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Robinhood raises $50M
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- quotha 11y agoThis company is going to put serious pressure on the pretty high commissions that the discount brokers are currently enjoying.
- nemo44x 11y agoBut first they will need to offer a few more things: -Ability to set limits and stop losses -Ability to use margin -Ability to buy and sell call and put options -Ability to trade after hours -Ability to short (likely comes with margin) -Ability to set trailing losses -A better UI -Ability to analyze trades and examine bid/ask spreads I used Robin Hood a few months back and possibly it has gotten better and I'm sure the overall experience will get better. But since that experiment I cashed out of that account and just use my online brokerage account. I do look forward to a better experience down the road.
- kolencherry 11y agoStop loss, stop limit, GTC orders were rolled out recently. See below: http://blog.robinhood.com/news/2015/4/23/introducing-robinhood-for-apple-watch http://blog.robinhood.com/news/2015/4/23/introducing-robinho... They've started that they will be releasing margin trading in 2015.
- nemo44x 11y agoExcellent. Might put some money back in it and try it out again.
- shitlord 11y agoI wish they had an Android app. Hopefully, it's in the works, because I would definitely try it out.
- timboslice 11y agoI've been waiting so long for an Android app. It will happen, eventually
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- droidist2 11y agoThey're working on it: https://robinhood.com/android/beta/ https://robinhood.com/android/beta/
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- 72deluxe 11y agoAre Android developers that hard to come by? I can write for Android, if anyone needs it.
- atomicmat 11y agoNo, but it's expensive, and it's more cost efficient to iterate on iphone first.
- what_ever 11y agoI would have guessed it's more cost efficient to work on the web version first. Don't think most of the people who want to trade want to specifically do it on an iOS device.
- atomicmat 11y agoAgreed but their product is mobile-first. They want to attract those people that spend 90% of their time on their smartphones. It's like asking why did Supercell / Clash of Clans not launch a web version first :)
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- loopbit 11y agoI loved the idea and got my invite also late 2014. And then I discovered that you needed a US address and an iPhone, none of which I have. I hope that, someday, they (or someone similar) will come to Europe.
- lawlessone 11y agoSame problems as me.
- atomicmat 11y agoMe too.
- soldergenie 11y agoFrom what I can see, the only way they differentiate themselves from their well established competitors is by not charging commissions. Yet I don't see how their costs of running a brokerage would be lower than their competitors, and they don't seem to have any revenue streams their competitors don't also have. So how will they eventually be profitable? Discount brokerage isn't an especially profitable industry to begin with Competing on price alone doesn't seem like a good strategy to creating a valuable company.
- towelguy 11y agoOn a business where the objective is increasing your wealth? > With Robinhood, you will be able to buy and sell US listed companies, ETFs, and many of the largest companies in your home country. This also looks like a nice addition.
- riffraff 11y agoIf they charge less than the competitors, they earn less but that doesn't mean they are not viable. I.e. transferwise.com charges a ton less than my bank to send money with a conversion. My bank could charge less and not lose customers, but it will probably take them some decades to do that.
- PublicEnemy111 11y agoI was coming here to say exactly that. from: http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/07/free-stock-trades/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/07/free-stock-trades/ > Tenev says Robinhood is charging a 3.5% fee to trade on margin in a private beta of the feature It looks like they're planning to monetize via margin. That would work great if the economy was perpetually in an upswing... but I don't think they would have survived in the great recession. Not to mention the irony of Robinhood making margin calls.
- poopsintub 11y agoThey take a pretty good fee to withdraw money. I'm not sure that would be a decent part of their revenue, though.
- lhnz 11y agoWhen are they coming to the UK?
- memossy 11y agoSaving $2.4m on $500m traded implies that typical trade < $300.. Looks like they want to make back the money they lose on margin trading, margins for them will likely not be that great as a result - a good corollary is spread bet providers in the UK tbh
- quan 11y agoMy experience with Robinhood has been completely negative. I recently worked on a loan and needed to show the Robinhood transfer to my bank. Since there's no web interface you can't get the current month printout. There's no phone number to call, and it took them 3 days to reply to the zendesk ticket only to say they can't do anything and I have to wait til end of the month. The actual statement is only available a week after beginning of the month. Never again. I closed out my account and deleted the app.
- jackreichert 11y agoIt used to be available on their site, but they do have a number: http://online-brokers.credio.com/l/128/Robinhood http://online-brokers.credio.com/l/128/Robinhood Not cool that they took it off.
- pfista 11y agoI've had issues trying to get statements as well, but they've since improved that and you can access all your statements in the app. That said, this is one of the most solid apps I've ever used. I don't think it has ever crashed or shown any strange UI bugs.
- zwtaylor 11y agoI agree that a mobile-only interface is just not enough when you're dealing with something as intricate as investing. They've tried to abstract away the many layers of paperwork from investing/trading, but it leads to things like the problems you've had. I tried Robinhood for a few days and started to feel that it was turning investing, something that should require significant forethought and research, into a bit of a toy. The fact that it specifically targets a younger millennial audience who most likely have no experience investing makes me a little uneasy. That's not to say the app isn't well designed and good-looking, but that a mobile-only app just might not be the best medium for investors.
- INTPnerd 11y agoI'm not seeing your point about targeting a younger audience. A great investor can come from a combination of being self taught and from experience. The earlier you start the better better chance you have to make mistakes, learn from them, and get good at it. When you are young, you probably don't have much money to loose anyway. Not investing until you are older, and have a substantial savings is when lots of money really gets lost or else they are completely depended on financial advisers, but still not knowing which of them to really trust.
- Ryel 11y agoMaybe they can use some of that $50M to fix their broken password recovery.
- dataker 11y agoIt's quite interesting they're moving to Australia after the US. Usually, companies goes to EU first while moving overseas, but it appears it's becoming more and more bureaucratic, so why spend its limited resources?
- semerda 11y agoAustralia is a financially savvy market. Most people I know there trade stock and have at least 1 investment property. Great move by Robinhood!
- semerda 11y ago"Stop paying up to $65 for every trade." I am assuming this is in reference to 10K+ trades not the average trade that last time I checked was around $19. Either way Congrats on the big raise. Good move on focusing next on a financially savvy market like Australia!
- physcab 11y agoI love Robinhood because it has made trading so accessible to me. I started out by putting in $100 and as I gained confidence and started doing more research, I started adding more funds. I've tried many services in the past - Schwab, ETrade, Scottrade, and they all felt a bit too "heavy-weight" for me. I don't have significant amounts of income invested, I just want something low friction that I can use as a learning tool. I have friends who are more "serious" investors and they don't use Robinhood, but I see Robinhood satisfying a different use case at the moment.
- humbleMouse 11y agoThis is sweet. Short term trading with no commission costs? Great.