
Robinhood at a glance
🔍 Brokers Name | Robinhood |
📍 Headquartered | United States |
📅 Year Founded | 2013 |
🏛 Regulating Authorities | FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) |
🌐 Countries not accepted for trade | Traders from Unites States only |
📒 Demo Account | No |
☪️️ Islamic Account (Swap Free) | No |
💻 Institutional Accounts | Yes |
💻 Managed Accounts | Yes |
📊 Maximum Leverage | 1:2 |
💰 Minimum Deposit | None |
💳 Deposit Options | Domestic and international bank wire |
💳 Withdrawal Options | Domestic and international bank wire |
📉 Platform Types | Robinhood proprietary platform |
📲 OS Compatibility | PC and Mac OS, mobile for Android and IOS |
📊 Tradable Assets | Forex, stock index CFDs and commodity CFDs |
🌐 Languages supported | English only |
☎ Customer Service | 24 hours /5 days a week |
Min Deposit
USD 0
Regulators
FINRA
Trading Platform
Proprietary Platform
Crypto
Yes
Total Pairs
0
Islamic Account
No
Trading Fees
Low
Account Activation
24 Hours
Robinhood Review Revealed – A Key 22 – Point Quick Overview
- ✅Robinhood at a glance
- ✅Who is Robinhood?
- ✅Robinhood Safe or a Scam?
- Robinhood Sign-up Bonus
- Robinhood Referral Bonus
- Robinhood Account Types
- Robinhood Account Features
- How to set up a Robinhood Trading Account – Step by Step
- Robinhood Demo Account
- Robinhood Islamic Account
- Robinhood Fees and Spreads
- Robinhood Deposit fees and deposit methods
- Step-by-step guide to depositing the Robinhood minimum amount
- Robinhood Trading Platforms
- Robinhood vs Rakuten Securities vs Questrade
- Robinhood’s Top Countries by Similar Web
- Robinhood’s Current Popularity Trend
- Robinhood Pros and Cons
- Robinhood Customer Reviews
- Final Thoughts
- Disclaimer
- Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Robinhood?
According to research in South Africa, Robinhood is a well-regulated exchange broker based in the United States and has been operating since 2013. The broker offers access to stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptos. Robinhood differentiates itself by offering commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, and options. In turn, the broker makes an income through rebates from market makers and trading venues.
Robinhood Securities, which acts as the clearing broker, developed a routing system to incentivize the market makers Robinhood has relationships with to compete for order flow based on the amount of price improvement obtained. This algorithm, known as the smart order router, prioritizes sending client orders to a market maker that is likely to give you the best execution, based on historical performance. Rebates are not considered when your brokerage orders are routed.
Similarly, Robinhood Crypto has relationships with several cryptocurrency trading venues that allow you to receive competitive prices. Robinhood Crypto receives volume rebates from trading venues. Rebates are not considered when your crypto orders are routed.
Robinhood provides three live account options. These consist of the Standard account, Gold account, and Cash account. Robinhood does not offer an Islamic account for traders of the Muslim faith, nor is a free demo account available to prospective traders. This is rather a drawback, as many prospective traders today rely on the use of a demo account to test broker offerings in a risk-free way before risking real money on a live account.
Client deposits are protected for up to $500,000 for securities and $250,000 for cash claims due to the broker’s regulation with the SIPC. Added to this, Robinhood is a securities brokerage which means that it is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
As part of this extensive regulation, margin trading is limited to the gold account only, with an exceptionally low ratio available of 1:2. To access margin trading on the gold account, traders must maintain a minimum account balance of $2000. Overall, Robinhood is a secure online stock broker that offers extremely competitive and transparent pricing, coupled with advanced features and excellent customer support.
Min Deposit
USD 0
Regulators
FINRA
Trading Platform
Proprietary Platform
Crypto
Yes
Total Pairs
0
Islamic Account
No
Trading Fees
Low
Account Activation
24 Hours
Robinhood Safe or a Scam?
Regulation is an imperative factor to consider when evaluating brokers as it will indicate whether client funds are, and can be, kept secure at all times and that in the event that a brokerage is declared insolvent, that eligible clients can be compensated.
Robinhood is in accordance with the following:
▶ A member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA in providing securities trading to self-directed customers through Robinhood Financial.
▶ Robinhood Financial LLC is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, or SIPC, which provides eligible compensation of up to $500,000, or $250,000 cash claims.
▶ Robinhood International, Ltd., a subsidiary of Robinhood, is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, to provide brokerage services in the UK.
Robinhood Sign-up Bonus
Traders who choose to register for a real account with Robinhood will not receive a welcome bonus in the traditional sense. However, new traders will receive a bonus in the form of free stocks/cash value when opening an account with Robinhood.
🎉 | |
Sign Up Bonus | $10 |
Referral Bonus | up to $1,500 gift stocks each calendar year |
Affiliate Program | ☑ |
Robinhood Referral Bonus
Loyal customers of Robinhood can earn attractive commissions through the broker’s partnership program. Also referred to as referral bonuses, these allow existing traders of a given broker to earn greater rewards through referring a friend to a broker. The trader is compensated by the broker when this referral results in the friend signing up for a real account.
🎉 Robinhood Referral Bonus | Receive up to $1,500 in gift stocks each calendar year, |
This commission from Robinhood is awarded in the form of free stock for each new referral that a client makes to the broker.
Robinhood Affiliate Program
Join the Robinhood affiliate program to monetize your content and connect with the broader Robinhood community. Attend exclusive events, Earn special offers throughout the year, Get beta testing access, and much more.
Robinhood Account Types
Robinhood provides three live account options. These consist of the Instant account, Gold account and Cash account. Robinhood does not offer an Islamic account for traders of the Muslim faith, nor is a free demo account available to prospective traders.
🌐 Robinhood Instant Account |
🌐 Robinhood Gold Account |
🌐 Robinhood Cash Account |
To apply for a Robinhood account, you will need to meet the following requirements:
▶ Be 18 years or older.
▶ Have a valid Social Security Number (not a Taxpayer Identification Number).
▶ Have a legal U.S. residential address within the 50 states or Puerto Rico (we may make exceptions for active U.S. military personnel stationed abroad).
▶ Be a U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, or have a valid U.S. visa.
Robinhood Account Features
Robinhood Instant Account
You’ll have access to Instant Deposits (up to $1,000) and extended-hours trading. You’ll also have the ability to trade on unsettled funds, which means you won’t have to wait for your funds to process when you sell securities. And if you’re approved for options trading, you will be able to enter options trades that require a margin account. But you will not have the option to purchase securities on credit (what’s traditionally called “margin investing”) with an Instant account. can transfer up to $50,000 per business day into their Robinhood Instant Account and enjoy having no account fees.
▶ Access to Instant Deposits (up to $1,000) |
▶ Ability to trade on unsettled funds |
It is worth noting that Standard Account holders are limited to no more than three-day trades in a five-trading day period unless they have at least $25,000 of equity in their Standard or Gold account at the end of the previous day.
Robinhood Gold Account
The Gold Account is Robinhood’s premium account. Added benefits on the Gold Account include extended trading hours, more instant deposits, and access to margin. As a margin account, users will have to maintain a minimum balance of $2000.The Gold Account also provides access to more in-depth research tools and more buying power.
▶ More buying power through margin investing |
▶ Larger instant deposits |
▶ Gold account gives customers access to funds before they’ve settled |
▶ A Gold membership costs $5/month. |
Robinhood Cash Account
The Cash Account from Robinhood allows for commission-free trading on equities as well as access to instant deposits and settlements. You can also downgrade to a Cash Account from a Gold Account, but you will lose all the premium features.
With a cash account, deposits must clear before they are available to invest. This may take up to 5 business days but depends on your method of deposit and deposit history at Robinhood.
How to set up a Robinhood Trading Account – Step by Step
Opening a Robinhood account will consist of the following steps:
Step 1 – Navigate to the Robinhood website and click on ‘Start Trading”
Navigate to the account registration area on the Robinhood website. This can be accessed by clicking on the Sign-up button at the top of the landing page.
Step 2 – Fill out the Robinhood account registration form
Fill out the short online registration form to request a live trading account. You will need to provide your name, last name, email, and password.
Step 3 – Verify your identity
the next in setting up a Robinhood account requires traders to verify their identity by providing their social security number, date of birth, and country of residence.
Step 4 – Provide your investment experience
Provide your investment experience by selecting the type of trading experience you have.
Step 5 – Select the option for commission-free options trading
Traders can select the commission-free options trading by simply selecting yes or no.
Step 6 – Employment Information
The next step requires traders to indicate their employment status for regulation purposes.
Step 7 – Indicate shareholder status of trader or any family member holding a 10% share in a publicly traded company
Robinhood is required by law or industry regulations to collect this information to help prevent insider trading.
Step 8 – Read the Robinhood terms and conditions, and submit the application for approval.
After reviewing the Robinhood agreement, click submit for account application approval.
Step 9 – Access the Robinhood trading dashboard
In the coming days, you will receive an email either confirming your application’s been approved or asking for a bit more information. If Robinhood requests a document to verify your identity, the accounts department will include instructions for uploading your documents securely. Clients should allow five to seven days to review the materials and open their account.
Robinhood requests personal information, including financial and tax identification information, to comply with U.S. government laws and FINRA rules. Robinhood will request personal information from both new customers and long-standing customers. Robinhood complies with an SEC customer identification rule of the USA Patriot Act of 2001.
This rule requires Robinhood to put procedures in place to verify the identity of any person seeking to open an account and to maintain records of their information. Robinhood must also determine whether a customer appears on any lists of terrorist organizations provided to broker-dealers by any government agency.
Robinhood Demo Account
Unfortunately, Robinhood does not provide a free demo account to prospective traders, which is a significant drawback on the part of the broker. A forex demo account is also referred to as a practice account, which is used for practicing trading or to test a new trading strategy without any risk to actual money.
No demo account on offer |
Apart from allowing prospective clients to learn more about the available trading conditions before investing real money, demo accounts are also useful tools for experienced and existing clients who may wish to test out new strategies in a risk-free environment before applying to the live markets. As such, this lack of a demo account presents a real drawback to both new and existing clients of Robinhood.
Robinhood Islamic Account
Robinhood does not offer an Islamic Account to traders of the Muslim faith. In Forex trading, an Islamic account fulfills a significant role for such traders, as described below. Also known as ‘no swap accounts’, Islamic trading accounts allow Muslims to engage in online forex trading in compliance with Sharia law.
With 25% of the world’s population practicing the Islamic faith, Islamic forex trading has continued to gain popularity worldwide. Essentially, an Islamic forex trading account charges no swap or rollover interest on positions held overnight in the forex market. An administration fee is, however, charged on some accounts to open positions.
Robinhood Fees and Spreads
As a stockbroker, Robinhood does not have a spread list. Instead, Robinhood offers trading of US stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies that is free of commissions. This makes Robinhood one of the most affordable brokers with which to trade in the industry.
Overnight Fees | ☑ |
Inactivity Fees | ❌ |
Deposit Fees | ❌ |
Withdrawal Fees | $25 |
Robinhood Deposit fees and deposit methods
Robinhood offers only one method for making deposits, namely bank wire transfers. Unfortunately, this is a limited selection. Added to this, bank wire transfers can be expensive for traders making international withdrawals from their broker accounts. In terms of deposit currencies, Robinhood only supports USD as a deposit currency. This means that traders depositing in other currencies, such as ZAR/Rand, will likely incur conversion fees.
💳 Debit Card |
💳 Credit Card |
💳 Bank Wire Transfer |
In terms of deposit security, Robinhood is a well-regulated broker with a prominent level of deposit security. Client deposits are protected up to $500,000 for securities and $250,000 for cash claims due to the broker’s regulation with the SIPC.
Added to this, Robinhood is a securities brokerage which means that it is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In terms of fees, Robinhood does not charge deposit fees, although withdrawal fees are charged on wire transfers. Domestic wire transfers are charged at $25, while international wire transfers are charged at $50, both of which are considered high withdrawal fees.
Step-by-step guide to depositing the Robinhood minimum amount
The following steps are required to fund your account with Robinhood:
Step 1 – Log into your Robinhood trading account
Log in to your trading account. You will be redirected to your trading account dashboard
Step 2 – Select the Robinhood transfer tab
After logging in to your Robinhood trading account. select transfer to deposit funds into the Robinhood trading account.
Step 3– Choose the Robinhood Transfer method of choice.
the next step in depositing funds into the Robinhood trading account requires traders to select the method of deposit listed below.
Step 4 – Fill in payment information and transfer funds
Robinhood Trading Platforms
Robinhood features its own proprietary, an in-house trading platform that is available to most web browsers and mobile devices operating on either iOS or Android. The web trader can be accessed on macOS as well as Windows and it supports most modern browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
Although not as commonly known as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, among other popular browsers, the Robinhood trading platform has numerous features that can be used in conjunction with a Robinhood account.
Robinhood vs Rakuten Securities vs Questrade
🥇 Robinhood | 🥇 Rakuten Securities | 🥇 Questrade | |
💳 Minimum Deposit | No Minimum Deposit | $50 | $1000 |
🎉 Bonus | ☑ | ☑ | ☑ |
💻 MT4 | ❌ | ☑ | ❌ |
☪️️ Islamic Account | ❌ | ☑ | ❌ |
Robinhood's Top Countries by Similar Web
🌐 United States | 95.54% |
🌐 India | 0.75% |
🌐 Puerto Rico | 0.40% |
🌐 Canada | 0.36% |
🌐 Mexico | 0.33% |
🌐 Others | 2.63% |
Robinhood’s Current Popularity Trend
According to Google Trends, here is an overview of how frequently the search term – “Robinhood” is entered into Google’s search engine over a given period of time.
Robinhood Pros and Cons
✔️ Pros | ❌ Cons |
Registered member of FINRA | US Clients only |
Trading costs low and no commission charges | High minimum deposit of $2,000 for the Gold Account along with $5 per month premium |
Instant access to deposited cash on the Robinhood Instant Account | Leverage only up to 1:2 |
MetaTrader 4 and 5 not offered | |
Limited tradable financial instruments offered |
Robinhood Customer Reviews
Good Broker
Robinhood is a good FX broker.. good job ..100% Recommended! – Tony
Robinhood website
Robinhood’s website is easily accessible and user-friendly, also any minor issue I had was eventually resolved…. – Gugu
Robinhood Affiliate Program
I enjoy the opportunities to earn an income through IB programs offered by forex brokers, Check it out! – Chris
You might also like: Robinhood Fees and Spreads
You might also like: Robinhood Account Types
You might also like: Robinhood Demo Account
You might also like: Robinhood Sign Up Bonus
You might also like: Robinhood Minimum Deposit
Min Deposit
USD 0
Regulators
FINRA
Trading Platform
Proprietary Platform
Crypto
Yes
Total Pairs
0
Islamic Account
No
Trading Fees
Low
Account Activation
24 Hours
Final Thoughts
Overall, Robinhood offers comprehensive trading conditions in that there are no commissions charged on trades, but there is only leverage of up to 1:2 offered when in possession of a Gold Account. There are some tradable assets, but it is easy to see that Robinhood is more centered around short and long-term investments in its offering, although it does cater to both beginner and more advanced traders and investors.
The pricing is transparent and although only Bank Wire Transfer can be used for deposits and withdrawals, this is one of the most trusted payment methods that present the least issues, although there may be prolonged processing times involved with withdrawals.
Disclaimer
Although there is a limit to leverage and margined trading instruments provided by Robinhood, the risk of substantial losses still exists, and traders need to evaluate their financial objectives and positions before making trading or investing decisions.
Traders and investors alike will have to evaluate their risk exposure, willingness to be exposed to risks, and whether they can compensate for risks involved with the trading of and investing in financial instruments such as those provided by Robinhood.
Min Deposit
USD 0
Regulators
FINRA
Trading Platform
Proprietary Platform
Crypto
Yes
Total Pairs
0
Islamic Account
No
Trading Fees
Low
Account Activation
24 Hours
Frequently Asked Questions
Which platforms are supported by Robinhood?
The broker supports Robinhood web and mobile trader.
Is Robinhood Legit?
Yes, Robinhood is regulated and authorized by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Where is Robinhood located?
Robinhood is located in Menlo Park, California, USA.
What is the overall rating out of 10 for Robinhood?
Robinhood holds an overall rating of 8/10.
Does Robinhood manipulate the market?
No, Robinhood does not manipulate the market, Robinhood is a regulated broker through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
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