Charles Schwab Review

Streetsmart Edge is intuitive trading software. It aligns your workflow, so you can focus on the market – not on your platform. Provides a wealth of 2 minute videos which help train Charles Schwab account users on using the Streetsmart Edge platform.

Intuitively offers an online brokers to provide research – opportunities – trading workflow for mutual funds, etf trades, a taxable brokerage account, forex trading, stock and etf trades, active traders, options trading, all with no account minimum. Streetsmart Edge does not offer any form of paper trading.

This Charles Schwab Review of Streetsmart edge and the Streetsmart edge mobile app should help Schwab customers make an informed decision about the schwab mobile app and Schwab as a discount broker after all. The tools you use to trade are very important, and need to fit with your personality, skill set, and experience level.

Charles Schwab does not advocate the use of technical analysis using the trading platform and the mobile app to make trades.

The “Insight and Ideas” section is very good, and all in one day the Ideas section offered:

• 3 Reasons to Consider Putting Your Cash at Work (Bank Accounts)
• Help Your College Grad Become an Investor
• Roth 401(k) vs. Roth IRA (IRA Accounts)
• Paying For College: Are Scholarships Taxable?
• 529 Accounts: When a child doesn’t go to college (Personal Financial Situation)
• Today’s Options Market Update (Options Trading)
• Weekly Trader’s Outlook (Stock Market Research)
• Look to the Futures

All of these articles were written in real-time on Friday May 6th, and is an excellent overview of Charles Schwab resources.

FINRA’s Brokercheck

As always, www.investingreviews.com recommends doing due diligence on any Interactive Brokers firm by using FINRA’s Brokercheck at FINRA’s Broker Check.

Charles Schwab is registered with:

• the SEC
• 4 Self-Regulatory Organizations
• 53 U.S States and territories
• Certain $25,000 fines for failing to implement risk management controls

Charles Schwab Educational Resources

Whether trading the most basic mutual funds, or engaging in trading

Offerings Charles Schwab include:

Exchange member engaged in exchange commission business other than floor activities

Broker or dealer retailing corporate equity securities over the counter

Mutual fund underwriter or sponsor

Mutual fund retailer

Put and call broker or dealer or option writer

Investment advisory services

Relationships with other brokers internationally

No account minimum

Penny stocks listed on the pink sheets for $4.95 per trade

Charles Schwab Educational Resources

Initial questions and answers for the Schwab Start Kit.

What are Schwab Stock Slices?

Schwab Stock Slices is an easy way to buy fractional shares for a set dollar amount. You have the option to buy shares in up to 30 U.S. companies in a one transaction. The stocks you purchase through are individual stocks in your account that you can hold and sell independently.

What’s a fractional share?

A fractional share is when you own less than one whole share of a company. Fractional shares allow you to purchase stocks based on the dollar amount, so you may end up with a fraction of a share, a whole share, or more than one share.

What is the S&P 500® and what does market capitalization (market cap) mean?

The S&P 500® is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities. According to the Survey of Assets, USD 13.5 trillion is indexed or benchmarked to the index, with indexed assets comprising approximately USD 5.4 trillion of this total (as of Dec. 31, 2020). The index includes 500 leading companies and covers approximately 80% of available market capitalization.

Market cap is the a common measurement of a company’s size and is computed by taking the outstanding principal shares and multiplying these by the price of the stock.

Do fractional shares pay dividends?

Yes, in proportion to the shares you own.

What are the full terms and conditions of the Stock Slice program?

The Schwab offer is only available to eligible new customers. To be eligible to receive the $101 cash bonus, you must be an individual who does not have a Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”) account (other than a Schwab Stock Plan Services account) and who: (1) opens a Schwab One individual taxable retail account and deposits $50. THIS WILL BUY THE top 5 stocks by market capitalization in the S&P® 500 Index (unless the orders are cancelled by you—see details below).

Note that if one company has multiple share classes of stock in the top 5, only the one with the most voting rights will be purchased. Please also note that the above process is specific to the Schwab Starter Kit offer and will not apply to any other trade orders you might place.

This Schwab Starter Kit offer is limited to one per account, with no more than one account enrolled per client and does not apply to Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking® accounts, the Schwab Global Account™, joint accounts, trust accounts, custodial accounts, IRAs, ERISA-covered retirement plans, other tax-qualified retirement plans and accounts, education savings accounts, or accounts managed by independent investment advisors.

That is an example of the thorough educational resources Charles Schwab provides with account registration.

Charles Schwab investments and mutual funds are all protected by their satisfaction guarantee, and also by the SIPC (Securities Investment Protection Corporation) up to $250,000. If such a huge bank went under, the economy would also be having huge problems (i.e., 2008) but even in that Charles Schwab maintains a Tier I capital ratio at 7% which is 2% higher than that required by the federal reserve at 5%.

Credit Suisse opened stock coverage on Charles Schwab and ranked it as an Outperform and a $55 target price. The analysts believe that Charles Schwab has more room to grow than the other online brokers because it’s revenue per average client assets is lower than competitors such as Morgan Stanley, BofA, E*Trade, and AMTD. Credit Suisse also provides evidence that Charles Schwab is trading well below the market average of P/E to the $S&P 500 and can be considered a value stock with the upside of a growth stock if they focused on mutual funds and Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) services. Schwab also offers more than 2,000 mutual funds at no cost, which is attractive to retail investors. In 2020 Schwab also caught up with competitors by offering fractional shares trading.

A few lawsuits have resulted in a negative verdict Charles Schwab. These have generally been small, with the largest public version of $18 million for an action by FINRA starting Charles Schwab needed to pay back investors $18 million for improperly marketing their YieldPlus Bond Funds. Given the size of the bank, and the paucity of large verdicts against Charles Schwab, this is another positive for the safety and fiduciary duty Charles Shwab executes in managing your money.

Account Types Charles Schwab*

• Stock trading
• Exchange-Traded Funds (EFTS)
• Money Market Funds
• A Schwab global account
• Mutual funds
• $0 account fees
• $ 0 trading fees (.65 standard options
• Schwab funds
• Commission free trading
• Futures trading
• Bitcoin futures contracts
• Active traders (Street Smart Edge)
• Options
• Futures
• Margin Loans
• Annuities
• Insurance
• Forex trading

*There are no account minimums FOR ANY CHARLES SCHWAB’S PRODUCT

*Protected by the SIPC (Securities investor protection corporation) up to $250,000 per account.

The two main types of relationships Charles Schwab offers are the Broker-Dealer Relationship Summary (FORM CRS-BD) and the Investment Advisory Relationship Summary (FROM CRS-IA).

If you are looking to make most investment decisions yourself, and to use Charles’ Schwab as primarily a broker executing your decisions, you want the FORM CRS-BD.

If you want ongoing help and guidance or want Charles Schwab to act as your Investment Advisor (RIA) you want FORM CRS-IA which will detail Schwab intelligent portfolios, Schwab Private Client, Schwab Advisor Network, and other managed portfolio solutions.

Bonus Award Net Deposit

• $1,000 $500,000+
• $500 $100,000-$499,999
• $300 $50,000-$99,999
• $100 $25,000-$49,999

Other discount and online brokers (Such as E Trade Financial) offer much more general referral programs. If this is important, you should research similar offerings for the best deal.

Charles Schwab does not advocate the use of technical analysis using the trading platform and the mobile app to make trades.

Charles Schwab’s Margin Rates

Debit Balance Effective Rate

• $0-24,999.99 – 9.075%
• $25,000-$49,999.99 – 8.575%
• $50,000-$99,999.99 – 7.625%
• $100,000-$249,999.99 – 7.575%
• $250,000-$499999.99 – 7.325%

Your interest rate depends on your debit balance and Schwab’s base rate. Interest accrues daily and is posted monthly. Before using margin please refer to Schwab’s Margin Borrowing Overview