Robinhood IRA Accounts
Robinhood was the first online broker in the U. S. to offer $0 stock commissions. But today, the
majority of brokers have the same trading fee. So just how competitive is Robinhood now? Our
Robinhood IRA review is going to provide the answer.
Robinhood Advantages...
Low margin rates. Robinhood offers low rates on borrowed cash.
Contribution match. This is another feature that most firms do not offer.
Zero per-contract charges on options. The broker has also removed assignment and exercise fees.
Robinhood Disadvantages...
Few account types available.. There are no custodial, trust, or entity accounts.
Basic trading tools. Many useful features are missing.
No mutual funds. Investors who want mutual funds have no options here.
Tradable Assets
Robinhood offers the following investments:
- Stocks
- Options
- Exchange-traded funds
- Closed-end funds
- A small selection of over-the-counter equities
- Cryptocurrencies (
- 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)
are available)
The crypto offering draws some interest. Missing from the list, however, are futures, regular
forex, mutual funds, fixed-income securities, contracts for difference, warrants, and precious
metals.
Customer Service
This has been Robinhood’s weak point from the very beginning. To keep trading free, the company has to cut costs somewhere, and this is one place it cuts.
Robinhood offers 24/7 phone support for any issue: 650.940.2700.
The Robinhood website has no chat, either AI or human, and there are not many self-service tools. There is a way to contact the broker through the website at Robinhood.com/contact.
Robinhood has no physical branches, and we do not expect it to open any.
Account Types
Robinhood offers individual and joint brokerage accounts, plus Traditional and ROTH IRAs. There are no
trusts, custodial accounts, or 401(k) plans.
Margin is available, and every new Robinhood account is now a margin account.
There are no account fees or minimums at Robinhood. The company does charge $100 to transfer an account
to another broker.
The Cost of Trading
It may look like Robinhood does not offer much. But it also does not charge much.
The broker says it will never charge commissions, and so far, it has kept that promise. All investments are commission free, including per-contract option fees. Assignments and exercises are also free.
Using a live agent over the phone (if you can reach one) to place an order is free as well.
Robinhood Gold is a premium margin account. It costs $5 per month and includes instant deposits above $1,000. (A regular account gets instant deposits below $1,000.) Gold also includes Level II quotes and Morningstar reports.
Robinhood Promotion
Free stock up to $200 and 3% match when you open an account.
Mobile Platform
A mobile app is available for Robinhood customers on Android and Apple phones. It is not made for tablets.
The software includes charting, but it is very basic. There are two display styles (line and candlestick), and no tools. A chart cannot be turned sideways.
In our review, we found both market-hours and extended-hours pricing. There is also trade data, such as volume, high and low prices, and last trade price.
The platform also shows what other customers have bought. For example, on General Electric’s profile, Robinhood shows that traders also bought Westinghouse and Ford.
The order ticket on the mobile app is split into options and stocks. For options, the app first asks if you think the stock is going up, down, or staying flat. Based on your answer, the app suggests short-term, mid-term, and long-term trade ideas. Some are multi-leg strategies like straddles and strangles.
The stock trading form offers four order types: market, limit, stop loss, and stop limit. Each limit order must be set as market-hours only or day plus extended.
Robinhood’s Apple Watch app shows a watchlist, a small chart, and trade confirmations.
Website
Robinhood’s website looks and feels like the mobile app. There are two color themes, light and dark, and these change based on whether the market is open (light) or closed (dark).
Charting on the website is a little better than on the mobile app. For example, a chart can be shown sideways, and there are a few technical indicators. We found four of them, which is not many, but they are there.
One useful feature is the ability to make the chart area taller or shorter, which also changes the size of the indicator area.
The order ticket has one more trade type than the mobile app, which is the trailing stop order. The extended-hours option is also different. This time, a box must be checked to allow extended-hours trading.
Options cannot be traded directly from the chart. Instead, you must go back to the stock’s profile page and click the “Trade Option” button. Stock trades can be placed from a chart.
Another odd part of Robinhood’s options ticket is that only calls and puts are shown. On the mobile app, there are a few strategies. The calls and puts are not shown in normal chains. It is not bad, but it is different.
Funds
As noted earlier, there are no mutual funds at Robinhood. But the broker does offer closed-end funds and ETFs. Sadly, there is not much of a screener for these products.
One way to find ETFs is to go to the dashboard and scroll down to “Popular Collections.” Here, there are groups like “Video Games” and “Upcoming Earnings.” These are stock groups, but there is also an “ETF” tag.
Clicking this button shows a list of about 500 funds. The list can be filtered by market cap, analyst ratings, daily price change, and current price. It can also be sorted by the same factors.
For closed-end funds, there is also no screener. Finding the tag under “Popular Collections” can be hard. It may be easier to type Robinhood.com/collections/closed-end-fund into your browser.
A fund’s profile page does not show much detail. We found P/E ratio, dividend yield, market cap, and earnings history. There are no trade ideas or fund commentary.
Security Analysis Tools
Robinhood is known for offering fewer features, and this is one area where that shows. There is no stock screener for customers to use. You can browse Popular Collections to find groups like technology or finance.
On the right side, there are a few filters that can narrow the results. One is price, with a slider to reduce the list quickly. Price change can also be set from 1 day to 5 years.
There is very little educational material on the Robinhood site. The broker does offer a list of FAQs that many new users will find helpful.
Robinhood does not offer third-party research reports.
Trading Option Contracts
Option tools are limited at Robinhood. There are no probability tools, option screeners, profit-and-loss charts, Greek values, or other advanced features.
On both the website and mobile app, standard option chains are not used. Instead, Robinhood shows calls only or puts only. In our testing, it was easy to switch between the two views.
The mobile app starts with questions about where you think the stock price is going. There are four icons: up, down, either, and sideways. After you choose one, the app suggests trade ideas. These are:
- Buy a put
- Buy a call
- Buy a straddle or strangle
- Buy an iron condor
The website does not offer these multi-leg trades, although they can be built by hand.
Digital Currencies
Now we look at what is likely the company’s most popular feature right now: cryptocurrency
trading. Here are the coins available:
- 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)
Other coins, such as NEO, Zcash, and Bitcoin Gold, have live price data. The only time clients cannot trade coins is when the site is down for maintenance.
Robinhood does not allow coin withdrawals. To move your crypto elsewhere, you must sell it and then withdraw the cash. You also cannot transfer coins into Robinhood.
These limits are not ideal, but it is a start. The broker says it plans to add more coins in the future.
Robinhood Promotion
Free stock up to $200 and 3% match when you open an account.
Other Services
Robinhood does offer DRIP for eligible stocks and ETFs. There is no automatic investing in
mutual funds. Maybe in the future.
Comparison
Here is how Robinhood compares with other brokers. Since most brokers now offer some form of $0 trading, Robinhood has a lot of competition.
Many firms still charge per-contract option fees. These include big names like Fidelity, Schwab, and E*Trade.
When it comes to software, Robinhood falls behind most brokers. WellsTrade is about as basic as Robinhood.
While Robinhood does not offer access to foreign stock exchanges, Schwab and Fidelity do.
Recommendations
Mutual Fund Investors: Charles Schwab is a good choice.
Individual Retirement Accounts: Robinhood is the only broker to offer a 3% IRA match.
Beginners: Robinhood does
have easy-to-use software, which can help new traders.
Active ETF and Stock Trading: With $0 commissions, many stock and ETF
tools, and a strong desktop platform, we recommend
Moomoo.
Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: Charles Schwab
offers financial planning, branch offices, target-date mutual funds, and self-employed 401(k)
plans. It earns our approval.
Small Accounts: With no minimums, no fees, and no opening balance required, Robinhood would
be a good choice.
Robinhood Review Summary
While Robinhood performs well in pricing, crypto, and cash management, it falls short in tools for active traders.
Robinhood Website
Open Robinhood Account
Updated on 1/7/2026.
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