What Time Does Robinhood Starts Trading?
Robinhood starts trading at 8:00 am, EST. See all
Top brokers extended trading hours.
Robinhood Extended-Hours Trading Overview
Besides buying and selling stocks and ETF’s during regular market hours, which are during the week from 9:30 am until 4:00 pm, EST,
Robinhood clients can also trade during extended hours. The broker does require a Gold account to receive this privilege, however.
Robinhood Extended-Hours Period
Robinhood’s pre-market session begins half an hour before the regular market opens. The broker’s after-hours period lasts from market
close until 6:00 pm, EST. These sessions combined produce an extra 2½ hours of trading.
Robinhood Gold Account
Robinhood requires investors who want to trade in these special periods to have a Gold account. This is a unique margin account, which differs from the margin accounts of other brokerage firms.
Instead of charging a percent of the dollar amount borrowed, Robinhood charges a flat $10 every month. This gives the account the
ability to borrow a maximum of $2,000. The ability to borrow $4,000 costs $20 every month, and so on for the first $50,000. Above $50,000
they charge 5% interest. So essentially, traders at Robinhood who want access to the extended-hours periods must pay at least $10 per
month.
A Gold account also comes with instant reinvesting. This service allows traders to use the proceeds from a stock sale to immediately purchase other securities. The Gold service also offers instant deposits, where ACH transfers can be used right away, instead of after the normal three business-day wait. These are nice features that other Robinhood traders don’t have.
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How to enter Extended-Hours Orders on Robinhood
Robinhood only accepts limit orders during the pre-market and after-hours sessions. If you submit a market order, the broker-dealer will automatically convert it to a limit order, and add a 5% collar to it. If you place a market order after the evening session closes, it will be sent to the regular period the following morning, bypassing the pre-market session.
Limit orders placed in a Gold account are automatically valid for the regular period and the extended-hours periods. Stop orders are not valid during extended hours.
Ups and Downs of Trading During Extended Hours
Robinhood reminds its clients that trading before the market opens or after it closes incurs additional hazards. These include lower liquidity, which can make it difficult to find a counter-party. Volatility is also often a problem. This can cause order fills to be further away from the stock price compared to the regular sessions.
Comparison
Other brokers don’t charge anything for trading during extended hours or require a special account. TD Ameritrade
is one example. On the flip side, Robinhood doesn’t impose any additional commissions for pre-market or after-hours trades. E*Trade imposes a 0.5¢ surcharge on these orders. Since Robinhood is already at $0 commissions, some investors may decide that the broker still offers the best value, even with a $10 monthly fee.
Robinhood’s pre-market session is shorter than Ally Invest’s, whose early period opens an hour before Robinhood’s.
Although Robinhood has some disadvantages here, it nevertheless does better than some brokers. Capital One Investing, for instance, doesn’t provide any extended-hours
trading.
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Robinhood Overview
Robinhood is a stock brokerage firm based in California which allows its users to buy and sell US stocks for free. It uses automated technology that drives operational
costs such as traders’ salaries and commissions to the minimum. This is how they are able to offer zero fee per trade unlike traditional brokerages who are charging up
to $65 per trade.
It has a different approach to generating revenue. Since it doesn’t generate any commission revenue, it uses the uninvested cash the customers have deposited and earns
interest on them at Federal Funds rate.
With the use of mobile technology, they haven’t only simplified investing in stocks but they have expanded the sector to millennials and post-millennials.
The application was first launched in 2014. The functionalities are limited to buying and selling at market price, making limit orders, stop loss orders and
stop limit orders, and although it can’t yet perform more complex financial product purchases, the company is currently valued at $1.3 billion. Having over 2 million
users, the total transactions amount to $25 billion to date.
Robinhood, like any other well managed business, is keeping its product up to date, adding new features, and has expansion plans to enter Australia, UK and the EU.
They are offering an enhanced service to their customers via the Robinhood Gold Subscription which costs $10 per month with extra features such as extra 2.5 hours of
trading, extra line of credit, instant deposits and trade on margin with leverage capability. “Gold users won’t have to wait three days for the ACH transfers to
process when they fund their Robinhood balance from their bank account, or when they sell stock and want to buy more stock with the proceeds. Pre- and post-bell
trading gives smaller investors an option to trade on after-hours news like earnings reports. Trading from 9am to 9.30am when markets open and from 4pm to 6pm after
they close was typically reserved for big institutional investors” says the CEO of Robinhood, Baiju Bhatt.
He adds, “the most important premium feature, though, is additional buying power-which he calls ’basically a credit card for the stock market.’ As long as users have
at least $2,000 in their account, they can borrow up to 2X that amount for $10 per month and trade with it. Robinhood is also selling higher-priced subscription with
more buying power: $4,000 for $20/month, $6,000 for $30/month, $10,000 for $50/month, and buying power up to $50,000 at a 5% interest rate. There are some restrictions
on risky buying behavior, so you can’t dump thousands into a newly IPO’d company, leveraged ETFs, or stocks priced under $3.00 because they’re too volatile.”
Going forward, the question is whether traders interested in these advanced options are ready for a mobile-only trading app.
There are no account maintenance fees at Robinhood. Investors will be happy to know that there are also no account inactivity or annual fee at Robinhood.
Robinhood has received the attention of many investors since the beginning, bringing many investors aboard and creating the capital it needs to expand. The last round
of investment came from Russian Billionaire Yuri Milner’s investment vehicle DST Global. DST Global invested $110 million in Series C funding stage.
Robinhood also has a marketing strategy that’s common for many businesses but what makes this different is this: when you refer a friend and their application is
approved, both you and your friend receive a stock chosen at random which is valued between $3 to $150 for free. Furthermore, the interface is very easy to use,
minimalistic and fits the design themes of the latest iOS upgrades. The ability to add stocks to the ‘Watchlist’ and view the basic information about the individual
stock, review your trade history, portfolio performance and read about the company’s concise history.
Updated on 1/16/2018.
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