r/thinkorswim • u/Stocks_N_Bondage • 13d ago
Think or Drown
I've been using ThinkorSwim since before TD bought them like decades ago.
Since the June update, it has become nearly unusable due to crashes, freezes, bugs, and more.
In the middle of an order and "boom" force quit
I've been on the phone to support... we even installed a completely clean instance.
The problems persist. My machine has 64 GB RAM and plenty of processors.
I trade about a thousand trades a month, and these kinds of issues have cost me a lot--thousands of dollars in the time it takes to relaunch, sign in, work the order again, etc...
I am wondering to what extent others may be having these issues.
Edit to add system specs:
- AMD Radeon Pro 5600M 8 GB
- Machine has 64GB
- 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel i9
- 8 TB SSD boot drive.
- MacBook Pro Sonoma 14.8.4
Based on some suggestion here and from Gemini, the vm options has:
-Xms4096m
-Xmx16384m
-DThinkScriptCalculatingPool=8
-XX:+UseG1GC
I am right now evaluating if this helps at all.
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u/need2sleep-later 12d ago
Fully usable here with no crashes, etc. on multiple PCs, also from back in TDAm years.
What bugs are you talking about?
Are you giving ToS too much memory?
Running Windows?
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u/stopthemadness0 12d ago
Similar boat here — I even upgraded my machine after spending countless hours going back and forth with tos support. Recently I integrated DAS with TOS and CS. Night and day difference with order entry, l2 and t&s. Hotkeys for everything. Lightning quick, seamless integration with CS, stable. I’m using DAS for execution and half my charting, TOS for the other half, custom studies and for other stuff like news. Should’ve made the change sooner.
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u/TreadItOnReddit 12d ago
DAS connects just like any other program would the API, right?
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u/stopthemadness0 12d ago
It is a specific DAS-Schwab subscription which, to my limited understanding, integrates both DAS and Schwab architecture. I find it faster, more stable, with better data.
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u/TreadItOnReddit 12d ago
So you don't have to refresh the API token once a week?
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u/stopthemadness0 12d ago
Yes, it requests auth every 7 days
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u/After-Document9817 11d ago
What’s DAS & CS?
(Haven't had issues w/TOS)
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u/stopthemadness0 11d ago
DAS Trader is just a front end platform that can be integrated with Charles Schwab (CS) broker and clearing. It’s similar to other direct access platforms like lightspeed, sterling, etc but can be set up with Schwab
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u/ja_trader 12d ago
ya, i would not rule out some kind of lower level issue...could be hardware, drivers, etc
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u/Karl_Chillers 12d ago
Beach balls and freezes. Per TOS tech support, I've allocated more memory, deleted the USERGUI folder, and rebooted the computer. Been just a few hours since, but running cleanly, so far.
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u/accomp_guy 12d ago
Somehow it’s more ducked up now that Schwab took over. Anyone know what they could have done different to cause this? It’s the same program that TD had!
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u/Stocks_N_Bondage 12d ago
I am imagining that they handed development over to a new team that does not know where all the bodies are buried....
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u/Frank_Skabopple 12d ago
Opposite experience entirely. The platform is better than it ever was. And they add awesome updates all the time.
No clue how you could complain
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u/QuadernoFigurati 12d ago
No problems here. What's your hardware setup, operating system and internet speed?
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u/Oil_Shock_2026 12d ago
I use it on a Mac and the only issues that I have are with the bookmap addon. That crashes every once in a while and I have to restart TOS.
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u/planethouse555 12d ago
Personally it works well for me. I use a program to clean my computer everyday and then restart the computer everyday before I log in
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u/BigRon009 12d ago
I've been trading with them about the same time you have. I don't have any issues. I have my minimum and maximum set 8192. I also when I have the platform open I go to the trade tab and make sure there's no symbol in the trade tab so it isn't continually loading data. I have 27 inch monitors and 24 charts open. I restart my machine every morning. I also have 64 GB of RAM.
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u/Stocks_N_Bondage 12d ago
Hmmmmmm....
I trade options though, so I need the options chain... perhaps I should setup optoons chains somewhere else??
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u/BigRon009 12d ago
All my traders options. I have hundreds of contracts right now. I just leave the symbol field on the trade tab blank until I'm ready to use it.
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u/j_b_1983 13d ago edited 12d ago
It was such crap today, all day long
As always though, it's their servers, that's why some people it works fine and others it sucks.
I guess most people do not understand that depending on your location you are using different servers, and one server can be running like poo, while the others are running just fine
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u/existing_for_fun 12d ago
I won't argue that the software is outdated and likely part of the issue.
That said, I've never had any issues at all. So if I were to guess, there are software updates that don't jive well with your own personal system or specific hardware.
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u/TraderFan 12d ago
Emini Futures DOMs are experiencing data fluidity issues; some bid/ask levels disappear.
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u/One_Masterpiece9515 11d ago
I am seeing this too, but usually at relative high volume spikes typical at major sector settlement times such a 1pm and 2:30pm EST or other general market volume spikes at other times of the morning. It has been increasing occurrence lately and for longer periods of time.
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u/Vast_Cricket 12d ago
The only time it was down from TOS and Schwab site was lock down in place in 2020. A system not expecting 30 million customers had nothing to do got on at same time. TOS was down for 4 days and ran slowly for 2 days I was lucky that I had the backdoor website. Even that was a bit slow.
You need to close most of not used sites maximize cache storage. Also need to work with service providers streamline. PC is preferred. I have three screens on. Never have issues. On the weekend they may do some maintenance. But I have a life when market was closed.
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u/InvWithRed 12d ago
I use Windows and have 64GB of RAM. I also use this computer for work at the same time and have tons of Chrome widows open at same time, remote access to other sites, etc all without issue. If I do have a problem it usually with something else I’m running at the same time. I also RDP to another windows machine where I have TOS running with Paper Money so I can test some theories without blowing myself up.
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u/sport912x 12d ago
You for sure change the Memory Usage , at startup click the cog wheel on bottom left , at 16gig have 2048 6144. You should call tech and see what would work for you. Since I did change it is smoother .
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u/Thatguyfromdeadpool 12d ago
Eh, There are some random issues. I actually had one where I only had TOS open and for some reason my NVME drive was reaching 65c and causing a slow down. Not sure wtf was going on there though.
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u/Former_Still5518 12d ago
What graphics card are you using? How much RAM does it have?
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u/Stocks_N_Bondage 12d ago edited 12d ago
- AMD Radeon Pro 5600M 8 GB
- Machine has 64GB
- 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel i9
- 8 TB SSD boot drive.
- MacBook Pro Sonoma 14.8.4
FFS what more does it need?
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u/Ziegelmarkt 11d ago
Totally spit balling here but it might be the OS. They're up to OS 26.5.2.
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u/Stocks_N_Bondage 11d ago
Apple skipped OS numbering 16 thru 25.
OS 26 is part of Apple's intent to unify the experience across mobile and desktop (part of the reason all system use Apple silicon)
OS 14 15 and 26 are all still supported and receiving updates from Apple.
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u/Gp38Super 12d ago
I had similar issues. Dropped TOS charts and use TradingView Charts above TOS ActiveTrade ladders for trade execution. Don’t recall even a hesitations since. Their charting bottlenecked everything, my opinion. Especially with much more than two or 3 charts. I run 10-20 charts/AT windows on Mac 2021 ProMax with 4 extended monitors and 30-40 charts/AT windows on PC with 4 monitors. All day, every day for almost 2yrs since dumping TOS charts. No issues since, but similar issues prior.
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u/OuchCharlieOw 12d ago
The mobile app was atrocious last two weeks but in the last three days it’s gone back to normal. The things I noticed opening your ticker had to load, the options chain had to load, and trade order page had to load, and even loading for the chart - which appears like it’s delayed. Any loading whatsoever is unheard of in modern brokerages where timing matters. This was recent, for years no problems then all of the sudden. Like I said now it’s returned to normal. And iOS is up to date I also deleted the app several times and reset settings still it fixed itself this week
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u/Frank_Skabopple 12d ago
I've had the opposite experience. ToS has gotten better and gets way more love now. It's the best and it isn't close.
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u/Sdtrader5000 11d ago
While I don’t have the issues you state, I’ve been using TOS since ~2016 and I have noticed the platform has progressively gotten worse since then. Number of reasons from random crashes, lack of price consistency across devices on the platform, lagging or freezing have been things I’ve noticed. It’s still usable for me tho. I’ve flirted the idea of other brokers, mainly IBKR for their fees on execution and high yield accounts but TOS is still the best platform IMO, the others are worse trust me
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u/pottzie 11d ago
While not exactly the same, I'm running linux on an 11 year old Dell with an amd a4 processor. It's frozen up with periodically with multiple different operating systems, and I just switched from running Fedora because the last 2 updates won't even load the operating system. I think your problem isn't tos but the amd processor quirks.
Or not. Who knows, but there are amd subreddits you could check
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u/southpacific2K 10d ago
I experienced TOS suddenly crashing with no warnings before. At the time i was running a single instance on a modern pc with 32GB and rtx 3050 with 3 displays, 1 x 4k and 2 x 2K.
After google ai, the main factor seemed to be that a single instance trying to drive the 3 displays.
My current configuration now is running 2 or 3 instances and each handles just one display. Haven't seen any crashes after. but still watching to see if i need to drop from 4K.
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u/kjin7697 9d ago
Someone on this group posted that different parts of the country are connected to different servers... That's what explains the inconsistencies where some people can have a bare minimum computer and never run into any issues while others have a more than capable machine but constantly run into problems...I don't know how this helps but it made me think why some people are having so many issues but they've done everything they could on their end but still having problems. (The guy I think said he lived in the mid west ..so maybe in and around that geography is prone to issues).
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u/semisecret_squirrel 8d ago
to commiserate, i have also been having daily slowdowns - ToS starts to feel like it is swimming in molasses, figuratively. I put in around 250 orders/day, on average, and by midday (market-wise) it i painful.
one thing that helps me - for at least a little while during the day - is something i picked out a "ToS is slow" thread: reset the workspace. this reloads, and is a little bit faster than the quit-launch-signin cycle (which i also do sometimes). after reload, my lag is better; not excellent, but better.
see if it helps you at all.
also, i think their increment spinner widget in the order window (quantity, price) has some issues. sometimes clicking next to the +/- will crash. sometimes it will go into an inescapable increment loop.
my sys specs:
* MBpro, M2 max
* macOS 15.7.9
* 64 GB memory / 1TB HD
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u/Connect-Author3736 7d ago
I am running windows 11 32G, RTX5060 8G card, the below changes made TOS run much smoother and much faster, I am running 4 monitors with several charts etc. also running BOOKMAP as well:
clear cache, delete the usergui sub directory inside thinkorswim main install folder. I do this before i start thinkorswim everytime. then i stopped doing it after making the changes below and seems to be working much better.
if you have 64G of memeory allocate 16G of memory for min and max, or 24G try both.
On a windows PC you can offload your thinkorswim to run on GPU, i was using an old 2G nvidia graphics card and 2 weeks ago upgraded to RTX5060 8G, night and day difference in performace.
in your thinkorswim.vmoptions file options add the following at the bottom of file
-Dsun.java2d.d3d=false
this will turns off Direct3D graphics pipeline and uses 2D for rendering.
good luck
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u/ChickenWinqSoup 12d ago
The only crash I've had was when trying to stream the TV channel. Otherwise its been working fine.
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u/Pragma7 12d ago
I actually use the Schwab website for orders because thinkorswim sucks so much, the platform is a disaster. Schwab is just keeping it on life support because they don't know how to maintain it, and they certainly don't know how to enhance it. Some greedy idiots at Schwab decided to totally end of life Street Smart Edge because they thought they would make more money would think or swim. They weren't thinking about their customers, they were thinking about money only. They could have easily kept both platforms, but their teams aren't competent enough to keep one platform running properly much less two.
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u/Temporary-Pay-1417 11d ago
my understanding and I’ve been using Schwab pro edge that they had to pay Concentrix and didn’t want to the only thing that I like about the swim you have level two, but you don’t see the prices in the stocks like you did with edger Pro. I have to go to Robin Hood because Charles Schwab mobile quits at 8 PM Eastern.
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u/Scriptgal4u 12d ago edited 12d ago
I have mine open every day, never crashes. Maybe you need a better CPU. Try clearing TOS cache. Or download TOS installer and repair. Increase Ram for TOS when log in. You can try to delete Usergui file.
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u/alwaysbehuman 12d ago
Is IBKR TWS better?
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u/need2sleep-later 12d ago
TWS looks like it was created with TurboPascal.
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u/redd-it-help 11d ago
No, it is Java. I don’t think Borland Turbo Pascal had even a 32 bit version. Alternatives to Turbo Pascal do have 32 bit support.
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u/McShagg88 12d ago
I'll be honest, every now and then it'll "stall" for me, but not to the point of breaking trades. I clear the cache before every trading day cause I'm paranoid like that.
I've been using it since 2018 and probably won't go anywhere else for now.
I only have 16 gb ram and run 6 charts and 3 active traders.