TD Ameritrade has a history of acquisitions, and of taking a long time to integrate acquired companies into its operations. It took nearly five years for National Discount Brokers clients to be moved to Ameritrade.com. Likewise, it took over two and a half years for Ameritrade customers to reap the full benefit of the firm’s 2002 merger with Datek. The mid-2005 merger of Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse followed a similar pattern, taking two+ years to dissolve TD Waterhouse and form what is TD Ameritrade today.

When TD Ameritrade announced its purchase of thinkorswim in January 2009, we expected a repeat of this historical pattern. And to date, things have been very quiet. The merger has had no impact on thinkorswim clients, a good thing from their perspective; they continue to trade on the same platforms and speak to the same client service reps that they’re accustomed to. TD Ameritrade clients also haven’t experienced any interruptions or overhauls in service. That said, changes are clearly afoot, and sooner than we expected.

It’s no secret that the TOS trading software is far more robust than anything offered by TD Ameritrade. It was clearly a driving force behind the acquisition. Many suspected that the TOS technology would eventually be incorporated into TD Ameritrade and perhaps replace platforms like Command Center 2.0 outright. So we weren’t completely surprised when, in early August, the firm launched thinkorswim from TD AMERITRADE, a replica of the thinkorswim thinkDesktop platform repackaged with the TD Ameritrade brand. What did surprise us was how quickly TD was able to make this happen given past history.

The platform has not yet been introduced to all TD Ameritrade clients but the firm has been marketing it to its most active traders. Email invitations were sent out to select clients encouraging them to log into the TD website to learn more about the platform and download it. The firm even went low-tech and mailed out post cards to active traders encouraging them to register for full-day workshops focusing on the thinkorswim from TD AMERITRADE platform.

We applaud these moves by TD Ameritrade - it makes perfect sense to first roll out the thinkorswim technology to select clients and to teach users how to get the most from it. The platform isn’t without a learning curve, so these workshops could be instrumental to the success of this new platform introduction. The key question will be whether TD Ameritrade continues to promote and develop legacy features like Command Center 2.0. Pound for pound, thinkDesktop has a lot more power than most (if not all) TD active trader tools, but the platform may not be appropriate for all Apex clients. Many TD Waterhouse clients complained of the complexity of the Ameritrade website when they were moved to it. Something similar could happen if the existing TD platforms are quickly retired in favor of thinkDesktop.