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Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

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Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#131

Post by what_ever »

bigtunacan wrote: post #110
siruncledrew wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why the $0 commission is such a key feature. They know people enjoy the emotional high of seeing the green numbers in their account when they open the app. This isn't a tool for high net-worth individuals, people that want "traditional" (Vanguard, Wealthfront, Schwab) wealth management investing with long-term planning, or advanced traders looking for Bloomberg terminal-esque features. This is designed to allo…

I’m probably not the average Robinhood user, but I was already putting about $50k/year into index funds for retirement. So rather than putting even more in these I wanted to research and invest directly in a handful of stocks long term. I used to use Scottrade for this. That’s not too bad $7/trade ($14/round-trip). If I’m making a sizable enough investment that won’t matter too much. But what if I only had $24 this w…

Thanks. I think so many people here don't understand how people use RH and quickly jump to conclusion thinking it's only "low net-worth individuals" using it. Before RH, people still invested in individual stocks and it wasn't only "low net-worth" individuals attracted by the greens and reds in the UI doing those.

Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#132

Post by what_ever »

retube wrote: post #127
siruncledrew wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why the $0 commission is such a key feature. They know people enjoy the emotional high of seeing the green numbers in their account when they open the app. This isn't a tool for high net-worth individuals, people that want "traditional" (Vanguard, Wealthfront, Schwab) wealth management investing with long-term planning, or advanced traders looking for Bloomberg terminal-esque features. This is designed to allo…

what does $0 commission mean? unless they're sourcing assets at mid then it's not 0 commission. and they can't be giving trades at mid to customers unless they're taking a loss on every transaction. they must be charging bid-offer - so how much?

I think it's pretty clear in the industry what commission means when it comes to trading stocks. It's on top of the spread. Go to any other broker and they have the same spread. It's not going to be much better at brokers for individual investors like us. And if you are worried about getting worse spread, use limit orders.

Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#133

Post by what_ever »

prostoalex wrote: post #99
dguo wrote: post #19

I appreciate the zero commission trading, but at the same time, I'm worried about the attitude towards "investing" that they promote. Most people should arguably be putting their money into index funds and holding for the long term[1], not picking individual stocks and following price movements on a daily basis. I wouldn't criticize anyone for speculating (i.e. gambling) with money they can afford to lose. I've done…

> Most people should arguably be putting their money into index funds and holding for the long term Fidelity’s internal survey revealed that best performance correlated with low account activity http://www.businessinsider.com/forgetful-investors-performed...

But it's very possible most of the users of RH wouldn't have invested any money at all if not for RH. I know many of my friends wouldn't have. Now whether they make money is a different argument.

Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#134

Post by aryamaan »

yalla wrote: post #68

I love the business model of taking the old-school industry and offer the basic use for free with slick UI and modern look. WOnder if this model can be applied to other fields.

That's a nice perspective. I think it will be more likely to happen where user experience is not so much tied to human interaction like e-commerce. And where network effect is not required eq. social websites.

So, places where an user's exp with the business is individualized- like in this case.

Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#135

Post by icelancer »

prostoalex wrote: post #99
dguo wrote: post #19

I appreciate the zero commission trading, but at the same time, I'm worried about the attitude towards "investing" that they promote. Most people should arguably be putting their money into index funds and holding for the long term[1], not picking individual stocks and following price movements on a daily basis. I wouldn't criticize anyone for speculating (i.e. gambling) with money they can afford to lose. I've done…

> Most people should arguably be putting their money into index funds and holding for the long term Fidelity’s internal survey revealed that best performance correlated with low account activity http://www.businessinsider.com/forgetful-investors-performed...

The vast majority of that is due to transaction fees/commissions, which RH doesn't have. I would still expect this to hold up even on a zero-commission basis, but the effect would be significantly diminished.

Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#136

Post by sumedh »

eden123 wrote: post #130

Does anyone know their plans to expand to other countries? I am curious how they will manage to apply to different laws and fee structures overseas. Expanding with the premium option only would also make sense to me.

They are coming soon to Australia for the last 2 years.

Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#137

Post by TorKlingberg »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #129
btmorex wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that why Vanguard has their Total Stock Market and Total Bond Market funds? Basically, they're the "invest in these if you don't want to bother" funds.

They also have LifeStrategy 0/20/40/60/80/100 so you can balance stocks vs bonds however you want, and have diversification handled for you.

I think the numbered LifeStrategy funds are only a UK (GBP) thing. Am I wrong?

Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#139

Post by swarnie_ »

justboxing wrote: post #9

Cryptocurrency trading is very volatile, speculative and un-regulated. RobinHood is aggressively going after the young and naive "investors" who will quickly be parted from their money. Obligatory Tweet: https://twitter.com/robinhoodapp/status/756262680537759744

For reference, see /r/wallstreetbets

Re: Stock trade app Robinhood raising at $5B+, up 4X in a year

#140

Post by beiller »

I tried my hand at algorithmic trading. It was an interesting experience because I have no experience with stocks, only trying it with digital currencies as a possible platform to eventually move to my portfolio. I found that the bot was just dominated by larger overall market movements. For example in the bull market, nothing I can do wins! It was an interesting lesson and I like how the markets run 24 hours. But I wonder what the end game of algorithmic trading is. Everyone can't run the same algorithm can they? My naive approach was moving average crossover, and using neural network or random forest, to train based on what the market looks like, to pick the "windows" for the EMA. Anyone else tried that?
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