thinkorswim

[KJW]

I'm considering your software but need to be sure that Fund Manager can retrieve transactional and portfolio data from a thinkorswim brokerage account? Its clearing broker is Penson.

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi KJW,

Are you an individual investor, or an advisor trading for clients?

If you are an individual:
I'd suggest contacting Thinkorswim, and asking them how to download or retrieve transactions into MS Money. Whatever they suggest for that product you could do the same/similar in Fund Manager. It may be that you need to choose the "Penson Financial Services" as your retrieve source, or maybe they have a download that you can then import. You can test all of this out in the trial to make sure it is working okay.

If you are an advisor:
We do not have a broker/dealer interface for thinkorswim/penson. If you have a contact at the broker that can provide us documentation on their file format we will add support.

[KJW]

Mark, thanks for your response.

Why would the answer be different if I'm an individual vs. an advisor? The fact is I'm "in between": I'm managing investments for a family office.

Thanks.

KJW

[Mark]

Hi KJW,

The reason for the different answers is that there are different interfaces available. For individuals, accounts are located on the "retail" side of the brokerage house. These accounts are accessible via the broker's OFX server. This is how you 'retrieve' transactions directly from the broker. If your account is being managed, it is usually on the broker's institutional side, and is usually not available on their OFX server. Instead, the data is available to the manager via a data download, containing transactions for all the accounts that manager is responsible for.

If you look in the Advisor version under "File / Import / Transactions" you will see all the broker/dealer interfaces for investment advisors who are able to download data from the institutional side of the brokerage house. To retrieve transactions from the OFX server you use the "Edit / Internet Retrieve / Transactions". These are 2 different interfaces.

Depending on where your accounts are with your broker will determine how you can import/retrieve your data.

[rar]

I am just evaluating FM myself.

If you go to Penson resources, you can download a Quicken file. Then go to FM and import that Quicken file. Seemed to work for me...

-randy