What Is Robinhood?
Robinhood is a free mobile app that lets investors trade stocks, options and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and cryptocurrency without paying commissions or fees. The creators simplified the app to make it easy to navigate. You can quickly move from screen to screen, investigating stocks and placing orders.
There’s a search bar so you can pull up a stock and see it’s chart over any timeframe. You’ll get the lows and highs, market cap and dividend yield. The app also provides a news feed, composite of analysts rankings and a profile summary for the stock. Simply click Buy or Trade when you want to purchase or sell stock. You can choose the number of shares or options contracts you want and shows how much buying power you have.
Free Trading
You can trade stocks, ETFs, options and cryptocurrency for free. While free stocks and ETF trades are common, options trading is not. Robinhood charges no per-contract fee so it’s a great choice for investors looking to get into the market. The commission-free cryptocurrency trading is only available in some states, but the company is adding more.
Account Minimums and Quick Funding
Robinhood has no account minimum making it attractive for investors. But its claim to fame is how quickly your account can be funded. If you’ve tried to fund a brokerage account before, you know it can take a while to get funds into your account.
By using instant verification with major banks, you can avoid the hassle of traditional verification of reporting small deposits into your bank account.
Robinhood Gold
Robinhood Gold provides research and allows you to buy securities with borrowed money or margin. There is a $5 monthly fee for the program. They’ve worked with Morningstar to provide unlimited access to in-depth stock research reports on around 1,700 stocks. With Level II Market Data, you can see multiple bids and asks for any stock to help better determine availability.
Cash Management
Earn 1.80% APY on your uninvested cash in your brokerage account paid monthly. You can also have easy access to your cash with the Robinhood Mastercard debit card. Choose to invest, spend or withdraw your cash at any time. There are no account minimums, no transfer fees and no foreign transaction fees. Your money is FDIC insured up to $250,000 per bank. Your cash in the program banks is eligible for up to $1.25 million of FDIC insurance.
Robinhood Crypto
With Robinhood Crypto, you can buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies. When you make a deposit, those funds are available immediately to purchase cryptocurrencies in your account.
Security
Robinhood Financial is an SEC-registered broker dealer, and a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). They are also a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which means stocks and options in your brokerage account are protected up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash).
Referral Program
When you refer someone to Robinhood that uses your link, you get free stock. The stock can be worth up to $500. You have a 1 in 250 chance of getting stocks such as Apple, Facebook or Berkshire Hathaway. You also have a 1 in 150 chance of getting GE or Ford stock.
Getting Started With Robinhood
- Click here to download the app
- You must be 18 years old, have a social security number, be a US citizen and have a legal US residential address within the 50 states or Puerto Rico.
- Create your account and submit your application
- You’ll receive an email within one day either approving your application or asking for more information
- If requested, provide documents verifying your identity
