Charles Schwab’s daily trade count rose 44% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, while trading revenue increased 16%. The gap left the brokerage earning less revenue per reported trade even as its wider business posted record quarterly revenue.
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Clients completed an average of 10.7 million trades per day, up from 7.4 million a year earlier. Trading revenue rose from $995 million to $1.158 billion, according to Schwab’s results.
Revenue per Trade Falls from a Year Earlier
Charles Schwab reported revenue per trade of $1.69, down 20% from $2.11 in the third quarter of 2025. The sequential comparison was different: daily average trades fell 10% from the second quarter, while trading revenue declined about 5%. Revenue per trade consequently rose from $1.64 in Q2.
Schwab divides trading revenue by all reported trades, including commission-free stock and ETF orders and trades allocated by investment advisers. Options trades, by contrast, carry a $0.65 per-contract fee.
It is not the commission paid on a typical order: the trade count also includes commission-free transactions and trades made under asset-based pricing arrangements.
Trading revenue itself combines commissions, payments for order flow and principal transactions, according to Schwab’s filings.
These activities generate revenue in different ways. The third-quarter release does not break out their contributions, so the figures do not establish what caused the year-on-year decline in revenue per trade.
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Trading Is One Part of Schwab’s Growth
Charles Schwab’s two largest revenue categories continued to grow. Net interest revenue increased 14% to $3.476 billion, while asset management and administration fees rose by the same percentage to $1.913 billion. Total net revenue reached $7.171 billion, up 17%, and net income increased 23% to $2.906 billion.
The company also attracted $190.4 billion in core net new assets during the quarter, 38% more than a year earlier. Total client assets reached $13.33 trillion, and clients opened 1.2 million new brokerage accounts.
Client balances matter to Schwab beyond trading: uninvested cash helps fund interest-earning assets, while funds and managed investments generate ongoing fees.
Despite the sharp rise in trade count, trading supplied about 16% of Schwab’s quarterly net revenue. Net interest and asset management and administration fees together accounted for approximately 75%.
