As a child, Charles R. Schwab says he did “everything” he could to earn money after school and during the summers. He sold ice cream, mowed lawns and caddied at Santa Barbara’s Montecito Country Club, where he taught himself golf, foreshadowing the golf course meetings of his future business career. On Thursday, “Chuck,” as he prefers to be called, won a recreational round or two.
The eponymous brokerage firm he founded and his co-chairmen reported record quarterly revenue (up 27% year over year to $6.1 billion) and profits (up 67% to $2.3 billion), and said total client assets rose 17% to a record $11.6 trillion in the three months through September. In addition to beating Wall Street’s performance expectations, Charles Schwab’s results underscored how interest in this year’s bull market has fueled a strong series of financial sector earnings reports this week.
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More than one million new brokerage accounts have been opened at Charles Schwab for four consecutive quarters. CEO Rick Wurster noted during an earnings call Thursday that the influx has sparked a flurry of activity: Schwab’s average daily trading volume, from which it generates commissions and fees, reached $7.4 million in the third quarter, a 30% year-over-year increase. The rise can be explained, at least in part, by dramatic market swings due to changes in Washington’s trade policy and the rise of artificial intelligence, which incentivized greater debt among investors to get in on the action by buying shares. Charles Schwab’s margin balances of $97 billion at the end of the third quarter increased 16% from the end of 2024.
Results from other financial firms this week also showed that customers, from struggling retail traders to high-net-worth socialites, are craving stocks and investments. Wealth units at Bank of America (revenue up 19% year over year to $1.3 billion), Goldman Sachs (up 17% to $4.4 billion), Morgan Stanley (up 13% to $8.2 billion) and more high ratings. Client assets at Schwab competitor Interactive Brokers rose 40% to $757.5 billion, and daily trades rose 47% to $3.86 million. Then there’s this year’s seismic rally by retail-focused brokerages like Robinhood, whose shares have risen more than 250% since early January. And speaking of that:
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Wurster said Schwab is attracting young people generally associated with the newer cohort of digitally native brokers: Generation Z households, he said, account for about a third of new investors this year and millennials another third.
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Wurster said it’s “hard to know whether this level of commitment will persist or grow,” but added that the sophistication of investors indicates they are not on the right time: “We’ve seen our traders sell and buy on dips, so I think our commitment will probably be more sustainable than others.”