Updated Tuesday, September 1, 2009



This is our review of the Schwab StreetSmart trading engine. For our review of the standard Schwab account trading engine click here.

Overview:

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Schwab StreetSmart consists of two separate applications. The first, StreetSmart.com is web based while the second, StreetSmart Pro, is a downloadable application. Both offer a slightly better trading experience than the standard Schwab trading application. Most prominent is the addition of trailing stop loss orders.

Order Types:

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See our Order Types page for an explanation of order types

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Stop Limit
• Trailing Stop Loss $
• Trailing Stop Loss %

Details:

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Let's start by going through the steps to execute a trade in StreetSmart.com and then we will do the same thing in StreetSmart Pro.

StreetSmart.com
I selected to buy 10 shares of Toyota (TM) at a limit price of $86.50. I also selected good til canceled (GTC) designation, which keeps the trade in Schwab's system for 60 calendar days (click on images for larger views):


A pop-up menu asked me to confirm my order:


Once my order was accepted, I checked the status at the order status screen:


From this menu, trades can be modified or canceled before execution. Both canceling and modifying trades works well.

I decided to let my trade go through. Once the market opened and my trade executed, my position appeared in the positions screen. I decided to sell my position so I clicked on the row from the positions screen and selected trade:


This brought up the trading screen and populated the symbol but did not populate the action or the number of shares, which is a convenient feature found at many other brokers.

StreetSmart Pro
I selected to buy 5 shares of AstraZeneca (AZN) at a limit price of $46.75. I also selected good til canceled (GTC) designation, which keeps the trade in Schwab's system for 60 calendar days (click on images for larger views):


A new window appeared asking for me to verify my order:


A window popped up which presented me with warning messages. I find this window to be an unnecessary nuisance. I decided to ignore the warning messages and placed the order:


Once my order was accepted, I checked the status at the order status window:


From this window, trades can be modified or canceled before execution. Both canceling and modifying trades works well.

I decided to let my trade go through. Once the market opened and my trade executed, my position appeared in the account details window under the positions tab. I decided to sell my position so I right clicked on my position and selected close:


This brought up the order execution window with the symbol, action and quantity auto-populated. This is well done, especially compared to how StreetSmart.com handles this activity.

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Related Articles:
Schwab Review
Schwab Stock Trading
Schwab Options Trading
Schwab Charts
Schwab Research Tools
Schwab iPhone App
Schwab Android App