App Review: Robinhood
When many college students hear the words “stock market,” they imagine rich Wall Street investors screaming over the phone, buying a few million shares at a time. Investing in stocks is not traditionally something that college students do. With brokerage fees taking large chunks of the profit, (or multiplying losses), the amount of capital required to trade stocks is just too high for most broke college kids to trade stocks.
Robinhood, a mobile app that has been rapidly gaining popularity, may change that. The app boasts a $0 account minimum and no commission fees.
According to The Wall Street Journal, 80% of the user base of Robinhood are millennials. The app’s young user base is no surprise given that Robinhood makes it possible to effectively trade stock with just a few hundred dollars.
While the app only currently allows users to buy long on stocks, it hopes to add more investing opportunities in the future such as buying mutual funds. The app does support features that makes it easier to trade such as limits and stops, which buy or sell stocks automatically depending on the price.
Wither zero fees, it may seem a bit too good to be true. According to Robinhood’s website, it collects interest from customers that voluntarily choose to get a margin account and accrues interest from uninvested money. Robinhood also automates many of the duties a brick and mortar brokerage would still have to perform, making Robinhood much more cost-efficient.
Robinhood opens up an abundance of investing opportunity for younger generations where there previously was none. While traditional firms often charge commissions to buy or sell a stock, Robinhood allows users to keep all their gains, opening up huge opputunity for both low capital trading and day trading.
Robinhood is available on iOS and Android operating systems.