Robinhood is one of the newest and hottest brokerage firms that started in the last year. It recently came out of beta and is accepting individuals to join it's commission-free trading firm. It bills itself as the future of trading – with $0 trades, a fancy smartphone app (the Android version went live in the Google Play store on 8/13/15), and a bunch of fancy investment-backers that would make it the envy of any Wall Street firm.
But as a customer and investor, is it's commission-free trading platform worth it? Should you give it a try as an investor?
I've been using it for the past month and a half, and here are my honest thoughts on Robinhood. If you want to skip the review, the bottom line is that there are better free alternatives for long term investors. We recommend Fidelity and TD Ameritrade because they both offer $0 minimum IRAs and 100s of commission-free ETFs. They are a better solution because they offer many more tools and resources for the long term. And they both have great apps.
If you're still curious about Robinhood, here's the review.
Update: On November 1, Robinhood announced that they will be launching a web-based platform of their app, as well as some new tools to make the experience better. If you've been a beta tester, please share your insights. We will update this review as we try out their new products.
Update: On December 13, Robinhood announced that they will be launching options trading on their platform for free. If you're interested, you must join the waitlist and we'll share more when we can. However, we do know that you can't use Gold Buying Power for options spreads, and you must use your margin limits or cash on hand to cover the maximum loss.
Update: On January 25, 2018, Robinhood announced free crypto trading will be rolling out in February. Only Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) will be available for trading when that rolls out to waves of users starting in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, and New Hampshire.
Setting Up The Robinhood App
Robinhood does everything through it's smartphone app. Even if you sign up on their website at Robinhood.com, you still have to download their app.
Once I signed up on the website, I received an email with a link to download the Robinhood app:
I followed the link and got started. After creating an account you must download the app from the App Store. Everything for Robinhood is done via the app:
Once I downloaded the Robinhood App for my iPhone, I opened it up to this:
After you login with your information, it asks you to create a Watchlist. I didn't really understand what was even happening at this point – I seriously just entered my login information and it started populating a Watchlist. I wish it didn't do that (and you don't have a choice to skip it that I saw), but here is the screen:
The next screen asks if you want Smart Notifications for the app. I opted out of this because I hate notifications on my iPhone. I'm sure others will find this feature useful though:
The next screen asks you to fund your account. Out of every app I have ever used, this has been the most intuitive part of the process. I find linking bank accounts can be a challenge, even on a desktop computer, but Robinhood made this easy:
Once your account is funded, you'll receive a confirmation email and an alert on the iPhone app. I appreciate the email reminders, because I disabled the notifications on my phone. Here's what your account screen looks like:
However, before I could do anything else, Robinhood once again asked me to setup a bunch of investment objectives. I didn't really understand the purpose of these, as they don't seem to have any software or help to customize a portfolio or trade.
I really didn't take long, but just more added steps that I felt that weren't needed:
It was all pretty standard stuff, but seemed like a robo-advisor:
How To Use The Robinhood App
Now that you have your account funded, you can start using the Robinhood App to look up and trade stocks. They have some very elegant ways to look up stock information. Here's what I started with, looking up Abbott Labs. First, I searched for the symbol:
Once you look up the stock symbol, it gives you a quote, basic chart, and other basic information about the stock. This is all trading information – they don't have any fundamental information about the company:
Before you can make a trade, Robinhood does have this cool feature that lets you look at “Popular Stocks” based on what others are doing on their app. While I don't like to base my investment decision on what others are doing, a little voyeurism is always fun:
When I went to make my first trade, I thought I'd keep it simple and just invest in SPY. So, I typed in the symbol for SPY and got a quote:
I then clicked the big Buy button on the screen and it brought me to the order screen:
It's very intuitive and easy to use to place an order. You simply type in the shares you want to buy and the price. If you don't want a market order, you can tap the “Market” and switch it to a limit order. After that, you review your order:
Then, you just swipe up to submit. Personally, I hate having to swipe to access features on a phone. Just let me push a button.
Robinhood Gold
On 9/28/16, Robinhood announced that the are finally coming out with a premium product.
Robinhood Gold gives you:
- Margin Trading: They call this feature “Gold Buying Power”, but honestly it's just 2x margin on your account. However, unlike other margin accounts, you don't pay interest. Your margin power is based on the flat monthly fee you'll pay
- Pre & After Hours Trading: You can get access to pre market and after hours trading
- Bigger Instant Deposits: You can get instant access to your money, including when you sell a security, you don't have to wait the few days for the settlement(they call this “Instant Reinvestment”)
Here's where it gets tricky. The pricing for all of this is pretty high in my opinion. Of course, this is always subject to change (and please let us know in the comments if it does change):
If you're lucky enough to get an early invite, you can upgrade by going to your Account screen and tapping “Robinhood Gold”.
How They Make Money
I'm always leery when I see a company offering something for nothing. This company isn't a non-profit. It's venture backed and will be looking to go public and make people rich. But, in order to do so, they need to make money, so how do they do it?
They have two models. First, they don't pay you interest on any money left in your account. Rather, they collect the interest on that money and keep it for themselves. They also charge interest on margin for accounts that choose to trade on margin.
Second, they have a longer-term plan to offer an API for their system and charge for access. This is likely to be the bigger money earning source, but doesn't really impact individual investors.
Would I Move My Portfolio Over To Robinhood?
This is pretty simple: no.
I don't see Robinhood as the replacement for anything. I see them as a novelty. I found the app okay to use, not great. I couldn't imagine holding a portfolio within this app/company and trying to manage it. Robinhood also doesn't provide support for Quicken or Mint yet, so you can't track your holdings outside the app. This is pretty frustrating given that people with multiple accounts rely on other services to stay financially organized.
If you trade frequently, the app may be handy, but the research features are too basic to be of any use. Furthermore, I can't image trading from a phone.
Pros:
- Commission Free Trades
- Pretty App for iPhone & Android
- Security: the app uses Apple Touch to login, which makes it feel secure
Cons:
- Not easy for managing your holdings (couldn't see holding 5-10 positions with the app)
- No support for Quicken, Mint, or Personal Capital
- Too basic charts and data
- I don't like how everything is mandatory in the app – give me a browser to access my account online on my home computer
- Printing statements and tax documents is a hassle. You have to login to the app, email it to yourself, and then print it.
Final Thoughts
My final thought is that Robinhood is going to be a novelty that we don't hear about in 1-2 years. They attracted a lot of buzz on social media last year with their free trades, but after using their service, I was pretty disappointed.
I also don't see where the larger market is going to come for this product, if financial product enthusiasts can't get behind it.
Finally, I worry about the money flow. Too many of the “free commission” companies have changed their tune or disappeared over the years. I can see prices rising or services disappearing in their future.
What I'd honestly recommend is opening an IRA or brokerage account at a mainstream brokerage like TD Ameritrade or Fidelity. What most people don't realize is that you can open an IRA with no minimum, you can get access to hundreds of commission free ETFs, and you have a great app to use. You essentially can build your entire diversified portfolio for free, on an app. Check out TD Ameritrade for yourself.
Don't just take my word for it with this review, try Robinhood for free right here: Signup for Robinhood
Have you used Robinhood? Did you like the experience? Are you going to replace your brokerage with it?
Robinhood Review
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Commissions & Fees - 100
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Ease Of Use - 90
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Customer Service - 20
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Tools & Resources - 20
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Investment Options - 40
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Specialty Services - 20
Summary
Robinhood is a commission free brokerage that is app-based and they recently rolled out Robinhood Gold for margin trading for a fee.
I’m guessing that the “investment objectives” portion has more to do with big data than it does helping you obtain your goals. They can probably get away with not charging for trades by putting a money value on the information you provided.
A lot of it also has to do with SEC requirements, but it’s pretty silly.
All in all, One has to remember the commission FREE means no outside perks aside from needing trade desk support which is fine in my book. The more perks offered the more a company needs to recoup from you the customer.
Do they keep the interest on your money YES. But what are you really making in interest in any given money market, savings or checking account?
Do they have all the bells and whistles NO but guess what, thats ok. If someone is starting out… $5-10 in commissions is somewhat difficult to cover. Lets take Apple (AAPl) as of 1/19/17 AAPL closed at $119 per share and to 1/25/17 closed at $121.85. That is a $2.85 gain, someone new to investing would pay $5-10 commission on any other platform to enter and exit.
There are a ton of research websites that cost NOTHING. To make any profit with the AAPL example, one would need to drop several hundred. This is a GREAT tool to learn on. I for one have made a TON this year on CIG (if you want numbers, 33.65% since December on a $2.08 per share stock). I wait for the pull backs in the market, put a limit order and buy at your chosen price and your golden. Quit whining and win in the market.
I think you’re looking at the app in the completely wrong perspective. Giving the app an abysmal score of 6/10 merely because there isn’t a Desktop version yet or you fear of them raising prices and adding fees later on (they most likely won’t since 100% free stock trading is essentially the vision and platform of their company) is pretty foolish. Saying this company will disappear in 1-2 years is even more foolish. This year alone the company was valued well over a billion dollars.
Taken from NerdWallet:
“You’ll give up a few things in exchange — trading tools, research, education, investment options beyond stocks and ETFs — but if limiting costs is your No. 1 concern, Robinhood is a solid choice.”
That’s a hard sell though, because Fidelity offers hundreds of free ETFs, no fee IRAs and accounts, and they currently offer 200 free trades for 2 years. You can honestly setup your portfolio for success at a full service brokerage for free as well.
Fidelity also requires a $2,500 minimum. Not ideal for someone who’s trying to test out certain individual stocks/ETFs (Robinhood is great for swing trades).
I do agree with you that there are better brokerages out there to set-up a diversified portfolio with better management and tools for research so it’s much better suited for long-term investing, but for investors who enjoy frequent/swing trading you just can’t beat Robinhood’s truly commission-free trading platform (besides SEC fees which apply to every brokerage).
Fidelity has $0 minimum IRAs and other accounts, along with hundreds of $0 commission ETFs.
I like your response to the haters. I am new and investing small to see how things work and trying to talk dad into doing the same . CIG huh? Thanks
I have been using Robinhood for almost two years. I’ll be honest, customer support has been abysmal, however, I have literally saved thousands in fees. My guess is at least $10,000.00. When I started, I had no idea what I was doing, and maybe still don’t, but I trade 50- 80 trades a day, mostly buying on dips and selling portions of stocks (I own almost 200). My Scottrade account (retirement) charges $4.95 a trade and 5.25% Margin-this was negotiated down from $7/trade and 8.25% interest. Much different than free trades and 5% interest.
Robinhood can really save huge amounts in margin and trades if you are trading a few or many times a month.
Example. You have a $25,000 portfolio, using a margin amount of $15,000 and making 5 trades a week-apx 22 a month.
Most companies charge $5-10 a trade. Let’s average at $7. For a $25,000 portfolio, you are looking at 8.25% margin interest.
Thus, per month, you are paying $154 in trade commissions and $123.75 in interest.
As opposed to Robinhood, who is charging you $75 for the interest.
So, with your average brokerage:
$277.75
Robinhood:
$75
You are saving about $202.75 a month or $2,433 over the year. That’s a crapload of money!! It’s almost 10% of the account value
I don’t think Robinhood is going away-they may have started as a novelty but they are only increasing their ability to compete with other brokerages. I’ve seen loads of improvement over the past two years and am really looking forward to a desktop version.
My portfolio has increased 29.65% over the past two years and I guarantee a huge part of that is because I had lower margin rates and free trades.
It has also given me the opportunity to learn on a small scale. As someone who is turning a hobby into a career, I think this is a great platform, for both novice and expert investors.
I wholeheartedly concur. I currently use Ameritrade and pay $5 a trade — one way. I trade only about 15-20 trades per month, but I trade about $100 – $150K worth of stock. My trade income averages about $2000 to $3000 per month, so my commissions are small compared to my income. Like the Robinhood concept, but I dont think I will be using it because I burn about $150 to 200 a month in commissions but make about $25 to 30K per year in trading. Good Luck to ALL!!!
I’ve had an account with Robinhood for a few weeks. Although I would prefer to trade from my workstation, the app is well designed and is fine for making occasional trades during the day. Trade executions have been excellent, NBBO as far as I can tell.
As you mentioned, Robert, stock research and charting tools on the app are basically non-existent. But that’s not a problem for me since I do my research on other websites, and have a third party charting subscription. I can see how it might be cumbersome trying to manage a large portfolio from the app. Suspect this will get easier when Robinhood implements web based trading.
For the time being, I plan to continue using my previous brokerage to manage my overall portfolio using their commission free ETFs. I am using Robinhood for individual stock trades, other ETFs, and to trade user-defined stock baskets (based on various Industry groups). It is these stock baskets, in particular, where commissions get prohibitively expensive using other brokers.
In the future, if their web based software incorporates some basic portfolio management/monitoring tools, I will probably move my entire portfolio to Robinhood.
I have yet to hear what do other brokerage offer for individual investors that robinhood doesn’t ? In my opinion they won’t make money using API’s, more like providing you ways to slice and dice the data, run reports on it etc and make money off of an augmented way of slicing your portfolio. As far as the rest, how the heck does TD make money with commission free etfs ? What about Schwabs intelligent investor which mandates large allocations to cash and is a total ripoff ? If you have been in any startup let alone finance let alone a startup that deals in finance you would think twice before putting this company down. I am quite amazed that they managed to turn this around so quickly, and worse case scenario for them, GOOGLE BUYS THEM, and we’ll see the brokerage world get disintegrated overnight, as it should because it is offering absolutely nothing to the investors. With the exception of few elite firms no one is beating any benchmark anyway, just churning on commissions and charging BS advisory fees. I’m quite hopeful that these guys have a long way to go and there’s plenty of ways to make money by offering enhanced reporting, a re-balancing tool for x amt of $, features of novelty automated trading etc.
Thanks for sharing your insights – hopefully another firm does buy them.
My concern is two fold:
1) I personally didn’t like the product and the fact you’re forced to use your phone/tablet (let alone only an Apple product). I’m sure this will change, but it’s a big dissatisfier right now.
2) I can’t recommend it to users because I’ve seen way to many FinTech products come and go. Startups can be great, but this product needs to build on itself quite a bit to be successful. If they burn through their cash too fast, the people that started using them will be forced to go back to another broker anyway.
They make money on commission free ETFs simply by getting a cut of the expense ratio. Either they are one of their own funds, or they get a portion for sourcing. Just because something is an ETF doesn’t mean its got a low expense ratio. Somebody is getting paid somewhere!
I have fidelity, this is the first I am learning about 200 free trades so thats interesting. I used optionshouse for my big trading (1.99 stock trades or something real cheap like that) but now that E-trade bought them I’m sure I’ll see 9$ trades like I used to in my old ESPP account and F THAT. Maybe I will be consolidating into Fidelity??
We’re big fans of Fidelity, both from a pricing, and from the services they offer.
I’m a buy and hold investor and very happy with Fidelity. $4.95 trades, good customer service, a FULL range of products. Good smartphone app and also very good website.
It would hardly be worth it using this app with 3 day settling and limited resources to save $4.95.
But then I don’t trade often and when I do it is larger amounts.
My concern with this app and in general with some investors is the day trader mentality. Making money on small moves in the market would be way more stressful and likely way less successful than buying for long term value and growth.
Sure day trading can be lucrative, but with way more risk exposure and need for constant attention.
This is a great way to help my kids become more active investors. It makes small regular funding of an investment account easy. I hope they help the big firms cut their fees.
I have been trying to get on Robinhood, but can’t. They can’t seem to figure out why my USAA account wont link or verify (with micro deposit). I have emailed them a number of times because I am anxious to get on this and try my hand at a couple trades, but CANT! Total frustration! Of course, that is going to be the point since they are a lean, mean org. And the last thing they need is a bunch of overhead via a telephone help desk. But they need to do something when it doesn’t work for customers. That is if they ever want to make money! Which they may not, now that I think about it. But, I would love to have a full web page on my workstation to manipulate instead of just my phone too. Of course building web pages is more overhead, but eventually they’ll have to accommodate us somehow. Those are my gripes, but I am still anxious to get on it!
I have been using Robinhood for two months now, and it has been great. While it may not be the best for managing an entire nest egg, it is a perfect way to get into the market and hold multiple positions without paying for every trade. If you are starting out small, and don’t want to see 5, 10, or even 20% of your money given away after just a few purchases, Robinhood is unmatched!
Call me when the robin hood app can be used on a computer – til then the commission you pay is for the phone app’s monthly fee.
Yes, I agree. They need a desktop computer platform.
I’ve been using the android version since the day it came out and I really couldn’t be happier. I work for a financial research company and have all of the tools to manage a portfolio, conduct research, run hypothetical scenarios, but never had made the jump into investing because of the trade fees. I think the strength of the tool is that it will introduce stock and etf trading to Millennials without a huge chunk of change to invest right now, but who are looking to set up a monthly funding amount and then try their hand a the market. Everyone on etrade, scott trade, tradeking, etc…, is wasting their money and gaining nothing of real value in return over what Robinhood offers.
Zach, you highlight that you use other tools to manage a portfolio and conduct research. Why would a millennial just jump into investing on a phone if they haven’t done the research or if they don’t feel comfortable in the way the phone manages their portfolio? Whim trading it very possible on Robinhood, but I don’t see adoption for people who do want to build a portfolio for the long run.
Robinhood is a good “get your feet wet” type of tool. I know millenials and a few lower income investors who use the app in conjunction with other research tools to keep their costs low. I still use my TD account, but I have also been known to switch apps to get out of the fees. Let’s hope they are not finished yet, but I could definitely see them getting gobbled up by a bigger fish.
Millennial investor just getting his feet wet reporting in.
That’s exactly what I’m using Robinhood for. I’ve been following the news a long time and have a few hunches about the market that I wanted to test out on a handful of stocks. I think energy bottomed out already. I think commodities like copper will rise. But I’m not willing to kill gains with fees.
So Robinhood’s been fun and useful. I do wish I could use it on a browser though, or see more data on each stock.
Millennial also checking in. I love the fact that Robinhood makes it very simple to jump in the game. I’m not using it for serious investments but to test the waters.
Same here. Millenial checking in. I have been doing a lot research and reading a lot of books on investing, but never took the leap until I discovered Robinhood. Not only is it easy to use, it also makes the whole process seems less intimidating. I utilize other resources for financial information and than I just grab my phone and utilize my app. I its here to stay. I have fidelity as well and utilized their resources. I like Robinhood more. I didn’t even know fidelity had an app.
I’ve been using Robinhood for a week now, so far so good. My oy drawback is they hold your profits for 3-5days after a trade. Too long compared to other brokerages.
I really hope this succeeds. I used it today for the first time and it seemed great. So what if it doesnt offer lots of research and tools? All that is available from millions of other places. And so what if it takes 3 days for money to settle? Trade 1/3rd of your balance per day and that cycle will prevent problems. If i make one round trade per day, i will save approximately $5000 dollars on commissions that i would have paid to etrade. We need to support this. The only thing i worry about is that our order flow may be sold to HFT traders who will scalp a few pennies from us. Read “Flash Boys” to learn about that.
Sorry for typos
*round trip trade
*$5000 per year
I did notice that you and author mentioned that there’s no research information. Are you also using an iPhone? I am using an Android and I’m not sure if this is exactly research, but they provide a ‘Recent News’ section (at least for the Stocks that I’ve looked into ( IGC , XXII )
Is that excluded from the research bit, out of pure curiosity. It seems research worthy to me (in a worldly sense), but I’m not a professional trader. As well as the quarterly earnings. Are those not considered as research items?
Thanks, because if there are more things to consider research-wise, I want to find them to add to my ‘lookings’ as well.
This does help those with tight budgets. This versus $9.95/trade-wow! A general thought, does anyone have any other low cost trade,providers. Motif does singles at $4.95, but I don’t know any others. Any other option out there? Thanks.
The cool thing with Motif is that you can build your entire diversified portfolio with ETFs as a single Motif – say Bradley’s Motif. It could be a simple 60% VOO and 40% AGG Motif. Then, it only costs you $4.95 to buy your Motif, which is totally diversified like you want.
You can build a Motif with up to 30 stocks or ETFs. If you were doing this individually, you’d have to pay a commission for each individual stock or ETF. I love Motif for that reason.
Keep in mind that like most brokerages they probably make a bit of money by being paid for order flow. And while I do agree there’s some annoyances, no software integrations, no automatic dividend reinvestments, and only useable via the app. However it’s not that much work to track the portfolio through google’s finance portfolios. And for zero commisions I’m more than willing to reinvest the dividends manually.
I have been doing the exact same thing. Track portfolio on google finance portfolio and use charting software like tradingview (free version). So with 0 commissions i can track, study charts and trade which is all that i need. When robinhood gold kicks in maybe they can make more money through margin accoutns
Ive used Robinhood for almost a year now and have had absolutely no issues with this way of investing. Sure, online access would be nice but i haven’t had any issues with managing my stocks via a phone, In fact I believe its made them more versatile. I get my quarterly reports and all my tax documents are prepared and emailed. They are very responsive on questions or issues. To date, I haven’t had to pay DIME for the service or the stocks Ive invested in. Dividends are deposited directly into my Robinhood account. Money transfers are INSTANT, you don’t have to wait 3-5 days to trade money moved into your Robinhood Account.
Like Frederic above, I’ve had no issues with the app. It’s been freaking amazing!
To give you an idea, I used Robinhood the last 6 months and it’s been perfect for the beginning investor. I’ve done 60 trades (averaging $101.23 per trade) and any other broker would charge me $7 (minimum) for each of those trades. That’s freaking $420 total in fees. Ridiculous right? Robinhood has cost me absolutely nothing.
You can’t argue with free, but honestly I’m a little concerned that you’re a beginner investor and you did 60 trades in the last 6 months. That’s crazy and that’s trading/speculation – not investing. I’d be curious to know your strategy with such a small amount of capital being deployed on average.
Hey Robert…why are you so anti Robinhood? You seem to want to make everyone pay trading fees. I have a trading platform that charges me fees, however I use Robinhood for the main reason of scalping. I’ve also saved thousands on fees. I also hope this type of app makes the bigger companies, that thrive on fees, feel it in their pockets as well. I think Robinhood is a great way to have beginners, or traders who want to enjoy another side of the market, go about their business without having someone having their hand in their pocket every time they make any moves.
Not anti-Robinhood, just don’t think it’s a great platform. Free is nice – but you can get free at TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, etc. with 100s of no-cost ETFs. These platforms offer much more in terms of interface, usability, research, they have great apps, etc.
**I should note, since chances are you don’t follow my blog much, I’m an investor and advocate investing – not trading. As such, my recommendations are around great platforms for investors.
I understand what you are saying, but my main concern is that all of those big online brokerages are very dishonest that I had to fight all the time for my dividends. I had Fidelity and Schwab. I’m looking for an honest one, I’m still using Schwab. Is Robinhood has Limit Order?
Can you explain what you mean by “fight for your dividends”. I’ve never heard this complaint before, and if it’s true, it’s illegal. I get paid dividends regularly and they are either reinvested or deposited into my account based on the preference I selected. I’m curious to hear more about your experience. Fidelity, Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Vanguard are the flagship brokers in the U.S.
As for your Robinhood question, yes, they support limit orders.
Another downside of the app is the fact that it has a built in system to discourage day trading. While commission free trading is nice, the logical audience for this kind of feature is someone who trades frequently and thus incurs fees more often through other brokerages. But with Robinhood, making four day trades in a five day business period flags you as a day trader, and you are then prohibited from making any day trades for a 90 day period unless your account is funded with at least $25,000. Swing traders may find the app useful, but it’s severely limiting for those interested in actively day trading.
is this really true?!
Yes it’s true. Here is the FAQ: https://support.robinhood.com/hc/en-us/articles/210216953-Day-Trading
This is a federal regulation, not a Robinhood only thing.
No. They don’t discourage day trading. They have an OPTIONAL setting to alert you if you are about to be flagged as a day trader.
The absolute worst aspect imo is lack of customer service. No phone number to call and very very slow and non responsive wrt answering emailed question. Nice concept but poor execution; without fixing these issues can’t imagine platform surviving . Don’t recommend RH at this point!
Thanks for sharing your experience. What was your question by any chance?
I am a younger person that has been interested in trading a few stocks. No, I don’t have the $500-$1000 minimum balances that other firms charge. The main attraction to me was no minimum balance and the zero trade. If I wanted to buy a single stock in apple for $100 and was charged $10 to do so, then I would have to hope they hit $110 to break even.
From my limited point of view, this is a great way to get younger people that do not have thousands to throw around into the stock market.
will robin hood ever offer computer based trading?
I love Robinhood. I have been using it was available on Android (as a beta). I see no need for a desktop/web experience, except so File This (statement-pulling service) can pull & file statements with no action on my part. I use Betterment for the majority of portfolio and have a small portion in Robinhood for ‘passion’ investments in individual companies I feel strongly about. I think the fact that someone trading six figures pays the same ~$8 fee/trade as someone trying to get their feet wet starting their portfolio at traditional brokerage firms. I don’t think Robinhood is going anywhere as they will continue to scoop up new, young investors who are loyal based on the fact that they are built around free and mobile. As this group becomes a larger portion of the total market traditional firms will start reacting but it may be too late.
I love Robinhood! I would like to see a collaborative website but not a deal breaker. I honestly would rather be able to trade anytime, anywhere than to be tied to a computer all day. As for the people saying there’s not enough research and charting tools…THIS IS NOT A RESEARCH APP, it’s for trading. Try the StockTracker app. You can link your RH account,buy and sell directly and get all the research you need. The full version is only $15. For me the customer service with RH has been great. I’ve contacted them twice via email and they responded both times within a couple hours.
Happy trading!
First off, free trading definitely catches your eye.
Yet after using it for a number of months, i’m very frustrated with the app design.
As a trader, i’m literally blind when setting up a trade. I can’t see what the bid/ask is doing, so i have to use my StockTracker app to follow it, and the same goes for when i’m setting a stop, can’t see the b/a moving. I’m on Optionshouse and the b/a is shown so there’s no way to set an improper share price, which i’ve done a few times on RH.
I also have nothing that shows me what i’m +/- in each trade.
Both of these things are huge, i can’ afford mistakes, and they happen, but shouldn’t for simple things like setting trade parameters.
RH has made it clear that they don’t promote day trading. Then why would anyone else use this.? A mom/pop investor won’t, they hardly trade. And the app’s too clunky for bigger money to use it.
Have to say that i was as frustrated as ever with this app on 6/24. I’m going to let my current posn’s play out and get out. I’ve got 2.95 trades with OH and the $6 roundtrip i’ll spend there is worth it vs the many shortcomings w the app. don’t have the time, patience or money to wait for it to improve. Just don’t see the design moving anytime soon towards something i’ll like. I’m out..
One additional issue.
I always enter a limit order, as all should, yet once entered, if you want to adjust your offer (again, can’t see the b/a), you have to CANCEL the exisiting order setup and start over again..!! You’ve got to be kidding. You can hear the gears slowly grinding. No thanks..
Been using Robinhood app for the past 2 months. Not a bad tool to get your feet wet if you are looking to try your hand at active trading. Definitely, need to use other resources for research. The biggest issue I have encountered is every so often, the app will experience a glitch that doesn’t let you submit an order (not to be confused with trade execution). Lost money on this twice so I intend to switch to another brokerage soon. Just recently, was set to pull $1500 on a one day hold on a penny stock and because of the glitch only made $280. Unforgivable in my opinion.
This is happened to me the first time I used it. I’ve only traded twice with this. It was early morning pop and I got in just in time. Quick to press sell. I kept getting a error message and didn’t go thru for like 2-3 mins. (felt like) I was so mad… From what I read from other people it happens mostly during the mostly during the first 10 mins the market opens.
Filled out all the usual info to start a Robinhood account and got an email back REQUIRING I UNFREEZE MY CREDIT SO THEY COULD CHECK IT.! Otherwise, no account they said. Supposedly they could not verify my identity with the social security # I provided. Baloney. And if it were true, wouldn’t you email and say “Perhaps there was an input error, would you provide your ss number again?” instead of jumping to a credit check? I’m not asking for credit. What kind of SCAM IS ROBINHOOD PULLING? Getting info to send you an unasked for credit card? Setting me up to trade on margin which I don’t want even if they could do it.
I bet they are doing a credit check because one of their “perks” is instant transfers. Since money transfers typically take 2-3 days, they are essentially loaning you the money until your transfer clears. I’ve never heard of this before, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s why they were checking your credit.
I thought they offered either a cash account or a margin account? In a cash account wouldn’t they be not fronting me any money? Also aren’t margin accounts kind of dangerous for college kids to be spending money they don’t have? Not sure on this so looking for clarification.
You’re correct. I’m talking about initially moving money over to your account. Robinhood offers “Instant Transfers” – which isn’t really instant. They loan you the money until your ACH transfer clears your bank. That could explain the credit check.
As for margin, it can be dangerous if not used correctly, but given the limited amount of investing you can do on Robinhood, there isn’t much damage you can do.
Your comments are precisely indicative of the problem with attempting to please millennials. You focus far more on the GUI and how difficult it is to email yourself the tax forms than on the amazing possibility this app/company presents for people to buy fractional shares and dollar cost average. If you want charts, use Google or Yahoo. If you want stock reports, send $100 to TD or ETrade, buy a single share of AAPL (with a commission of 10 bucks, or 10%), and use their reports to your hearts content. In the meantime I’ll gladly throw a few hundred every month at Robinhood to add to a nice little portfolio. No, this won’t be my primary account (yet), but the equities are mine (and insured), so what do I care how well Robinhood actually performs financially? Hey, maybe they even end up saving me so much on commissions that I open some other account with them. Your review misses the entire point(s) of investing (wealth management, asset protection, financial gain), all things young folks who will be jumping from job to job will need help with. Robinhood makes that easy.
I am new to stocks and investing. This app has called my attention, mostly because of the big ‘FREE trades’ advertised. I have a tiny budget (in comparison to many others I have seen talked about), and am doing the research on my own. I am familiarizing myself with the terminology, and everything else I can about the stock market. I understand how Robinhood makes money, and that it isn’t technically a totally free service. It still sounds like a good introduction to trading..maybe even beginner friendly. Would using this app be a good idea for a 20- something year old millennial, with a growing knowledge base of the stock market? I think trading fees elsewhere, even at $4-5, would kill my already small budget.
Hi Emily, a few things. Trading is not investing. This app is good for beginner investors, but not traders. If you’re planning on making a lot of buy and sell transactions, you’re better off going with a traditional broker on a computer – but as a beginner you likely shouldn’t start there.
So, if you want to invest buy and hold with a small amount, this is a good system. Otherwise I’d not recommend it.
Bluestacks is free and will allow you to use any app on your desktop. I do agree, I want this connected to Mint. This is FREE, I see no strings attached. I love Robinhood.
Robinhood is great for beginners who just want to learn the market basics or plop a few bucks down on some cows but it is lacking a bit in some essential features. No short selling, no pre/after hours, limited indexes and limited company data make it a pain to trade.
Also, for a company whose mission is to democratize market access they sure do seem to be using the platform as ladder up to their future Freemium Gold service where some of those extra features are available for a monthly price of $10, but those low prices never seem to last in the long run. It’s like opening a night club up to the public but asking the clientele to pay to get to where the action is once they are through the door already. They are ripe for competition to step in and crush them IMO.
Forgot to add…you can use Robinhood on a desktop using an android emulator. I like MEmu but there a handful of other ones. It acts as a mirrored android device and works just like any phone would.
Well it has been a little over the 2 year period you set in your final thoughts! Personally I find it to be a great app. Given that they just got another large investment in their last round of fundraising I am hoping they will be around for at least 2 more years! Cheers.
I’m always interested in what will happen – so much change in the FinTech space this year. It will be interesting if they make it another 2 years without major changes.
I have used Robinhood for quite some time. I recently tried to cash out and after 15 days my withdrawal says failed. The essentially are holding my money. I cannot get anyone to respond. DO NOT use this App. They are crooked.
I went through the same issue. I think now that I downgraded out of gold; it will get better. They can’t give me any reason to freeze funds.
Gold is a joke. I am glad I stopped using it. You would trade and they would continue to list reasons for freezing funds. Was so bad that I couldn’t even access my own funds. They hit me with a margin call because I was 80% over the margin. I ended up losing big. I will still use them for the free trading but beware of the gold. They can’t figure out their own system and change the rules during the process.
Watch out for the ‘market’ sells. It rips you off and does not give you the correct market price. I am a stock trader, noticed this the first time I used the app. Tried it again to test it, it put 3c on every stock. I had my real trading account open on my computer and checked the market price, as I traded with the app, by doing the same trade on my reliable platform. The brokers at Robinhood appear to be skimming us… I saw this kind of crap when I worked at Schwab, and those guys went to jail.
Stay out of this trading platform. Worst customer service because when I call for help on my account the operator will say that they don’t account issue and I should send a e-mail to support which they never answer your e-mail. Also robinhood is a crook that try to steal your money. I was charged 28% after a sale because I didn’t submit a 1099-B form which was never e-mail to me as they said. I spoke to a certified tax accountant regarding the issue and told me that I should get that 28% on my tax refund after I sent that 1099-B form which never happen because.
I tried to get my money out of my Robinhood account. They dinged me for 30.00 due to processing from APEX Clearing.
Buyer beware….
As other commenters have pointed out, Robinhood will get you with hidden fees, and the customer service is awful. Be very careful with this app! Couple of examples below
1. I asked Robinhood to donate my shares to a charity. Unlike other brokerages, they could not. To transfer my shares to a brokerage that would, they charged me a $75 fee. They refused to waive it despite the charitable cause and despite my pointing out that a $75 fee for a donation is egregious. They also refused to expedite the process (takes 5-7 business days, vs. 1-3 days for most brokerages).
2. It took me 24 minutes before I got a customer service representative on the phone. This followed two unanswered emails to support over 4 days. I asked a Supervisor if he was embarrassed by any of this – at least the wait time to talk to an agent – to which he responded “Not at all sir! That’s just the process here and how we do business.”
They will never answer your messages. My money is still with them but they deactivated my account. I am working with banks and surely I am going to get all my money back. Guys this is cheater website.
There are some strange comments here. I’ve made multiple withdrawals, I generally pull money out every 3 months, with zero issues. But I also don’t request any weird shit like charity donation, or take huge losses on margin, as per comments above. The major bummer to RH remains the lag, especially the first 10 minutes of the trading day, but sometimes there’s a mysterious lag at random other times. I’m really hoping the web platform takes care of this issue. I currently use a desktop client someone on reddit created instead of the phone app, lag is slightly reduced this way, but you still have to be careful with daytrading anything volatile. Nonetheless, I saved over 12k in commissions there in 2017 making up about a third of my total trades. Executions on market orders have been on par with TDA imo.
I’ve been using the app for about a month now and both love and hate it. it’s certainly not a one stop portal into investing in the markets the overviews are ambiguous and you’d better do your due diligence somewhere else. I use seeking alpha and a few other portals for that.
I initially funded my account with $10K and went to town. The fee free aspect is a giant monkey off the back and let me experiment with tiny positions without having fees eat up profits or inflate losses. I can put together a model portfolio to test theories and and not have to give back $69.50 to TD Ameritrade for every 10 positions taken. The zero fee aspect of this platform is worth it on that aspect alone.
Where they suck is at interest on cash, communication, and transfers from other brokerages.
You won’t get a dime on your money that is in cash. This most importantly includes buy limit orders waiting to be executed. I try to keep zero cash in my account that isn’t allocated for limit orders.
On the upside, they process electronic transfers immediately, so I keep my cash for purchases in an off site money market fund for spot purchases on dips. I am credited instantly on transfers and can execute transactions immediately.
Maintaining an almost zero cash balance also means that it takes at least 72 hrs to access my profits after I’ve closed a position. 72 hrs they’re earning interest on my profits.
Communication is extremely frustrating. If there is a problem, there is nobody to call, an obtuse “frequently asked questions” page to navigate through before you can file a ticket, and unresolved complaints. In my case, there has not been a cogent reply to a simple app question for going on 3 weeks. I’ve since figured it out, but had no contact from them on the matter. Depositing enough money into your robin hood account will enable you access to “gold” status, with an 800 number and live support, but that seems crappy and lame, given their beginner investor target audience.
Transferring from other brokerages infuriated me too. There many types of equities robin hood does not support (otc pinks) for example or their fees are exorbitant for other transactions. $35 per transaction on the Canadian exchange? No thank you. Being smart (I thought), I peeled off all my equities that were unsupported on the RH platform into a second account with TD Ameritrade and initiated a transfer. In that account though, I had left a few hundred dollars cash and RH snagged that too, cancelling that particular account and dinging me $75 for closing the account. I had ordered an equities transfer, not an account transfer, and they did the latter.
After a few unresolved “tickets”, I included one with “complaint to the SEC” in the text. Magically, $75 appeared in my account the next day and the ticket was closed.
Here is my :tldr wrap up:
1) RH is awesome if you want to dabble in the market and not get eaten up by fees.
2) RH sucks at communication unless you have >$25K in their brokerage. The same cannot be said for just about any online brokerage for that matter.
3) While options trading is available, the interest rate is well above discount online brokerage houses.
4) Instant (ATH) deposits are really instant.
5) Instant withdrawals are glacially slow.
Despite all my griping, I’ll give them an 8.5 out of 10. Have less than $25K that you want to work with? Go for it. I have moved over 80% of my self managed equities to RH, and after the abrupt learning curve, am extremely satisfied. I still execute foreign market trades, options, and seriously high frequency stuff on TD Ameritrade, but use RH for mundane stuff and tinkering.
Here is a tip: After executing a sale on RH, I immediately buy a megacap like T, or APPL to park my $ into if there is no other position I want to take immediately.
That or an 80/20 position in GLD/SLV. Both have netted me close to 1.5% in the past month (luck, but pretty safe).
Happy investing!