Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Thinkorswim on MBA or MBP
- Thread starter Trouble1
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have been using M1 MBP 16GB RAM for two weeks. Actively tracking TSLA and /NQ most of the time. There is some stutter when the volume is high, or when I come back to TOS from the browser while the system is still limiting TOS because it was in the background. And because TOS is not natively running on M1 yet when you switch ticker for the chart, it does take a second pause, is precisely one second every time, so is definitely a software issue. Other than that, the lag/stutter issue are way better than what I get from the 2019 16inch i9 Macbook pro with AMD vega 64 EGPU. So long story short, unless you want to run multiple monitors, buy the M1 macs. (M1 currently does not support more than one external monitor across the board.)
I‘ve ran TOS on my M1 13 inch MBP 16GB for about a week. TOS application runs pretty quick. Switching between symbols on the charts and placing trades works well. Reconnecting WiFi is fast. However, I switched back to using my mac pro because running 3 monitors works better for me than running 1 External and the small 13” screen. I do use the MBP if I am away from my desk. When there is heavy trading on big up or down days, there is a lot of lag On the Mac Pro and MBP. overall the m1 MBP is fast. TOS support does not have a timeline on when they will rewrite the TOS code for M1 cpus.
The pro is on my 2012 MBP i7 running TOS can heat my laptop to about 90 degrees. The M1 Mac just stays warm and quiet. I didn’t have software to measure the temp, but it’s not burning up like my old laptop.
The pro is on my 2012 MBP i7 running TOS can heat my laptop to about 90 degrees. The M1 Mac just stays warm and quiet. I didn’t have software to measure the temp, but it’s not burning up like my old laptop.
Also, the battery life for the M1 is really good. Running TOS for 2.5 hours starting from 100% battery, my battery life was about 60% left. On my 2012 MBPr, I would be down to about 20% or less. Which is really good if you are on the road. Also considering its using rosetta 2 to emulated x86.
I find the IPAD/Iphone app runs good in certain scenarios. 1. If I am out and about and have to adjust my positions. 2. The TOS App and the IOS App are using different servers. There are times when the TOS Servers are down, but the IOS App is still running. So its good as a back up.
I contacted TOS. There is no ETA for TOS to be rewritten for the M1 Chip. Don't get me wrong, M1 is fast, however, with all the studies and TOS scripts I have running, it still slows down as the TOS app is written for single core and not for multithreaded.
I contacted TOS. There is no ETA for TOS to be rewritten for the M1 Chip. Don't get me wrong, M1 is fast, however, with all the studies and TOS scripts I have running, it still slows down as the TOS app is written for single core and not for multithreaded.
I have to say, if you only have the bare minimum for TOS. IMO, The MacBook Pro M1 is probably the best travel laptop as the battery life for TOS can last me pretty much the whole 6.5 hours of the trading day. In addition to battery life. the Laptop only gets warm.
How does the M1 chip perform on TOS? No Lag? No delay or stutter on quotes? I ask as I am a scalper so performance is most important.
I have ToS running natively on Apple Silicon. It uses about one-third the CPU resources compared to the Intel version running through Rosetta 2. I am working on a video to describe how to do it.
A video of how to run TOS native on M1 would be greatly appreciated. Look forward to it!
To answer the OP, ToS takes 58 seconds to start up on my Mac mini M1 16/512 (not completely sure as I ran the test a week ago) running through Rosetta 2, 18 seconds on native Apple Silicon and 20 seconds on my i7-10700 Windows system. CPU usage under Rosetta 2 is about 260%.
Any update on making video how to make ToS run natively on Apple M1? Would love to buy M1 vs. Intel as I mainly use my laptop for ToS. Thanks in advance.
I've done the scripting. I need to do the video. I've never done one of these before so I expect it to take a few tries.
The iPad app for TOS runs natively on M1 MacOS. It’s an ok stopgap until they make a full featured Mac app.
Fantastic job. I can't believe how well TOS runs natively on M1!
We need to send this to TOS!!! I can't imagine it would be that hard for them to implement something like this for an M1 download?
It's not a matter of effort at ToS. They aren't doing any development on this pending integration with Schwab.
Would there be a benefit to doing this on an Intel based MacBook Pro? I have a 2017 13" MBP, 3.5ghz dual core Intel core i7, 16gb ram, and TOS has always been a little laggy for me.
My 2014 and 2015 MacBook Pros get hot when I run Think or Swim or Active Trader Pro. I don't really have a choice when I'm mobile but I usually just don't trade when mobile because of the heat.
You don't need to do the Java thing on Intel Mac because they already do everything for you - they have a native Intel macOS kit.
I am really looking forward to trading on the MacBook Pro 16 (I wonder if some people are going to start calling their systems the MacBook Max) and I will check out the thermals. I run ToS on a big Intel desktop. Active Trader Pro too and performance is good. My desktop has a huge air cooler and a bunch of case fans to keep everything cool.