| 16 December 2009

We hear news from our friends at TD Ameritrade (AMTD) last night that they are not sheltered from the Q4 tempest pounding other online brokers. TD Ameritraders decreased their trading activity by 12% in November versus the prior month. By comparison, Charles Schwab (SCHW) reported on Monday a 10% decrease in DARTs and optionsXpress (OXPS) reported a 6% decrease.

November and December are typically touh months for online brokers, but this quarter looks to be a particularly bad one for even the most established companies. In fact, so fierce the headwinds for Schwab this quarter that their CFO, Joe Martinetto, decided to lower his guidance for Q4 by $0.02 to $0.04.

No word from William Gerber, AMTD's CFO, on any changes in guidance for the quarter. Analysts are expecting $0.27 a share, versus $0.31 a share during the same period last year.  

TD Ameritrade added $5.4 billion in net new assets in the month, compared with nearly $7 billion last month. Schwab added $6 billion in client assets in November.

Details, details:
* 370,000 client trades per day in November 2009, up 5 percent from November 2008 and down 12 percent from October 2009.
* $309.8 billion in total client assets as of Nov. 30, 2009, up 36 percent from November 2008 and up 4 percent from October 2009.

We expect to hear from E*TRADE later this week.