When this was on the front page last time, I pointed out that they charge fees: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6906374" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6906374</a><p>> They appear to charge TAF and other regulatory fees (<a href="https://brokerage-static.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/robinhood/legal/RHF%20Retail%20Commisions%20and%20Fees%20Schedule%20Rhfv1.2%2020131210.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://brokerage-static.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/robinhood/l...</a>) -- and based on the fee numbers it looks like they don't have significant volume -- but the website shows "FEES $0" in the app screen. The fees may not seem to be a lot, but saying that fees are zero is a factually incorrect statement.<p>I'm glad they fixed their homepage, but the table in the article (<a href="http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/screenshot-2013-12-18-at-6-36-44-am.png?w=1360&h=424" rel="nofollow">http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/screensh...</a>) is wrong.
Ah, what cute example of disruption porn.<p>Hip, populist sounding name? Check.<p>New slick-designed facade on old activity? Check.<p>Marketed as if they're eliminating middlemen? Check. (wow! no fees!)<p>Promoted as making a begrudgingly-done banality suddenly fun? Check.<p>Entirely predicated on the idea that the founders' simplicity will persevere? Check.<p>Majority of money still flowing to well connected insiders? Check. (who do you think is on the other side of trades?)<p>Eventually going to be assimilated into an incumbent and end up as a tired pig's discarded lipstick? Check.
There is an entire market around the buying and selling of so-called "uninformed flow". While others do this as well, I would give a word of warning to all those potentially interested in this. If you aren't buying something, you are the thing being sold.
Here's the problem:<p>|RobinHood co-founder Baiju Bhatt stresses that if you want to do deep financial research, you probably want to sit down at a desktop.<p>The heavy traders who would really benefit from zero-commission (assuming that it actually is) are on desktops in front of 4-10 monitors. Because of what it implies, I think regular people probably shouldn't be making trades that need to be done RIGHT NOW before a desktop can be reached.<p>edit to add: Is the "Share" button on the bottom of the trade confirmation screen really necessary? Are rich people going to be clogging up twitter with brags like "Just bought 1,000 shares of AAPL on Robinhood!"
Zero-commission (on some trades), but a bunch of random fees for other things, and no guarantee that it will stay fee-free. They plan on making money by providing liquidity (ie. being a market maker) and offering premium services...<p>With my current brokerage, I get online trading in 10+ worldwide markets, I can hold a variety of currencies, I get excellent execution, and there's no fees, there's plenty of services available including charts, real-time quotes, reports and many things that would otherwise cost me money, and all I have to pay is a flat commission fee on my trades. I really don't see how Robinhood is superior, now or in the future... And many brokerages already offer API access, even if they don't advertise it.
Just seems like a bad product. Most people trail the market because they trade too often. If you want your investments to make money, you don't want a product like this in your pocket all the time.
Thought I recognized the guy in the video! He loves financial services.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Sx34swEG0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Sx34swEG0</a><p><a href="https://vimeo.com/87163777" rel="nofollow">https://vimeo.com/87163777</a>
"Zero commission" does not actually mean zero commission.
The commission just ends up being baked in to the prices they show you.
e.g. If the market (institutional) bid/offer for MSFT were 39/41, they would show customers prices of 38/42. For an order of $1000, that would mean they charge you $25 of implicit commission on the trade. It just doesn't show up on your bill.
Get real. Their only innovation is hiding fees from their customers, not reducing them.
If I'm in New Zealand I'm guessing this isn't for me?<p><a href="https://brokerage-static.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/robinhood/legal/RHF%20Jurisdictions.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://brokerage-static.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/robinhood/l...</a>
Love this - and the team seems excellent.<p>I'd view the competition as Interactive Brokers, not E*TRADE or Fidelity.<p>If I didn't love my job so much I'd be schwangling my way in to try and get in the door there.