ROBINHOOD APP REVIEW 2023: IS IT WORTH A TRY?

Robinhood is an online mobile app that enables easy access to financial markets for the everyday trader. It was launched in 2013 and is available on both Apple App Store and Google Play Store. In 2015, it introduced the concept of zero-commission stock trading, which made the app unique at the time.

The Robinhood app is most useful for customers who prefer to invest directly from their mobile device. Robinhood has grown tremendously over the past few years due to its ease of use and intuitive user interface. Robinhood doesn’t only deal in stocks; you can also invest in cryptocurrencies, EFTs, and fractional shares. Here’s a complete list of assets you can trade on the app:

• Stocks & ETFs
  • NYSE
  • NASDAQ
  • S&P500
  • Dow Jones
• Options
  • Single-leg
  • Multi-leg
• Gold
• Cryptos
  • Bitcoin
  • Ethereum
  • Ethereum Classic
  • Bitcoin Cash
  • Bitcoin SV
  • DogeCoin
  • Litecoin

A key thing to add here is there is no short-selling of stocks at Robinhood. Also, you can only trade cryptos with USD, so no other currency or crypto/crypto pair is available. Robinhood does not require any minimum amount for trading, nor does it charge a trading fee. The app is easy to navigate and allows users to trade on many US-listed investments.

It includes high-yield cash management offerings with margin trading and IPO (initial public offering) investments. Cash management offerings allow traders to earn returns which fluctuate with ongoing interest rates on uninvested cash. Even more appealing is that there is no fee attached whatsoever.

Robinhood Gold is aimed at more advanced traders. It is a premium version of the “no fee” Robinhood, but only costs $5 a month while offering additional account functionality.

How does the Robinhood app work?

Robinhood fundamentally works like any other broker, but differs in functionality. It’s an investment app with a lot of “flavors” – It offers brokerage services and gives access to users to trade multiple products. Robinhood has essentially created a full-scale investment environment.

The app makes trading easier because of the nature of its platform; as mentioned earlier, the app makes trading seem like a “game,” which is a draw for users who are new to trading. We’ll explain more on that later.

How does Robinhood make money?

Robinhood is cashing in on the trading boom without an up-front charge to customers, which of course draws in users. Robinhood then utilizes its user base and their transactions to make money behind the scenes in three ways.

Payment for order flow

Robinhood generates revenue behind the scenes from what is known as payment for order flow (PFOF). Market makers pay Robinhood to execute client trades. As a result, Robinhood fetches the highest rate for equity trades at 17 cents per 100 shares.

So, how important is this revenue stream for Robinhood’s operation? As it turns out, it’s critical. Robinhood used this revenue model from its inception, and was one of the first zero-commission online brokerages. When, all of a sudden, they started seeing record customer growth, they were able to make it up using PFOF to cover costs.

Its method to offer fee-free transactions was not a novel concept, however. In PFOF, brokerage firms instruct third-party “market makers” to execute trades on their behalf. For Robinhood, the procedure would be as follows:

• First, an investor uses the Robinhood app to place an order to buy or sell shares.
• The order is passed on to a market maker, who completes the transaction. Finally, the market maker compensates Robinhood in fractions of a penny for those orders.
• Finally, the market maker conducts the deal and gains from the transaction by purchasing lower-priced shares. This discrepancy is the bid-ask spread.

Net-Interest Revenue

Robinhood’s second-largest source of income is net-interest revenue. This includes the money made through securities lending and margin loans. Margin lending enables Robinhood clients to purchase stocks using cash borrowed from the company. This allows traders to capture opportunities and invest in instruments without having cash on hand.

Margin loans provide traders more freedom to make timely investments. Margin calls happen when investors’ investments in their margin account fall below a certain number. The account holder must deposit extra cash or sell assets in this situation. Interest and fees from margin loans are a significant source of revenue for Robinhood, accounting for 12% of net income in 2021.

Subscription Services

Robinhood also generates subscription money via its premium membership service, Robinhood Gold, which contributes around 7% of its net revenue. Paid memberships to Robinhood Gold increased from 300,000 in Q1’20 to 1.4 million in Q1’21. Here’s a chart describing how Robinhood has grown dramatically over the past several years.

Robinhood revenue

How to use the Robinhood stock app?

The Robinhood platform comes in two types: web and mobile. The web platform offers fewer features than the mobile app. It includes several charting tools, technical indicators, timeframes, and others. Robinhood’s mobile app offers an easy-to-use layout which is especially attractive to beginner traders.

The sleek user interface gives you the feeling that you’re in a game, where you are competing with other players. In addition, price monitoring and other information is conveniently available via notifications, saving the user the hassle of having to manually check.

Platform overview

The mobile app offers a sleek design and focuses on innovation. Of course, the question on many readers’ minds will be “How can a beginner get started on Robinhood?” Well, it’s simple. You can start trading as soon as you download the app.

To use the Robinhood app, you must first sign in and deposit funds. There is no minimum deposit, so you can deposit as much or as little as you’d like.

I must add here that the app is exclusively available in the US, meaning you must have US citizenship, permanent residence, or a visa. Although Canadians do not have access to use Robinhood app, there are some alternatives.

Robinhood requirements

HOW DOES THE ROBINHOOD PLATFORM WORK?

As I already mentioned, the Robinhood platform “gamifies” your trading experience. But what are the actual features available on the platform? When you open the platform, on the left side, we have tradable assets.

You can customize the interface by bringing assets of interest to the right to keep them organized. Clicking on any asset will bring up the BUY or SELL order. You also have an option for other orders:

• Stop orders
• Limit orders
• Trailing stop orders

Now, to place all order types, you have to follow some steps: Click on the asset you want to trade. At the bottom of the page, tap “trade.” You can place all order types from there. If you want to cancel any order, follow the steps below:

• Tap the “Account” icon in the bottom right corner.
• Tap “History.” Tap the order you wish to cancel.
• Tap the red “Cancel Order” button.

The Robinhood mobile app does provide a basic watch list feature, which allows you to directly follow the assets you’re interested in from the main page. Besides the watch list, Robinhood provides cards that tell you about new Robinhood services, pages for relevant stock and crypto news, and real-time charts to help inform your trades (including candlestick, line, and volume charts.)

There are a total of 5 indicators available on the Robinhood platform:

• Volume
• Moving Average
• Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
• Relative Strength Index (RSI)
• Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)

To navigate indicators, you need to select an asset and click on the “expand” option. When you click on it, all indicators will appear. You can then choose whatever indicator you want.

Indicators list

Unfortunately, once you’ve deactivated a Robinhood account, the same account cannot be accessed in the future. This means you have to create a new account to use the platform again. Remember that you have to apply with a different email than the one you used for the previous account.

Before margin trading, you need to upgrade to Robinhood Gold. After signing up with the Gold account, you can trade on margin using Robinhood’s margin investing tool to borrow money to buy assets. You can borrow money depending on the value of certain assets in your account.

So far, the company remains undecided on the SHIB listing. The executives at the company say that they are keeping their options open. For now, we don’t know when the coin will be listed on Robinhood.

In 2020, when the pandemic hit, the Robinhood app faced several outages. In 2021, amid the GameStop saga, Robinhood restricted trading activity. Between these two events, Robinhood lost over a million users.

FINRA, which regulates Robinhood, issued a $57 million fine to the brokerage platform for supervisory failures and lack of transparent pricing. Additionally, Robinhood was ordered to pay $12.6 million in restitution to customers affected. In 2022, Robinhood is under the investigation of the SEC for order flow practices.

Understandably, this may give users pause when they are considering signing up with Robinhood in 2022. However, the Robinhood app is still safe to use. The company follows four basic principles of protection, outlined on the site:

Robinhood safety

Robinhood is a member of the SIPC (Securities Investors Protection Act). The membership protects users for up to $500,000.

It gives you a feeling of a real thing without investing real money. So, let’s see if Robinhood has a demo account. Unfortunately, Robinhood doesn’t offer a demo account.

Robinhood has its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. It has a total of nine offices around the US. Outside the US, it has an office in London, UK.

Robinhood office location

Who owns the Robinhood app?

In 2013, two roommates at Stanford, Baiju and Vlad, created a project for commission-free stock trading. Their full story is outlined on their homepage, and I’ve included it below:

On the platform, you can deposit through bank transfers only. Robinhood provides an “instant option” and a 4 – 5 day option. You can only deposit in USD. There are no up-front deposit fees, but the “instant” option incurs 2.5% margin charges on amounts over $1000.

How to withdraw money from Robinhood?

Like deposits, you can only make withdrawals through bank transfers. To withdraw funds, you can only choose USD as currency. Like with deposits, Robinhood doesn’t charge a withdrawal fee.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Robinhood?

The company mentions that you can request five withdrawals per day on the website. There isn’t a mention of time, but it takes 2 to 3 days.

On the homepage, there is unfortunately not a “Contact Us” option available. There is only a support page, which includes various FAQs. Here, you can find the answer to many of your questions.

Robinhood support

While Robinhood lacks in the customer service department, you can always reach out to Robinhood through social media.

Robinhood offers a variety of promos. You’ll get a free share of random stock when you join Robinhood or recommend it to someone. You may get anything of value between $2 and $250.

Does Robinhood offer bonuses?

Robinhood offers a sign-up bonus as a $10 cash reward. You can also get a cash reward on net deposits. Opening a cash management account also makes you eligible for a bonus. In addition, there’s a cash card, which allows you to earn money every week. It works like a normal debit card, and you earn while you spend.

Cashcard

On the support page, you can find Robinhood’s tax documents. You need to file your taxes with the IRS on all earnings, and the specifics of how to do so are explained on the site. The key point to note is that Robinhood is not a tax agent. This means it doesn’t provide your fund’s information to anyone.

Tax info

When does Robinhood send 1099?

A 1099 is an IRS form that calculates money earned from sources other than your employer. When it comes to investing, a 1099 would document the amount of money you made or lost from stocks in a single year. Robinhood mentions on its website that users will receive a 1099 form every February. You’ll receive additional relevant forms if you trade stocks and cryptocurrencies.

Info on 1099 form

You would use ACATS (Automated Customer Account Transfer Service) if you want to transfer stocks. Robinhood does charge a $75 fee for the transfer.

Robinhood comes with a plethora of useful features. It includes investments, fractional shares, ETFs, and a long list of stocks. Cash app, on the other hand, offers fewer services than Robinhood. It lacks Margin Accounts and only accepts Bitcoin, limiting its flexibility.

Robinhood app, with its complex functionalities, has more sophisticated tools. It gives a detailed overview of the events going on in the market.

Cash app, with its basic layout, doesn’t have complex research tools. It only displays the current state of Bitcoin. The draw of Robinhood for many customers is its array of features, making it more versatile.

How to buy on the Robinhood app?

To buy, you need to first select the asset. Afterward, you need to go to the bottom and hit BUY. After that, you need to enter the amount you want to invest and confirm your order.

How to sell on the Robinhood app?

You need to go to your open trading positions to sell the asset. You then have to go to the bottom and select SELL. After confirmation, you can exit your positions. Remember that Robinhood doesn’t allow short-selling.

How to buy Bitcoin on the Robinhood app?

First, you need to select the BTC from the crypto asset list to buy. Then, you need to go to the bottom and hit BUY. After that, you need to enter the amount you want to invest and confirm your order.

How to buy DogeCoin on the Robinhood app?

First, you need to select the DOGE from the crypto asset list to buy. Then, you need to go to the bottom and hit BUY. After that, you need to enter the amount you want to invest and confirm your order.

How to see RSI on the Robinhood app?

To see the RSI, you need to go to the asset list. After selecting a particular stock or crypto, you need to click on an expand button. Here you can see the list of indicators along with the RSI.

How to see how much money you made on the Robinhood app?

Simply go to the app’s homepage and the “ALL” option to see how much you made. Here you need to click on the Portfolio Total. It will bring your total profits and losses.

How do I log out of the Robinhood app?

To log out, you need to go to the Settings menu. Here you can find all the log-in and out details. Then, simply click on the logout option, and it’ll log you out of your account.

Can you link the cash app to Robinhood?

Yes, you can. You need to link the Robinhood debit card to the Cash App account. After that, you need to deposit funds into a Cash App account. You can also use Cash App to deposit funds into a Robinhood account.

What app is better than Robinhood?

There are a lot of apps out there that offer feasible trading solutions. These apps include TDAmeritrade, Webull, across, SoFi, Coinbase, eTrade, etc.

FINAL VERDICT

Robinhood is certainly a giant among investing apps. It provides zero-commission trading and offers good overall trading conditions.

As with any other investing app, there are certain risks you should look for. Go through the guide again if you don’t understand anything. Read our article about best online earning app in pakistan to know more.

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