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Rick Wurster interview on Bloomberg Business Week Daily

July 21, 2026

Rick Wurster: First, I think a lot of our client wealth is being delivered by the returns you're seeing in the market. Over the last year, the market is up 21ish%, I believe, through June 30. And our client assets are up about 22%, so they've really participated, their wealth has grown. I think where their additional dollars come from is their employment activities, maybe they sell a house, other investment activities outside of Schwab, but with employment so strong and the market doing well, it's not surprising they continue to bring us a fair amount of assets. The other place we see it is that we do a lot to serve independent advisors, and independent advisors as a group are really taking share of the advice market. So as they win and they bring more assets to us, we benefit from growth.

Carol Massar: What are they trading and what are they continuing to trade? I'm always curious about what exactly you're seeing across the platform.

Rick Wurster: It's been pretty interesting actually, I'll highlight a couple of things. Number one, which is fascinating to me, is that we saw 3.5x more volume on down days in the market, which means that they're buying the dip.

Carol Massar: Okay.

Rick Wurster: The other thing we've seen is a rotation. So they went from really interested in the Mag Seven to more of the AI trade, and that's been a driver of interest for our clients. And then the final thing I'd say is that because of some of the geopolitical risk in the markets, they are more actively trading. So we see more frequent trading, but the trade sizes are often smaller, and so they're making more incremental trades because they're not exactly sure what's going to happen with the geopolitical situation. So those are three of the themes that we've seen with our retail traders.

Rick Wurster interview on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street

July 21, 2026

Rick Wurster: I think our business is an all-weather business model, and part of our growth in wealth absolutely diversifies our revenue. But it all comes from– we just want to help clients. And they’re asking us for more and more help with their wealth because they have more wealth than they’ve ever had. And so that is fueling the growth of our wealth business. We saw flows into our proprietary wealth solutions grow 85% in the first half of the year. So that’s pretty significant growth in a big business.

Sara Eisen: Yeah. I mean, you’ve talked about– you’ve gotten into alternatives. We’ve talked about getting into crypto, into lending. Where do you see the most opportunity right now?

Rick Wurster: Well, I think it’s just in serving the holistic needs of our clients. I think there’s two factors that are driving people to Schwab. Number one, investing is becoming more at the heart of their financial lives. There’s a lot more interest in investing. More people are investing than ever before. And then second, there is a bull market for convenience in our country. The way that shows up in our industry is they want to do more with one firm. So with investing at the center of the financial ecosystem, and then wanting to do more at one place, and us able to offer that, we have lots more and more clients coming to us to help them meet their everyday financial needs.

Michael Santoli: Your competitors are making the bet that investing and trading are contiguous to prediction markets and other things. Is that costing you any mindshare among younger clients?

Rick Wurster: Well, we’re winning with the younger client in a big way. A third of our clients, new-to-firm clients are under the age of 24. 60% are under the age of 40. So we are winning with the new client. We’re where they are, and we’re offering something much broader: advice on how to invest, advice on how to save, great execution, research and education on different stocks, some of the best execution in the industry. So we feel our value proposition really stands out for the young investor. And what we see in our results suggests that that’s true. But we don’t offer the ability to bet on the World Cup or the Super Bowl. But we’ll pass on that because our goal is for our clients to grow their wealth, not detract from it.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This interview contains forward-looking statements relating to investor sentiment and engagement, client acquisition, and the company’s diversified business model. These forward-looking statements reflect management’s expectations as of the date hereof. Achievement of these expectations and objectives is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.  Important factors that may cause such differences are described in the company’s most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are available on the company’s website (https://www.aboutschwab.com/financial-reports) and on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website (https://www.sec.gov). The company makes no commitment to update any forward-looking statements.

Fast Money

CNBC

By Staff

July 29, 2025

Melissa Lee: That is the highest since the survey's inception in 2022. For more on the findings, Schwab's Head of Trading Services, James Kostulias, joins us here on set. James, great to see you. I feel like the retail trader actually got it right in terms of staying long during this whole volatile period. Why are they cautious now?   

James Kostulias: I agree. I think when you look at the overall bullish sentiment, coupled with 57%, I think the market may be a bit overvalued. I think there are two stories there. I think there's a bullish story long-term and maybe some caution in the short term that maybe things are a little bit oversold. You know, you had Carter on yesterday showing some of the technicals around the S&P and sort of some of the resistance levels. And then Michael Khouw talking about the futures forwards. And so I think there's some trepidation in the short term. But overall a lot of bullishness in the longer term.   

Melissa Lee: Okay. So they're still staying long, or are they changing how they're positioning given the cautiousness?   

James Kostulias: Yeah, it's a great question. I think they're mostly long. We've certainly seen some hedging activities. And I don't think it's any type of irrational exuberance when you look at the sentiment right now. And so some of the more higher-leverage strategies, the risk-on strategies that we saw back in April, we're seeing less of that. So overall margin growth is back to healthy levels as it was in April. But the more riskier strategies are not ones clients are undertaking right now. I think they learned a little bit of a lesson where they saw what could have been back in April, and they're a little bit more cautious right now.   

Guy Adami: So James obviously watches the show, number one.   

Melissa Lee: Yes. Huge fan of the show.   

Guy Adami: Huge fan, as is Adam Sandler. Number two, it's a much different retail trader than even five years ago. Did you think that they feel that they're nimble enough that if they see the turn coming, they'll be able to get out, I guess is my question? 

James Kostulias: I do. I do. I agree with your hypothesis completely. The retail trader has evolved a lot over the course of the last few years. We wrap, personally at Schwab, a lot of education and service, and risk management around the value proposition. We talk about high probability trading, as opposed to some of the more riskier strategies that traders would be in. And I think the retail trader is a smart trader right now in 2025.   

Timothy Seymour: James, where in terms of positioning is it, though? Is the caution around mega-cap tech stocks? Is it that the broadening of the market really isn't there? In other words, is it the narrowness of this movement? Where would you say positioning really is, especially in the biggest companies in the world?   

James Kostulias: Yeah, we certainly saw in June, with some selling on Nvidia. We saw some selling on Coinbase. And so, some of the stocks that have really broken out in the megacaps definitely have a little bit more caution on them. And I think one of the things I know we talked a little bit about is the sort of, you know, next wave of meme stock trading, and so maybe taking some profits off the table on some of the mega-caps and moving them into some of the undervalued names, perhaps. But I couldn't agree more with Guy's point, of even with a little bit of an increase in some of those stocks, your Krispy Kremes and your Kohl's. Nothing like what we saw back in the pandemic.

Steve Grasso: James, when you hear the clamoring for new products or the new offerings, when are you guys going to start trading crypto?   

James Kostulias: Yeah. So we have a lot of ways for clients to get exposure to crypto today. So we've got roughly 20% of the ETP market in the crypto ETFs. We offer Bitcoin futures, Ethereum futures, and obviously options on the ETFs. We're arduously working on a spot crypto offering, and we're going to deliver to our clients in the not-too-distant future.

Melissa Lee: So when you talk about a client that's getting more cautious, does that include crypto as a risk asset, or how do they view crypto in their portfolio?   

James Kostulias: Yeah, I think their views on crypto have probably changed a bit after what we saw in April, right? At some point, there was some talk, maybe even on this show. Guy, I don't watch every day, but I watch most days, around crypto. 

Guy Adami: Definitely the night before he’s on!

James Kostulias: Around crypto, becoming a little bit more of a safe haven, right. And so I think when we talk about the overvaluation of the market, that roughly 57% of the survey clients said, I don't think crypto is at the heart of that overvaluation. I think it was more what Tim was talking about in terms of the mega-caps and the Mag 7.

Melissa Lee: And something jumped out at me in the notes. The two busiest trading days were in the second quarter for Schwab?

James Kostulias: Yeah. Right, right, right around all the. Yeah, right around the seventh, eighth, and ninth, those three days in April. But one other point I just wanted to make, Melissa, on the survey was that 80% of clients were talking about buying the dip. And I think, to me, that's another sort of affirmation on, ‘Hey, I'm bullish long term, but maybe not as much in the short term. But if I see that dip, I'm going to ultimately go ahead and buy it.’ And as we know, retail investors have been rewarded for doing that.

Melissa Lee: Yep. James, great to see you. James Kostulias. He didn’t know he had that in common with Adam Sandler, I bet.

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