Platforms · Software · Providers · Markets
Charles Schwab processed an average of 10.7 million trades each day in the third quarter of 2026, 44% above the same period a year earlier. Trading revenue reached $1.158 billion, compared with $995 million, a 16% rise; the wider business also delivered record quarterly revenue.
Unit economics diverged from volume
Schwab put revenue per trade at $1.69, 20% below the $2.11 reported for the third quarter of 2025. The daily average had been 7.4 million trades a year earlier. From Q2, average daily volume was down 10%, but trading revenue slipped by about 5%, moving the unit figure up from $1.64.
A broad denominator shapes the metric
The calculation divides trading revenue by the full reported trade count. It includes stock and ETF activity without commissions and trades allocated by investment advisers, alongside fee-bearing activity; options are charged at $0.65 per contract. The $1.69 figure is not the fee collected on a standard client order, because the count also encompasses no-commission activity and asset-based pricing.
Revenue sources remain undisclosed
In its filings, Schwab groups commissions, payments for order flow and principal transactions under trading revenue. The third-quarter release does not show how much each contributed, so the year-on-year movement in revenue per trade cannot be attributed to any one source. Finance Magnates first reported the figures.
Elsewhere, net interest revenue advanced 14% to $3.476 billion, and asset management and administration fees also rose 14%, reaching $1.913 billion. Net revenue totalled $7.171 billion, up 17%, while net income was $2.906 billion, a 23% increase.
During the quarter, Schwab gathered $190.4 billion in core net new assets, 38% more than a year earlier; client assets stood at $13.33 trillion and 1.2 million brokerage accounts were opened. Trading represented about 16% of net revenue, against approximately 75% for net interest revenue plus asset management and administration fees.
What this means on the desk
For platform, risk and finance teams, the denominator matters: reported trading volume cannot be treated as equivalent to commissionable orders or the revenue line. Reconcile internal activity measures with the categories Schwab counts, including commission-free stock and ETF trades, adviser-allocated trades and options charged per contract.
Schwab has not disclosed the contribution from commissions, order-flow payments and principal transactions in the release. Teams comparing volume with revenue should check whether their reporting can separate those streams, and whether asset-based pricing or client mix affects the comparison. The figures disclosed do not identify the cause of the per-trade decline.
