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Robinhood is a financial services company that was founded in 2013 and has its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. It serves over 10 million monthly active users, employs over 2,000 people, and has total assets under management of over $62 billion.
The company provides commission-free stock, ETF, options, and IRA trading from any computer or mobile device. There are no account minimums and you can invest in fractional shares.
The Robinhood trading platform provides stock, ETF, options, and IRA investing with no fees. It has thousands of stocks available, a great user experience on any device, and offers the only IRA with a 1% match (no employer needed). You can get started easily and with as little as $1.
The platform can serve everyone looking to invest their money for the future, from cautious investors wanting to get involved in ETFs to those who can tolerate more risk and want to partake in margin investing.
For many people, investing can seem both confusing and expensive. Robinhood helps to solve these problems by making its signup process clear and straightforward and by charging no commission fees for most trades.
I believe Robinhood is best suited for new investors. There are no hidden fees to worry about, no account minimums to maintain, and you don’t need much money to get started. The interface is easy to navigate and understand, without too many options to distract or confuse you.
The lack of a commission fee for most investments also makes this platform suitable for active investors who like to make multiple trades at a time or in quick succession. Some platforms will charge you $5+ per trade, which can add up if you’re active.
It’s also great for those who want to use an IRA to save for retirement, as it offers a 1% match IRA. This means that Robinhood will add 1% extra to your IRA when you make contributions. So if you contribute $6,500 to your Robinhood IRA, the company will give you $65 for free.
In contrast, many other investment companies typically reserve access to this feature as part of employee-sponsored plans—so having access to any match at all is a nice touch.
| Commission fees | Account minimum | |
|---|---|---|
| Stocks | $0 | None |
| Options | $0 | None |
| ETFs | $0 | None |
| IRAs | $0 | None |
While there are no commission fees with Robinhood, some small fees apply in certain situations. The main ones are below, but you can check out the Robinhood fee schedule for a complete breakdown of all fees.
| Fee Type | Amount |
|---|---|
| Regulatory fee | $8 per $1,000,000 of principal (sells only), rounded to the cent |
| Trading activity fee | $0.000145 per share (for equity sells) and $0.00244 per contract (for options sells) Maximum of $7.27 and rounded to the cent |
| Instant bank transfers (withdrawals from your Robinhood account) | 1.5% (min $0.02) |
| Transferring an account to another brokerage | $100 |
When you sign up for Robinhood, you’ll get free access to general features like initial public offerings (IPOs), fractional investing, and setting up automatic investments. For $5 a month, you can also sign up for the premium Robinhood Gold program. This gives you 4.4% APY on your idle cash, more affordable margin investing, access to market data in real time, and more.
Robinhood provides a variety of investment choices, including stocks, ETFs, options, IRAs, margin investing, and cryptocurrency. Most of these investments have no fees (outside of the minuscule regulatory fees mentioned above), but there's an 11.5% interest rate for margin investing (or 7.5% for Gold members).
Something I would like to see added is the ability to invest in mutual funds and bonds, as well as being able to open a joint account and a 529 savings account.
The first step to getting started with Robinhood is making sure you qualify. To join Robinhood, you need to:
If you satisfy the requirements, you can sign up and apply for an account. You begin the process by providing some personal information including your legal name, email, phone number, date of birth, and address.
Next, you’ll verify your identity by giving your social security number. The company is legally required to collect this information, but it encrypts it and transmits it via a secure connection to keep it safe.
Following this step, Robinhood will ask about your investment experience and whether you want to enable options trading. You’ll also need to give your employment information. Once you’ve submitted the application, you'll wait a couple of days to hear back.
Once Robinhood approves your application, you’re all set to start exploring the different products and features of the platform and begin investing.
If the company requires a bit more information from you, it will provide guidance about how to submit the documents and why it needs them. After submitting the required documents, you’ll have a few more days to wait as the company reviews your materials and opens your account.
I found the overall process to be clear, and I like how Robinhood provides you with guidance and clarification throughout the journey to make sure it’s as easy as possible to get started.
Yes, there’s a free Robinhood app. It has clear navigation, a good user experience, and works well. I feel that the design is attractive and doesn’t overwhelm users with too many options or choices on the screen.
You can use this app to invest and trade, fund your account, get support, view news and learning resources, and read stock info.
Robinhood was originally only available as an app, so it’s fully featured and offers plenty of benefits to users. The Robinhood app has been downloaded and rated millions of times and has a 4 out of 5 rating on the Google Play Store and a 4.2 out of 5 on the Apple App Store.
Robinhood has been around for over a decade, has millions of customers, and manages over $62 billion worth of assets.
Some customer reviews have mentioned unsatisfactory customer service experiences, outages, or issues with verification/having to wait for account access.
That said, the company is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is regulated by FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority). It’s also a member of SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation), which means that Robinhood users have their cash and securities protected up to $500,000 in case of brokerage failure.
The company covers 100% of losses that come from unauthorized activity in your accounts, in addition to helping you protect your account with multi-factor authentication. Robinhood is also completely transparent about what information it collects from you, why it collects it, and who it shares it with.
Robinhood provides 24/7 support. Getting in touch is easy—you can do it right from your account online or in the app. In a few clicks, you can start a live chat or request a call. Callbacks are usually within 30 minutes. However, your experience with support may vary—many users have reported subpar experiences.
In addition to this support, Robinhood provides ample learning resources on its website. This includes a help center featuring comprehensive FAQs/information, as well as articles on topics like investing basics, risk management, picking an investment, and more.
While more account types and a wider range of investments to choose from would be a great addition, I believe that Robinhood is a fine choice for new investors or those looking to trade frequently without paying fees.
It provides access to plenty of stocks, ETFs, and options, and the 1% IRA match is a unique offering. Signing up is simple, and you don’t need to make a large initial investment or deposit to get started.
Both the app and web experience are intuitive, and there are no account minimums to worry about. Many of the complaints against Robinhood are valid, but with millions of active users, the number of people experiencing issues is proportionally small.
85 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
Is Robinhood available in Canada?
No, Robinhood is currently only available to those who live in the US. You can access your account on the go in most countries, but you need to be a US citizen or permanent resident in order to open an account and start investing.
Is Robinhood good for beginners?
Yes, I believe Robinhood is a good choice for beginners. Firstly, it won’t charge you fees to make trades. It’s easy to get started with, provides useful learning resources, and has a streamlined and clear interface. The platform may be a little bare-bones for more advanced investors, but newcomers will enjoy the accessibility.
Is Robinhood completely free?
There are a few small fees some users may need to pay, including regulatory transaction fees, trading activity fees, money movement fees, and more. If you want the benefits of the premium service, Robinhood Gold, you’ll need to pay $5 a month.
