With zero commission trading ubiquitous across trading firms a few years after Robinhood, the industry has been facing pressure. A deal between Schwab and TD Ameritrade would create a behemoth with more than $5 trillion in combined assets, about $3.8 trillion from Schwab and $1.3 trillion from TD Ameritrade.
“Consolidation thus far has been good and I think that will probably continue to be the case here,” said Devin Ryan financial analyst at JMP Securities. “The key thing is what does the consumer get out of this. Ultimately the consumer’s been treated very well with lower commission pricing, their getting paid more on a lot of different parts of the platform.”