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That is true. I'm not saying Robinhood is all bad or can't be used in good ways. My concern is that overall, the product and marketing seem to be geared towards

by dguo 9y ago

That is true. I'm not saying Robinhood is all bad or can't be used in good ways. My concern is that overall, the product and marketing seem to be geared towards speculative, short-term trading. When I first signed up, the app was recommending that I check out stocks like Apple, Netflix, and Snapchat, not index funds.

grahamannett 9y ago
I can understand why they guide people towards investing in "hip" companies versus an index fund, but regardless why is their so much animosity towards robinhood on HN? Is someone getting into investing and investing in an Apple/Amazon/etc. not overall a pretty good entry point compared to opening up thinkorswim or the pretty atrocious (at least on mac) schwab desktop client? Investing a small amount of money is better than blowing that money on tons of consumeristic bullshit that that tons of people do and RH seems like a genuinely good stepping stone compared to the current incumbents in a lot of ways (fees/minimum deposit/super simple). The fact that you can even start with RH and then at a later date transfer to a brokerage once you have a large enough portfolio is also a huge plus in my opinion to people who may have otherwise never set aside that money in the first place.
- dguo 9y ago
  I agree Robinhood is better than the incumbents in multiple ways. But at some time, other startups offer similar benefits while promoting an approach that is more likely to help the average person increase their wealth in the long term. I don't think Robinhood is terrible. I just think someone who doesn't know what they're doing would be better off starting with Betterment or Acorns, which are just as user friendly as Robinhood.
wgerard 9y ago
> My concern is that overall, the product and marketing seem to be geared towards speculative, short-term trading. When I first signed up, the app was recommending that I check out stocks like Apple, Netflix, and Snapchat, not index funds. There's a broad spectrum of public companies obviously, but it's hard to see $AAPL as speculative in the same sense that people call penny stocks or cryptocurrencies speculative (i.e. much, much more risk involved in the latter two). Investing in large cap equities isn't the stupidest thing you could be doing as a new investor - that award would certainly go to buying derivatives. And indeed if I have criticism of RH it's that they're trying to appeal to all investor types at the same time, new and experienced alike. It's easy to see how new investors can get confused when RH offers the ability to sign up for cryptocurrency trading and options trading, two things new investors obviously should not be doing (though admittedly there's obviously a questionnaire involved before you can be approved for options trading, not sure about cryptocurrencies).
- jjeaff 9y ago
  Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, General Motors, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac are all good examples of why you should avoid individual stocks, even if they are "blue chip".
  - 2trill2spill 9y ago
    Depends on when you bought them of course. I bought FNMA(Fannie Mae) in 2010 and it turned out pretty nicely. But yes most people are better off buying index funds. That's where most of my money goes.
  - bigtunacan 9y ago
    Amazon, Alibaba, Mercado Libre, and Netflix are good examples of reasons not to avoid individual stocks. More than 90% of my investments go into index funds and 10% into individual stocks, but if hindsight was 20/20 it would be 100% into my individual stocks and I’d be retired on my own private island today.
    - wmeredith 9y ago
      Hindsight IS 20/20. I think you meant if foresight was 20/20.
      - bigtunacan 9y ago
        LOL. Indeed I did.
    - dragonwriter 9y ago
      Aside from the hindsight/foresight inversion, you probably mean if your foresight was 20/20, but the rest of the market had no better foresight than they actually do. In which case, of course, you should invest entirely in the highest rate-of-return investmentd that the rest of the market currently undervalues. The problem is people are prone to overrate their own foresight.
  - beiller 9y ago

by dguo 9y ago

grahamannett 9y ago

I can understand why they guide people towards investing in "hip" companies versus an index fund, but regardless why is their so much animosity towards robinhood on HN? Is someone getting into investing and investing in an Apple/Amazon/etc. not overall a pretty good entry point compared to opening up thinkorswim or the pretty atrocious (at least on mac) schwab desktop client? Investing a small amount of money is better than blowing that money on tons of consumeristic bullshit that that tons of people do and RH seems like a genuinely good stepping stone compared to the current incumbents in a lot of ways (fees/minimum deposit/super simple). The fact that you can even start with RH and then at a later date transfer to a brokerage once you have a large enough portfolio is also a huge plus in my opinion to people who may have otherwise never set aside that money in the first place.

dguo 9y ago
I agree Robinhood is better than the incumbents in multiple ways. But at some time, other startups offer similar benefits while promoting an approach that is more likely to help the average person increase their wealth in the long term. I don't think Robinhood is terrible. I just think someone who doesn't know what they're doing would be better off starting with Betterment or Acorns, which are just as user friendly as Robinhood.

wgerard 9y ago

> My concern is that overall, the product and marketing seem to be geared towards speculative, short-term trading. When I first signed up, the app was recommending that I check out stocks like Apple, Netflix, and Snapchat, not index funds. There's a broad spectrum of public companies obviously, but it's hard to see $AAPL as speculative in the same sense that people call penny stocks or cryptocurrencies speculative (i.e. much, much more risk involved in the latter two). Investing in large cap equities isn't the stupidest thing you could be doing as a new investor - that award would certainly go to buying derivatives. And indeed if I have criticism of RH it's that they're trying to appeal to all investor types at the same time, new and experienced alike. It's easy to see how new investors can get confused when RH offers the ability to sign up for cryptocurrency trading and options trading, two things new investors obviously should not be doing (though admittedly there's obviously a questionnaire involved before you can be approved for options trading, not sure about cryptocurrencies).

jjeaff 9y ago
Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, General Motors, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac are all good examples of why you should avoid individual stocks, even if they are "blue chip".
- 2trill2spill 9y ago
  Depends on when you bought them of course. I bought FNMA(Fannie Mae) in 2010 and it turned out pretty nicely. But yes most people are better off buying index funds. That's where most of my money goes.
- bigtunacan 9y ago
  Amazon, Alibaba, Mercado Libre, and Netflix are good examples of reasons not to avoid individual stocks. More than 90% of my investments go into index funds and 10% into individual stocks, but if hindsight was 20/20 it would be 100% into my individual stocks and I’d be retired on my own private island today.
  - wmeredith 9y ago
    Hindsight IS 20/20. I think you meant if foresight was 20/20.
    - bigtunacan 9y ago
      LOL. Indeed I did.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    Aside from the hindsight/foresight inversion, you probably mean if your foresight was 20/20, but the rest of the market had no better foresight than they actually do. In which case, of course, you should invest entirely in the highest rate-of-return investmentd that the rest of the market currently undervalues. The problem is people are prone to overrate their own foresight.
- beiller 9y ago