Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 175 posts

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#31

Post by greenyoda »

[deleted] wrote: post #27
masonhensley wrote: post #8

FYI - you will not have a good time buying and selling stocks onesie-twosie when it comes time to filling out your tax return. If you want to avoid commissions, Schwab & Fidelity have commission free ETF's - just buy and hold.

[deleted]

Alternatively, you can invest in an old-fashioned index fund from Vanguard instead of an ETF and make small purchases without a fee (you can even set up recurring transfers from your bank account). This kind of investing is nothing new - it's been possible for decades.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#32

Post by Veratyr »

masonhensley wrote: post #8

FYI - you will not have a good time buying and selling stocks onesie-twosie when it comes time to filling out your tax return. If you want to avoid commissions, Schwab & Fidelity have commission free ETF's - just buy and hold.

Also FYI, TurboTax supports many of the major brokers, which makes this super easy: https://www.partner.turbotax.com/top_partner_list.html

Included are Robinhood, Schwab, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade among others.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#33

Post by StavrosK »

RickS wrote: post #21
jzwinck wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read your post and am left with two questions. 1. Robinhood Gold interest is 6%. Interactive Brokers is 2.4% [1]. Why do you think there is such a massive difference, and would anyone benefit from paying it? 2. Your analysis works on ten years of data from 2007 to 2017. Did you know that is a very positive period and that shifting it by a few years would completely change the analysis? [2] I'm not surprised you sto…

> 1. Robinhood Gold interest is 6%. Interactive Brokers is 2.4% [1]. Why do you think there is such a massive difference, and would anyone benefit from paying it? I've used IB (and don't use robinhood). The IB GUI is a fucking trainwreck. If design had ethical obligations the way bridge engineering does, IB's designers would be in prison. It is bad. And it's still one of the better trading interfaces. Ever seen a blo…

> The IB GUI is a fucking trainwreck

I tried to buy some index funds and couldn't even really figure out how to log in after creating my account :( Trainwreck is an understatement.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#34

Post by Veratyr »

benbowdene wrote: post #9
whitepoplar wrote: post #6

I think what Robinhood is doing with Gold accounts is pretty shady. I'm guessing that the vast majority of people who trade on margin don't fully comprehend the risks in doing so.

I agree. Especially when most of their user base is probably millennials who are < 2 years into trading. A bit scary.

Here's scary: https://np.reddit.com/r/RobinHood/comments/5y8cw4/after_maki...

The guy was posting around about consumer law and how he should be able to get a refund.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#35

Post by greenyoda »

kevinmannix wrote: post #3

I laughed at the article's url slug playing on the company's name - now-whos-the-rich . I haven't used Robinhood, but welcome new fintech companies who lower the barrier of entry toward financial health for the average consumer. Good for them, and I hope they use this money well.

"who lower the barrier of entry toward financial health for the average consumer..."

The barrier is already pretty low:

- Max out your 401-K (and collect your company match, if any).

- Invest in low-cost index funds from Vanguard.

- Pay off your credit card debt, if any (since you probably won't make 20+% a year on your other investments).

- Don't buy lots of stuff you don't need.

On average, you'll get much better results this way than by trading stocks.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#36

Post by charlesdm »

RickS wrote: post #21
jzwinck wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read your post and am left with two questions. 1. Robinhood Gold interest is 6%. Interactive Brokers is 2.4% [1]. Why do you think there is such a massive difference, and would anyone benefit from paying it? 2. Your analysis works on ten years of data from 2007 to 2017. Did you know that is a very positive period and that shifting it by a few years would completely change the analysis? [2] I'm not surprised you sto…

> 1. Robinhood Gold interest is 6%. Interactive Brokers is 2.4% [1]. Why do you think there is such a massive difference, and would anyone benefit from paying it? I've used IB (and don't use robinhood). The IB GUI is a fucking trainwreck. If design had ethical obligations the way bridge engineering does, IB's designers would be in prison. It is bad. And it's still one of the better trading interfaces. Ever seen a blo…

Shameless plug: if you like good UI on Mac, check out Stockfolio, http://apple.co/2niG1PY

One of our next updates should include linking to your brokerage + support for buying and selling shares. IB should (hopefully) be one of the supported brokerages.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#37

Post by Veratyr »

RickS wrote: post #21
jzwinck wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read your post and am left with two questions. 1. Robinhood Gold interest is 6%. Interactive Brokers is 2.4% [1]. Why do you think there is such a massive difference, and would anyone benefit from paying it? 2. Your analysis works on ten years of data from 2007 to 2017. Did you know that is a very positive period and that shifting it by a few years would completely change the analysis? [2] I'm not surprised you sto…

> 1. Robinhood Gold interest is 6%. Interactive Brokers is 2.4% [1]. Why do you think there is such a massive difference, and would anyone benefit from paying it? I've used IB (and don't use robinhood). The IB GUI is a fucking trainwreck. If design had ethical obligations the way bridge engineering does, IB's designers would be in prison. It is bad. And it's still one of the better trading interfaces. Ever seen a blo…

> I've used IB (and don't use robinhood). The IB GUI is a fucking trainwreck. If design had ethical obligations the way bridge engineering does, IB's designers would be in prison. It is bad. And it's still one of the better trading interfaces. Ever seen a bloomberg terminal?

I agree that the UI is terrible but keep in mind that IB is very very specifically targeted at active stock traders and institutions, not regular people. The UI starts to make slightly more sense if you're trading a lot.

For an example of a good UI though, I'd look at TD Ameritrade, which has a pretty decent one.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#38

Post by marcell »

charlesdm wrote: post #29
whitepoplar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so bad. If you offered the same people a loan at x% annual interest rate, I bet far fewer of them would bite, but that's exactly what the Gold monthly fee is.

At $10/mo (=$120 year), assuming a 1.5% interest rate, you're actually saving money on interest expenses if you invest more than $10k on margin for > 1 year. Doesn't sounds that bad to me?

It's $10/mo to borrow up to $2k. The cost to borrow more goes up.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#39

Post by Veratyr »

nodesocket wrote: post #22
jzwinck wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read your post and am left with two questions. 1. Robinhood Gold interest is 6%. Interactive Brokers is 2.4% [1]. Why do you think there is such a massive difference, and would anyone benefit from paying it? 2. Your analysis works on ten years of data from 2007 to 2017. Did you know that is a very positive period and that shifting it by a few years would completely change the analysis? [2] I'm not surprised you sto…

IB is a great platform (though their design and tech suck), but by far offer the best margin rates. They are geared towards professionals though, and I think lots of people just don't know about them. So 2008, the great recession was a very positive period? Ok, here are QQQ returns starting at 2003: 2003 - 49.61% 2004 - 9.49% 2005 - 1.23% 2006 - 6.81% If you want to be bearish and hunker down in your bunker that is f…

> So 2008, the great recession was a very positive period?

No, 2007 to 2017 is claimed as a positive period.

CAGR over the period you list above is 15%. Over 2007 to 2017, it's 10%, not so far off, and over a 10 year period rather than a 4 year period.

Re: Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3B with big raise from DST

#40

Post by [deleted] »

Veratyr wrote: post #34
benbowdene wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Especially when most of their user base is probably millennials who are < 2 years into trading. A bit scary.

Here's scary: https://np.reddit.com/r/RobinHood/comments/5y8cw4/after_maki... The guy was posting around about consumer law and how he should be able to get a refund.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN