Robinhood Launches New Premium Trading Features

Robinhood on Wednesday announced the rollout of several new features to its premium Robinhood Gold offering, including Level 2 market data and research from the Morningstar analyst team.

What To Know

For a price of $5 per month, eligible Robinhood Gold members now get access to margin investing, larger instant deposits, and $1,000 of interest-free deposits. In addition, Robinhood Gold subscribers now have access to Level 2 Nasdaq market data, including information on real-time bid and ask orders for stocks.

Robinhood Gold members will now have access to research reports on more than 1,500 stocks from the Morningstar analyst team. Existing Robinhood customers are also eligible for a free trial of Robinhood Gold.

Why It’s Important

Robinhood launched in 2014 with a revolutionary no-fee model that resonated with young investors. Within a year, the company said it had already accumulated hundreds of thousands of users and more than $1 billion in deposits. Since then, Robinhood has been expanding its offerings and services, including adding cryptocurrency trading and traditional banking products.

"As part of our continued effort to help customers make more informed investment decisions, we’re happy to bring in-depth research reports and Level 2 market data to Robinhood Gold,” Abhishek Fatehpuria, Product Manager at Robinhood told Benzinga.

Robinhood still offers zero-fee trading and $0 minimum deposits for basic accounts, but the new Robinhood Gold beefs up the platform’s premium offerings. Robinhood claims to have saved its users over $1 billion in fees as of early 2018. Instead of fees, the company relies on premium paid subscriptions, interest on margin accounts, payment for order flow and rebates from market makers. Robinhood’s model has been a tremendous success up to this point, and the company was recently valued at $5.6 billion.

What’s Next

Robinhood’s rapid rise hasn’t always been smooth.

While premium investors enjoy the new Robinhood Gold features, users are still waiting for an update on the company’s proposed checking and savings accounts. In December, Robinhood announced it would be offering checking and savings accounts insured by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) that pay 3 percent annual interest rates, the highest rates on the market. After the SIPC said it had “serious concerns” about covering the accounts, Robinhood said it would be delaying the cash management program launch.

“We plan to work closely with regulators as we prepare to launch our cash management program, and we’re revamping our marketing materials, including the name,” Robinhood said in a blog post.

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Photo courtesy of Robinhood.