I missed this when it was announced and I'm not sure if this was posted in here before but the site is called Robinhood.
https://www.robinhood.io/?ref=MwhTv8

Here's an article link:
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell...r-free-trades/

"A game changer for the individual trader? A brokerage firm called Robinhood Financial is offering customers free stock trades through their mobile phones."

Pretty sic if it pans out. I use ****tiest broker right now just for the free trades of 30 a month lol.
Great trap too as it will entice over trading from retail donks like myself.

Ehh... vaporware.

And there are enough good brokers out there. What is the benefit of this over IB? It's unclear - to me at least.

I don't really want free trades on smartphone. I want free trades at my desk where I can think in peace. I don't have to be doing trades on the metro, and saving on a tiny commission while majorly screwing myself with bad trades.

dc_publius they have a web based platform as well which is also free. Their revenue comes from margin usage and broker assisted trades but I have to imagine with Google and Andreesen Horowitz involved there will be other sources of revenue later, but most likely ad based.

I agree though that it depends on how you trade currently. This appears to be more targeted to say the etrade retail investor, not those with direct market access with super cheap fees.

Obviously it doesn't hold much merit for a professional trader but for people with simple, small - medium sized portfolios making a few trades a week it would provide quite a bit of utility.

So am I dumb for using etrade ?

A stock broker startup is not one I'm going to be rushing to be the first to try out. What happens when they go busto and quit like 95% of startups do? Will they be around in 10 years is one of the most important questions when I choose a broker.

Ask the Andreesen Horowitz partners if they do their stock trading with these guys or they still use Goldman Sachs or whatever. No chance they are using these guys.

clearo I don't get your point here. Nobody is suggesting you go build your investment portfolio with them. The fees of just using your run of the day brokerage account like Merrill Lynch are just 7 bucks and you won't be day trading or trading frequently. This type of service benefits those of us who want to move in and out of equities based on our own knowledge of whats happening. This is meant for the personal retail investor, not a retirement account for 40 years later. Also by depositing up to $250k in cash and owning up to $500k in equities you are protected from that even if the company does go bust.

LOL at the poker community who for years begged for a rake-free poker site of any kind, and now craps all over this.

My guess is this Robinhood co is attempting this as sort of a gimme in order to gain userbase to monetize later.

I think it's too early to say what will happen. Their goal is stated to remain free forever though. It won't be used for huge volume/value trades because the platforms professional day traders use are far more advanced. I have to say though I am extremely impressed with their marketing strategy (completely free due to limiting signups and forcing people to share it to move up the queue) and of their idea as a whole. The margin business is very profitable in general, plus acting as a market maker themselves can provide revenue for them. It will probably be a loss leader until it gains a huge user base though.

We eventually got rake-free poker, and people finally realized what 'rake-free' actually means.

It could be a roll-out like Google Wallet, where they eat the fees and give some bonuses to acquire customers. Eventually, all the bonuses disappear and they start charging fees - becoming like everyone else.

A lot of discount brokers tried this in the last 15 years. They all got bought out by a more expensive broker and the cheap trades disappeared. This is probably where this is heading.

Now... if this was actually from Google, I would think they're starting yet another unprofitable business so that they can consolidate their audience and collect more data on you. But it's not. This has little to do with Google. This is Google Ventures.

I agree dc_publius but that shouldn't matter. Trade for free while you can if you wish. They have stated explicitly that they will never charge trading fees but perhaps they're lying and you're correct. If they go out of business in 5 years who cares? A retail trader still got free commissions while it lasted and the money is protected by the federal government regardless unless you start to move into the 7 figure range in which case a place like Merrill would be better anyway with 100 free trades/month for accounts with 250k+

Well like 5 people have commented....hardly crapped on by the "poker community". Personally, I have no desire to use this professionally or personally, unlike like rake free poker, which I would have used from a major site.

They could be making a profit even without fees anyhow, they might lend out the shares from long positions for shorting and keep the money from that to make their profit. Plus they're getting some fees other than that: https://brokerage-static.s3.amazonaw...2020131210.pdf

I made a thread on this a while back. About half the people thought it had a decent shot, and the other half mentioned that most of these always got bought out and tanked.

Bump. I have an account setup and funded. Haven't made many trades and don't know what the margin rate is. Anyone else it out yet?

iOS only, right?

At the moment, iOS only. I think I've read something about android being available soon.

pretty ironic for a Google Ventures-backed company

Google Ventures is super hands off a ton of the time I think, but yea that is pretty funny.

Robin Hood makes money from margin interest and interest from unused customer funds:
https://robinhoodapp.zendesk.com/hc/...od-make-money-

Interest from unused customers funds has got to be pretty worthless, especially atm.

Margin interest could be lucrative, but I'm not sure how much it costs them to do each trade for clients and if that will cover it + healthy profits. And I'm not sure if they know they're going to attract enough margin traders yet.

Regarding safety, here in the UK any financial service backed by the FSA comes with €20,000 insurance for all clients. Does the US have similar regulation?

Also their website blows, have to squint to read anything and it seems to induce headaches

I saw one of the founders on Bloomberg a few weeks back. He came off as a complete idiot. I was already fairly skeptical but if that guy is legitimately the one making decisions then this is doomed.

Iirc, it was secured for up to 500k for US.

That's a really ******ed statement for somebody as smart as you think you are to make. There could be a million explanations other than 'he is a complete idiot whose company is doomed'. Maybe he's a poor public speaker. Maybe it was his first time on TV and he was nervous. Maybe he had an off day. Maybe they asked him questions he didn't know the answer to or didn't want to answer, and he's a bad bull****ter. None of those would have any bearing on whether or not he could run his company well.