5 ms·

The reason (probably only reason) RH is successful/popular is because of their $0 transaction fee. I wouldn't use it if I had to pay for anything.

samfisher83 6y ago
Pretty much all the big brokers are at 0 now.
- alexbanks 6y ago
  I suppose it might be worth reexamining. Last time I used etrade it was a flat 10 dollar txn fee, which was absolutely ridiculous for people like me who just play around with funmoney. Robinhood was perfect for my needs.
  - basch 6y ago
    The mobile app is a true mobile first app, but other than the UX theres no reason to stick with RH over Schwab, Fidelity, Etrade, Merrill, Ally.
    - alexbanks 6y ago
      But, is there any value add to casual investors like myself vs. RH?
      - basch 6y ago
        Depends what you consider value. Better customer support? Trust? Price improvement. A suite of more products. Being able to call and get any issue resolved immediately, with strikingly intelligent answers for customer service, and a customer first attitude, is priceless.
- shmoogy 6y ago
  Not for options, I think it's only Robinhood, tastyworks, and webull.
high_derivative 6y ago
I never understand why people are _so_ desperate to save a few bucks when risking their life savings versus using a professional tool if they desire to trade options (say, interactive brokers). You save fees and then get screwed when Robinhood is down on expiration day.
- Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
  For someone like me who's only tossing $2,000 into stocks to play around with, having zero fees is the #1 selling point, otherwise, the fees add up to a significant fraction.
- alexbanks 6y ago
  I was speaking less about options trading and more about general adoption. I've never done options trading, just small-ish buys and sells. My experience with e-trade was a flat 10 dollar txn fee, which was totally unreasonable for the amount of money I was investing.
- toast0 6y ago
  If you're trading in small amounts, the comissions add up pretty quickly, a $10 comission on a $1000 purchase of stock ends up being 2% of the price, considering you have to pay to buy and to sell. That's way better than a $30 comission from the before times, but it's still big. That said, we can all thank RobinHood for driving comissions down to zero, and then do business at brokerages that work. I personally wouldn't trade at IB, because I only do a tiny amount of trading, and don't want to go into the rabbit hole of individually routing my orders; it's great that it's available, but I don't need that, nor do I want an API or stuff.
rexreed 6y ago
Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Fidelity all now offer commission-free trading

samfisher83 6y ago

Pretty much all the big brokers are at 0 now.

alexbanks 6y ago
I suppose it might be worth reexamining. Last time I used etrade it was a flat 10 dollar txn fee, which was absolutely ridiculous for people like me who just play around with funmoney. Robinhood was perfect for my needs.
- basch 6y ago
  The mobile app is a true mobile first app, but other than the UX theres no reason to stick with RH over Schwab, Fidelity, Etrade, Merrill, Ally.
  - alexbanks 6y ago
    But, is there any value add to casual investors like myself vs. RH?
    - basch 6y ago
      Depends what you consider value. Better customer support? Trust? Price improvement. A suite of more products. Being able to call and get any issue resolved immediately, with strikingly intelligent answers for customer service, and a customer first attitude, is priceless.
shmoogy 6y ago
Not for options, I think it's only Robinhood, tastyworks, and webull.

high_derivative 6y ago

I never understand why people are _so_ desperate to save a few bucks when risking their life savings versus using a professional tool if they desire to trade options (say, interactive brokers). You save fees and then get screwed when Robinhood is down on expiration day.

Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
For someone like me who's only tossing $2,000 into stocks to play around with, having zero fees is the #1 selling point, otherwise, the fees add up to a significant fraction.
alexbanks 6y ago
I was speaking less about options trading and more about general adoption. I've never done options trading, just small-ish buys and sells. My experience with e-trade was a flat 10 dollar txn fee, which was totally unreasonable for the amount of money I was investing.
toast0 6y ago
If you're trading in small amounts, the comissions add up pretty quickly, a $10 comission on a $1000 purchase of stock ends up being 2% of the price, considering you have to pay to buy and to sell. That's way better than a $30 comission from the before times, but it's still big. That said, we can all thank RobinHood for driving comissions down to zero, and then do business at brokerages that work. I personally wouldn't trade at IB, because I only do a tiny amount of trading, and don't want to go into the rabbit hole of individually routing my orders; it's great that it's available, but I don't need that, nor do I want an API or stuff.

rexreed 6y ago

Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Fidelity all now offer commission-free trading