thinkorswim

thinkorswim is built on Java, and Schwab has never shipped a native Apple Silicon build through its official installer. However, community users and forum discussions confirm that thinkorswim CAN run natively on Apple Silicon Macs when paired with a native arm64 Java runtime (such as Azul Zulu or OpenJDK for ARM). The workaround involves manually installing a native JVM and then running the standard thinkorswim installation, which converts the application to run natively — users report roughly one-third the CPU usage compared to running the Intel version under Rosetta 2. The Reddit community at r/thinkorswim maintains detailed guides for this process. That said, this approach requires technical skill and carries the risk that a Schwab update could break the setup. Because Schwab shows no official commitment to a native build and you are now less than two years from the September 2028 macOS 28 deadline when Rosetta 2 will be removed, contact Schwab directly to ask whether they plan to ship an official native Apple Silicon build — if not, you should plan to either maintain the community workaround, migrate to a web-based trading platform, or consider switching to a competitor like Interactive Brokers or TD Ameritrade that may have better native support. For immediate contingency planning, the Schwab iOS app (available on Mac via the App Store) provides trading access natively on Apple Silicon, though it lacks the advanced features of the desktop thinkorswim.