Pros
After being acquired by Schwab employee moral has recovered. It is a good company to work for if you like being part of a large enterprise. However, the growth startup feel was killed many years ago.
Cons
optionsXpress was the most innovative in the 2000's. Employees were traders encouraged to create new products and in the options world nobody created more innovative products than optionsXpress. However, the founding CEO David Kalt was replaced with a CFO David Fisher that did not have customers or employees in mind. David Kalt had big promotions, salary increases and bonuses that kept moral high, innovation and account acquisition followed. David Fisher on the other hand controlled costs and moral fell to the ground and the innovative talent left the company. Company went IPO at 1 billion and years later got acquired by Schwab for the same amount.