports, downloadable in pdf format.
Charles Schwab:
Over at Charles Schwab, we found seven reports for Uber plus trade recommendations from TipRanks. The broker’s stock profiles do have plenty of details, although they seem a little briefer than Fidelity’s. For example, there are no social sentiment scores on Charles Schwab’s profiles, although they do exist on Fidelity’s.
Screeners at Charles Schwab are quite good with plenty of search criteria. The mutual fund widget has load status and many other criteria. The ETF screener can search for exchange-traded notes.
Winner: Pretty even
Category 7: Extra Services
Individual Retirement Accounts: No-fee IRAs can be opened at both brokers in this evaluation.
DRIP Service: It’s easy to sign up on the Fidelity site and the Charles Schwab site, too.
Cash Management Features: Both firms have debit cards, checkwriting, and FDIC insurance. Fidelity has more insurance.
Fractional Shares: Fidelity, but not Charles Schwab, has a very good fractional-share trading service for both stocks and ETFs.
Extended Hours: Both Fidelity and Charles Schwab provide their customers with pre-market
and after-hours trading.
Periodic Mutual Fund Investing: Available at both brokerage houses.
Initial Public Offerings: Initial and follow-on offerings are available at Charles Schwab and Fidelity (subject to various eligibility requirements).
Winner: Draw
Our Recommendations
Mutual Fund Trading: With Fidelity’s screener, we found 9,625 mutual funds (3,412 have no
transaction fee and fewer than this number also have no load). Charles Schwab has more no-fee,
no-load funds
(we counted more than 4,200), and more total funds (roughly 13,000). Charles Schwab is
our pick.
ETF & Stock Trading: Charles Schwab has better trading tools.
Small Accounts: Both are very good.
Beginners: Fidelity and Charles Schwab both have 24/7 customer support, branch locations,
demo trading on their desktop programs, and good learning materials. Either will do.
Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: Again, both firms have similar resources, such as
individual 401k plans, annuities, target-date funds, investment advice, and retirement education.
Promotions
Charles Schwab/thinkorswim: Get thinkorswim platform and $0-fee trades at Charles Schwab.
Fidelity: None right now.
thinkorswim vs Active Trader Pro: Results
Although Charles Schwab came out ahead overall, Fidelity is still a good choice for many investment
activities, most notably fractional shares and mutual fund investing.
Continue Reading
Updated on 4/15/2026.