Robinhood IRA Accounts
Robinhood was the first U.S. broker to offer $0 stock trades. Now that most brokers match that, how does Robinhood stack up? This review will answer that.
Robinhood Advantages...
Low margin rates. Robinhood offers cheap borrowing costs.
Contribution match. Few brokers have one.
No per-contract option fees. Exercises and assignments are free too.
Robinhood Disadvantages...
Limited account types. No custodial, trust, or entity accounts.
Basic trading tools. Many features are missing.
No mutual funds. You can’t trade funds here.
Tradable Assets
Robinhood offers:
- Stocks
- Options
- ETFs
- Closed-end funds
- Some OTC stocks
- Aave (AAVE)
- Avalanche (AVAX)
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- BONK (BONK)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Chainlink (LINK)
- Compound (COMP)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Dogwifhat (WIF)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Pepe (PEPE)
- Shiba Inu (SHIB)
- Solana (SOL)
- Steller Lumens (XLM)
- Tezos (XTZ)
- Trump (TRUMP)
- Uniswap (UNI)
- USDC (USDC)
- XRP (XRP)
Cryptocurrencies
You won’t find futures, regular forex, mutual funds, bonds, CFDs, warrants, or precious metals.
Customer Service
To keep trades free, Robinhood cuts support corners.
They have 24/7 phone support: 650.940.2700.
There’s no chat or extensive self-help. You can email via Robinhood.com/contact.
No physical branches exist.
Account Types
Only individual/joint cash and margin accounts as well as Traditional/ROTH IRA. No business, trust,
custodial, or 401(k) plans.
Every new account is margin-enabled.
No fees or minimums, but moving your account out costs $100.
The Cost of Trading
Robinhood never charges commissions on any trade, including options and exercises.
Phone orders with an agent are free.
Robinhood Gold costs $5/month. It gives larger instant deposits, Level II quotes, and Morningstar reports.
Robinhood Promotion
Free stock up to $200 and 3% match when you open an account.
Open Robinhood Account
Mobile Platform
Robinhood’s app runs on iOS and Android phones—not tablets.
The app has basic charts: line or candlestick, no drawing tools, no horizontal view.
You see live and extended-hours quotes, volume, highs, lows, and last price.
The app shows what other users are buying.
The order screen splits for options or stocks. For options, it asks if you think the stock will go up, down, or stay flat, then suggests short-, mid-, or long-term trades, including straddles and strangles.
Stock orders: market, limit, stop-loss, and stop-limit. You choose market-hours only or full-day.
The Apple Watch app shows a watchlist, a small chart, and trade confirmations.
Website
Robinhood’s website looks like the app, with light mode when markets are open and dark mode when closed.
Charts on the site are a bit better than on the app: you can rotate them horizontally and use four basic indicators.
You can adjust the chart height and the indicator area size at the same time.
The web order ticket adds trailing stops. To trade after-hours, check a box for extended-hours execution.
To trade options, you must leave the chart and click “Trade Option” on the stock’s page. You can place stock orders from the chart.
Option trading on the web only shows calls or puts, not full chains. It works fine but looks different.
Funds
There are no mutual funds, but you can trade ETFs and closed-end funds. The screener is basic.
You can browse ETFs under “Popular Collections” on the dashboard—categories like “Video Games” or “Upcoming Earnings” include an ETF tag.
Clicking “ETF” shows about 500 funds you can filter by market cap, analyst rating, day change, and price.
Closed-end funds have no screener. To find them, go to robinhood.com/collections/closed-end-fund.
Fund pages list P/E, yield, market cap, and earnings history—no analyst notes or recommendations.
Security Analysis Tools
Robinhood has no stock screener. You can only use “Popular Collections” to find groups like technology or finance.
On a collection page, you can filter by price using a slider and change the period from one day to five years.
The site has basic FAQs but little financial education.
No third-party stock reports are available.
Trading Option Contracts
Option tools are limited—no calculators, screeners, P/L diagrams, or Greeks.
On web and mobile, calls and puts are shown separately instead of full chains.
The mobile app first asks if you expect the stock to go up, down, or stay flat, then suggests buying a put, a call, a straddle/strangle, or an iron condor.
- Buy a put
- Buy a call
- Buy a straddle or strangle
- Buy an iron condor
On the website, these strategies aren’t listed—you must build them yourself.
Digital Currencies
Robinhood’s crypto offering includes:
- Aave (AAVE)
- Avalanche (AVAX)
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- BONK (BONK)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Chainlink (LINK)
- Compound (COMP)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Dogwifhat (WIF)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Pepe (PEPE)
- Shiba Inu (SHIB)
- Solana (SOL)
- Steller Lumens (XLM)
- Tezos (XTZ)
- Trump (TRUMP)
- Uniswap (UNI)
- USDC (USDC)
- XRP (XRP)
You can view data for coins like NEO or Zcash, but you can only trade when Robinhood’s site is up.
You can’t move crypto on or off Robinhood—you must sell to cash out.
They plan to add more coins later.
Robinhood Promotion
Free stock up to $200 and 3% match when you open an account.
Open Robinhood Account
Other Services
Robinhood offers dividend reinvestment for eligible stocks and ETFs. No auto-invest for mutual funds yet.
Comparison
Now that many brokers offer $0 trades, Robinhood faces more competition.
Most still charge option fees; Firstrade matches Robinhood’s zero per-contract policy.
Robinhood’s tools lag; WellsTrade is similarly basic.
Unlike Schwab or Fidelity, Robinhood has no global stock access.
Recommendations
Mutual Fund Investors: Go with Schwab or Firstrade.
IRA Accounts: Robinhood offers a 3% IRA match—unique among brokers.
Beginners: The simple app helps new traders get started.
Active ETF/Stock Traders: With $0 trades and good desktop tools, Webull edges out Robinhood.
Long-Term Investors: Charles Schwab—branches, target-date funds, and planning services.
Small Accounts: No fees or minimums make Robinhood a solid choice.
Robinhood Review Summary
Robinhood excels in pricing, crypto, and easy cash management but falls short for serious active traders.
Robinhood Website
Free stock up to $200 and 3% match when you open an account.
Open Robinhood Account
Updated on 4/8/2025.
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