Robinhood stock trading app (iOS and Android)

[EyeSeeCold]

While shopping for online brokers I discovered Robinhood which takes zero commission. The interface is pretty simple and user-friendly.

At the moment you can only trade on the NYSE and NASDAQ, and highly volatile stocks seem forbidden, but penny stocks are a go. You can do market order, limit order, stop limit, stop loss and also have a watchlist. Up to your first $1000 is loaned so you can make trades right away before your bank clears the transaction.

I don't think I would've gotten into trading if it wasn't for Robinhood, but anyone thinking of installing it should of course do their research before getting into this broker, or any stock for that matter.


Here is my OpenFolio account: https://openfolio.com/profile/66804804/#user_activity

 

[Tannhauser]

not bad, although you sound like a commercial, dude.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I hope so, since that's what they pay me for.

 

[gilliatt]

Would like to appeal to your common sense, your logic. I could be wrong, but I see a potentially sad story down the road. The con man and his victim & the Wall Street Game. How to play this game is really known to a comparatively few. Sometimes the little player makes money, mountains of it, only to have it taken away from them on the way down. They climb up one side of the Wall Street Alps and then slid off and fall down in the valley of depression. Most are flat broke at the bottom when there are great bargains. One man remarked, you decide to learn or quit.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I will respond in kind with common sense and logic.

The stock market is gambling, plain and simple, it is quite effectively a long term pyramid scheme that has crashed multiple times in the last 100 years yet continues to be supported by government and corporations, and also manipulated by government and corporations. The 2001 tech/internet bubble and the 2007-09 housing bubble were directly related to investment banks and a lack of government regulations and investigations.

However I believe knowledge is power, as as long as the super wealthy and corporations out there are playing the game, common citizens are surrendering their own power by refusing to get involved(whether by invest-ing or invest-igating). The citizens who don't know about securities must be educated so that they do know, this is the only way to restore democracy in a republic.

Realistically, there are steps one can take to mitigate loss, some of these are diversification(among stocks themselves and the different securities), utilizing stop loss & stop limit orders, and also budgeting a safe amount of money that you don't need to use for security speculation.

At the end of the day, it's about what you choose to do with opportunity and knowledge, and whether you care about other forces taking advantage of you with that same opportunity and knowledge.

 

[TBerg]

Robinhood has to be significantly slower than the services employed by black market firms using fiber optics to get as close to the actual market as possible, so Robinhood would be downstream from any significantly live information.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I don't know the whole of it but some have said that the price info and orders may not be realtime, but wouldn't that be scandalous? Obviously their network isn't as fast as data networks located in NY, but this can be easily resolved by relying on RH only for limit order purchases, you can get all other services and information elsewhere like Google or Yahoo finance.

 

[Kuu]

Curriencies are far more liquid, and trade is international (non-stop). And currencies crash less often than stocks do.

Also, trading through a smartphone seems like a recipe to lose all your money. I don't see why that's innovative. Social Trading systems, seem far more interesting to me, from a newb perspective.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

[bIMGx=200]http://i.imgur.com/I0d0XXK.jpg[/bIMGx]

Curriencies are far more liquid, and trade is international (non-stop). And currencies crash less often than stocks do.

Also, trading through a smartphone seems like a recipe to lose all your money. I don't see why that's innovative. Social Trading systems, seem far more interesting to me, from a newb perspective.

Are there any platforms or guides you would recommend for getting into currency or commodity trading?

You're right, on the whole there isn't much that Robinhood offers that could be considered innovative. What they bring to the table rather, is the lack of commission. This lack of commission allows the common capitalist to invest in stocks who would otherwise find their limited funds quickly eaten up by fees.

Unless I'm misunderstanding, the concept of social trading applies to stocks as well. One thing I would be wary of is the very real possibility of a collusion to pump up a certain stock.

 

[Tannhauser]

And currencies crash less often than stocks do.

Until you get some macro-event that blows up your 40x geared portfolio, that is. Quite recently in the Swiss Franc in 2015 (moved 30% against EUR in one day)

 

[EyeSeeCold]

If you're looking for solid long positions I'd recommend $CACI, $SAIC, and $RSG. They're all above the market average for returns, considering the respective industries it's not too risky.

 

[Tannhauser]

Or just go and put your money on red at the nearest roulette table.

 

[gilliatt]

The stock market is not gambling, oh it can be, I suppose. It can also be speculation if you can interpret charts & use inductive, deductive reasoning. You can take say, 200 stocks from say 20 different groups & if you think the market is down, pick the weakest say 4 or 5 stocks, groups to play short. See, you try to do better than the index. Oh, the stock market in not magic, it is the big money controlling it. So, you are just a hitchhiker, you just catch a free ride, you free rider you! ha, ho, he!
"This battle us individuals hate to fight can never be lost. The spirit of man with always remain alive on this earth despise the chains. That spirit may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through. And MAN will go on. MAN, not men."

 

[Reluctantly]

Stocks really feel like gambling though. Demand for stocks go up if people get optimistic about a company, not necessarily because they think it's a good investment. It's weird. You could invest in a company that does really well over time, but nobody wants to buy the stock so it never gets the demand it should and you never get any return on your investment (unless you get dividends).

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Stocks really feel like gambling though. Demand for stocks go up if people get optimistic about a company, not necessarily because they think it's a good investment. It's weird. You could invest in a company that does really well over time, but nobody wants to buy the stock so it never gets the demand it should and you never get any return on your investment (unless you get dividends).

Investing (as opposed to trading) shouldn't be gambling. The trend is for stocks to rise, even after a short crash, they'll eventually rise again, so picking something with long term stability and short term growth (Google, Amazon, Netflix etc) can be a good idea to beat your bank's 1% interest.

If you are trading it doesn't matter why a stock's demand is expected to rise, as long as you can justify getting in on it and knowing when to exit. You can do research on the company and utilize stock movement analysis tools to anticipate a spike, but even if you're right there's no telling how far up it'll go, yet with experience you could identify where it becomes unstable and unreasonable to hold.

 

[Reluctantly]

I mean you're right. And I've made money off Amazon stock, for example, by holding onto it for over a year and knowing the company was sound (with a good CEO) and had room to grow, but it's weird sometimes how something minor happens and suddenly stock drops.

Kind of like how the stocks dropped before the election because of the uncertainty of it all; people didn't want to take a chance I guess. Though nothing really changed and they went back up of course. Smart investors took the opportunity to buy and drive the price back up. But the whole psychological aspect of it is kind of weird. I imagine the best investors know how to not only invest in good companies, but also know how to read the psychology of the market.