Market Currents

• Wednesday, March 4, 2009

• 07:45 AM thinkorswim (SWIM): Q4 EPS of $0.14 misses by $0.09. Revenue of $85.8M vs. $92.6M. Costs include $3.7M related to "unusually large amounts of customer write-offs and trade errors." (PR) Comment!

• Thursday, January 8, 2009

• 18:18 PM The TD Ameritrade (AMTD) / thinkorswim (SWIM) merger conference call transcript is up: "Any comment on why you choose thinkorswim versus optionsXpress (OPXS)?" CEO Fred Tomczyk: "Why would we choose optionsXpress?" Comment!
• 10:31 AM Penson Worldwide (PNSN) is down 11%. On its acquisition conference call, TD Ameritrade (AMTD) said it will continue to clear futures and international through PNSN, but will bring equity clearing inhouse once the thinkorswim (SWIM) acquisition is done. Comment!
• 09:06 AM TD Ameritrade (AMTD) will buy thinkorswim Group (SWIM) for $606M in stock and cash to expand its online brokerage. The deal values SWIM at around $8.71/share, a 54.1% premium to yesterday's closing price. Premarket: AMTD -7.3%, SWIM +40.7%. 2 Comments
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: SWIM +40%. SHLD +11.5%. WFMI +8.5%. GME +7.5%. CRXL +7%. BLUD +6%. URBN +6%. ARO +4.5%. HMY +4%. GFI +4%. EMC +4%. SYT +4%. GG +4%. Comment!