https://www.robinhood.com/?ref=GZrjNZAnyone else heard of this place? Yes, that's a referral link. The only thing it gets me is faster access as they open it up. It's in beta or something?
They claim you can trade stocks for free*.
Have you done a google search on it? I have read quite a few articles on it, both pros-and-cons. IIRC you are limited to a select group of stocks and there were a few more gotchas.
Seems like this would be good for someone wanting to regularly invest in a stock or ETF....make small deposits each month and buy a few shares. Typical commissions would make this prohibitive. Allows you to dollar cost average in over time.
Wonder if they provide a downloadable 1099 at the end of the year that can be directly imported into TurboTax and other tax software?
Interesting that they make use of Amazon's cloud service.
Here's a link to their fee structure
https://brokerage-static.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/robinhood/legal/RHF%20Retail%20Commisions%20and%20Fees%20Schedule.pdfI would definitely consider opening an account with them.
-Jon
Commissions at the "discount brokers" are very low now, so the exact amount is almost irrelevant.
Robinhood gets their income from "payment for order flow" which is an insidious practice that I would make illegal. Read the book "Flash Boys".
sharebuilder for all of my dollar cost averaging needs.
I don't want to say anything bad about these guys, whom I do not know, but keep in mind the cost of a transaction lies not only in the broker fees, but in the spread, or difference between the selling and buying prices.
Different brokers may offer different spreads, and the smaller ones are usually at a disadvantage.
As always when offered a 'free lunch', the immediate reaction should be 'what's the catch'?
Highly recommend IBKR for all your discount brokerage needs, if you are an active investor. (call it, 10+ individual security trades a year).
Not only do they really shine on equities - but you can do options & bonds cheaply as well. Nobody else offers the kinds of deals they do. Very well established already; and very large
So, I finally got my Robinhood invite this morning. I went to sign up and it asks me what version of IOS I am using if at all. I hate Apple products and don't own one so I said none. Then it tells me sorry, you have to have an IOS device because that's all they support right now. How stupid is that. Oh well, but they let me pass on my invite code if anyone wants it.
I got my invite too and I went ahead and signed up just so I could see how all of it works.
Main stuff is with Fidelity and Vanguard. This might be a "play money" account.
I'm signed up. Seems to work well. I'm using it to buy ETFs. It's nice to be able to add small amounts to my savings without having to pay commissions. Robinhood has sent me several invites to pass on. If anyone would like one, just PM me and I'll pass one on to you (until they're gone).