I wanted to share my experience with accessing Authorized Accounts (ones where I have permissions to trade) in addition to my main account with Schwab. The goal was to trade these accounts via the API. I hope this info can be useful to someone trying to do what I am doing. I have a legacy TDA ==> Schwab account and was recently Authorized on two other accounts.
First of all, these authorized accounts do not automatically appear in Wealth-Lab (WL), for example in the Order Manager (OM) window dropdown, when Schwab is selected. I reached out to the API team to ask what steps I had to take to give WL access.
The only way to reach the API support team is by email. I started with that but then got a response that I would have to use the chat feature within the thinkorswim (tos) app to "securely" discuss an account issue. I did use the ToS chat but that only got me to regular tech support. They have to reach out to the API team to relay each question and response. Spent about an hour on the chat.
After some false starts and misdirection, I was told the API was not able to access these accounts because they had not "signed up for" the desktop version of tos. The implication is that the API will not work without being authorized for tos. It turns out that this is not true. Even after signing up for tos with these authorized accounts, the accounts were still not found or accessible from WL. I was told the permission would take effect overnight. It did not.
I accidentally found the solution when my key expired (7 days) and I had to renew it (and accept agreements all over again, etc.). When I went through the key renewal process, it asked me which accounts I wanted to include, and all the accounts (including authorized) appeared with a check box next to each one! Only my initial account had the checkbox enabled, so I checked the other two.
Voila1 The accounts appeared in the OM window, and I was able to run strategy to get cash and value for each account! The takeaway is that a key renewal is required to show the option to access additional accounts that were added after the last key update. It is not necessary for an account to "sign up" for tos.
The good news is that this works. The Schwab API supports trading multiple accounts with WL, just like Interactive Brokers does.
First of all, these authorized accounts do not automatically appear in Wealth-Lab (WL), for example in the Order Manager (OM) window dropdown, when Schwab is selected. I reached out to the API team to ask what steps I had to take to give WL access.
The only way to reach the API support team is by email. I started with that but then got a response that I would have to use the chat feature within the thinkorswim (tos) app to "securely" discuss an account issue. I did use the ToS chat but that only got me to regular tech support. They have to reach out to the API team to relay each question and response. Spent about an hour on the chat.
After some false starts and misdirection, I was told the API was not able to access these accounts because they had not "signed up for" the desktop version of tos. The implication is that the API will not work without being authorized for tos. It turns out that this is not true. Even after signing up for tos with these authorized accounts, the accounts were still not found or accessible from WL. I was told the permission would take effect overnight. It did not.
I accidentally found the solution when my key expired (7 days) and I had to renew it (and accept agreements all over again, etc.). When I went through the key renewal process, it asked me which accounts I wanted to include, and all the accounts (including authorized) appeared with a check box next to each one! Only my initial account had the checkbox enabled, so I checked the other two.
Voila1 The accounts appeared in the OM window, and I was able to run strategy to get cash and value for each account! The takeaway is that a key renewal is required to show the option to access additional accounts that were added after the last key update. It is not necessary for an account to "sign up" for tos.
The good news is that this works. The Schwab API supports trading multiple accounts with WL, just like Interactive Brokers does.
Rename
And pay attention to messages in the Order Manager. It will tell you when login or refresh token has expired.
Here's the picture version -
Here's the picture version -
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