Robinhood: Investing for All

For young investors and beginners who may not have the luxury of churning out expensive trading commissions and those who don’t understand the various nuances of the stock market, Robinhood is the app to consider. With its zero-dollar commissions whether for $40 or $4000, the app is even more attractive.
With thousands of stocks and a variety of cryptos to choose from, Robinhood lets you invest as little as $1 or as much as you want, with ETFs which are brokerage baskets.

Features

The best part about Robinhood is that no minimum balances are required to start. Other features include:

• Investment options include Bitcoin, Ethereum, ETFs, REITs and Stocks (both corporate and Penny) and thousands of other possibilities.
• No 3-day wait time. 
• You can see price changes over different periods.
• You’ll get access to extended market hours, as early as 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST.
• You won’t be charged if your brokerage account goes below any thresholds because of no minimum balances required.

With Turbo Tax integration, you can make out your taxes easily on your stock earnings.

Usability

I like the general UI of this app. You can easily see the total of your portfolio plus how it is performing daily, weekly, monthly or annually. The app provides excellent visualization tools, especially with the price movements graph. Most people might wonder whether Robinhood is a scam. Well, deposits and trade are insured by the SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) for up to $500,000, therefore you can stay safe. I’ve also withdrawn funds from my brokerage account, and it took me about 2 business days to get my account credited, so it is legit.

The app requires at least iOS 10.0 (compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch), and Android compatibility depends on the device.

Conclusion

A significant disadvantage of Robinhood is the lack of research built in the app; the stock investment data provided is basic at best. The most useful information that you can get on this app is the price changes over time. You won’t find any complex brokerage tools here, although the developers may be looking to do this eventually on their desktop site and then sync this with the mobile app. I’d recommend the app for simple stock investments.