Thoughts on Robinhood Zero Commission Stock Trading

I am curious to hear all of your thoughts on this Robinhood Zero Commission Stock Trading company.

Is it too good to be true? Or is there a catch? I think it is sketchy but it is backed by some big name Venture Capitalists so obviously they are doing something right.

82 Comments
 

There's a waiting list, so you won't be guaranteed a spot anytime soon. I signed up months back and I was number 100,000 or something. I'm not crossing my fingers. Even if you aren't a baller, if you are a fan of value investing, the trade commissions shouldn't be much of an issue. I'd love to pay zero, but they don't greatly affect my profits anyway. Their facts that they spit on their website is true. It takes next to nothing in costs to place a trade. They make their money on margin interest.

"Decide what to be and go be it." - The Avett Brothers
 

I've been trading on their platform for a month now. I've had a good experience so far and my only complaint, like others have mentioned, is the lack of certain small cap stocks.

 

You also get crappier pricing on some less liquid names (or at least I feel like it), but more than enough to make up for no fees. Also really annoying with the 3 day cash wait.

 

Looks interesting.

I thought this part was cool: How does Robinhood make money? Robinhood will offer margin trading as well as API access. We also plan to offer premium services for active investors in the future. Robinhood is venture-funded by Google, Andreessen Horowitz and many others, which affords us the freedom to focus on building a wonderful brokerage experience rather than short-term profits.

 

Interesting. Ultimately the trade execution, market data and overall usability will be more important though. My commissions are so cheap from Interactive Brokers already that you would have to make a pretty compelling argument to switch. Anybody technologically savvy enough to use this is likely already using a discount broker online so they aren't paying huge fees. Switching costs are a pain in the ass once you are set in a broker and used to their system.

 

^^^ Agreed. This is a cool concept, but I used IB as well and love the incredibly low cost of margin. I am guessing margin rates are gonna be seriously high to help make up for the lack of commissions here. Either way, its still a good idea for people that are not hardcore traders and have simple portfolios with no leverage.

Array
 
TeddyTheBear

^^^ Agreed. This is a cool concept, but I used IB as well and love the incredibly low cost of margin. I am guessing margin rates are gonna be seriously high to help make up for the lack of commissions here. Either way, its still a good idea for people that are not hardcore traders and have simple portfolios with no leverage.

Why can't those people just use Wells Fargo that offers 100 free trades per year per account?

 
kingtut

Zecco tried this 5 or 6 years ago. They offered free trades for a while and then changed their policy to include only accounts with $25k+. I was in college at the time so paying zero commissions was pretty nice.

And then they realized their online and mobile (which didn't exists) trading sucked ass and needed to start generating some revenue somewhere. As long as this site has the absolute basics and is easy to use, then it should be successful. I don't know how profitable it could actually be, but it would be nice.

 

Okay this is a great app idea BUT what about all the people at investment banks who are only approved for certain brokers? This is useless to 90% of the people on this website. I can't even use e*trade at my BB, nevermind an app called Robinhood.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

Good thing about being in VC is you sometimes hear about things early. I got on the list of a few months ago. I'm currently number 712th in line. If I get access soon i'll let you guys know what I think.

Been using ETrade & TDAmeritrade for the last 5 years.

"If you want to succeed in this life, you need to understand that duty comes before rights and that responsibility precedes opportunity."
 
TheBigBambino

Good thing about being in VC is you sometimes hear about things early. I got on the list of a few months ago. I'm currently number 712th in line. If I get access soon i'll let you guys know what I think.

Been using ETrade & TDAmeritrade for the last 5 years.

What justifies the higher fees to you? You know there are sub-$4/trade options out there.

40K people ahead of me

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 
TheBigBambino

Good thing about being in VC is you sometimes hear about things early. I got on the list of a few months ago. I'm currently number 712th in line. If I get access soon i'll let you guys know what I think.

Been using ETrade & TDAmeritrade for the last 5 years.

I got on the list a couple of months ago, so I figured I would be in the first 160k, but I guess not. I am around 8000 atm.
 

I also took a survey two weeks ago. Said I have an Iphone 4s tho so i wonder if I'll get dinged from the beta test group...

"If you want to succeed in this life, you need to understand that duty comes before rights and that responsibility precedes opportunity."
 

Ridic. Will be interesting to see how (if) google plans to make money on this, and whether it is 'completely' free or free with caveats (e.g. trade frequency limits, trade pairing requirements, etc...)

 

"Robinhood will offer margin trading as well as API access. We also plan to offer premium services for active investors in the future. Robinhood is venture-funded by Google, Andreessen Horowitz and many others, which affords us the freedom to focus on building a wonderful brokerage experience rather than short-term profits. "

Guess that's how they will make money on this. It make a while for them to actually break profit tho with start up costs. There seems to be high interest in this tho

 

Let's do that use the ref link above you thing: https://www.robinhood.io/?ref=2p6sTh

This looks like an interesting idea but they're only authorized to do business in California so far. I don't think people in other states will be able to register until later (but, everyone may as well get on the waiting list).

 

They need to verify legit traders and etc. if they want to be established as a commendable source. Likely we'll find kids who are trying to get some solid search results blabbing about some ridiculous call they found by searching the stock tag on Twitter.

 

I imagine they just want to aggregate and sell "crowdsourced" ratings/expectations, because people will buy those reports.

I hate retail trading. I'd love to ban it.

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
 
da chief

How is this any different then Loyal3?

As the internet would say.

ItZ fRoM Da GoOgLeZ

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

I'm not ready to give them my social security number. ended up passing on the beta testing.

"If you want to succeed in this life, you need to understand that duty comes before rights and that responsibility precedes opportunity."
 

I wasn't expecting anything. My friend texted me about an hour ago about it. Now I'm using his account to try it out haha

I like the simplicity of it. I feel I can place an order faster on there than on something like Etrade because of how simple it is.

This type of thing is perfect for the type of account we are using before throwing a bunch of money in it if it ends up busting or something. You can trade $100 per stock and not have to worry about commissions eating all of your returns.

make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier
 

I wonder if they will be able to generate enough revenue to keep it free, especially at a bigger scale. That being said, as long as its stays free its an amazing gadget for anyone investing in low volumes.

 
pecunia

I wonder if they will be able to generate enough revenue to keep it free, especially at a bigger scale. That being said, as long as its stays free its an amazing gadget for anyone investing in low volumes.

They plan on charging 5% margin borrowing rates compared to 1-2% of the traditional online brokers

"The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets." -John D. Rockefeller
 

I wonder if they will be able to generate enough revenue to keep it free, especially at a bigger scale. That being said, as long as its stays free its an amazing gadget for anyone investing in low volumes.

 

nahh. I'll send myself one from my friends account if I feel like using my own money on it haha Thanks though!

make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier
 
CorpFinanceGuy

@Skinnayyy you want an invite? I've got 3 if anyone would like one.

Could you throw one my way? First time I've heard of it but definitely an interesting concept. Fintech is my secret love.
Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 

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