What's Going On With Robinhood Markets Stock Thursday?

Robinhood Markets, Inc's HOOD Robinhood, an online investment app, plans to launch in the U.K. in early 2024, marking its third attempt at international expansion. 

The platform will initially offer 6,000 U.S. stocks and 24-hour trading five days a week, excluding U.K. stocks and derivatives like options at the start. 

Also Read: Robinhood Steals Coinbase's Crypto Thunder: Analyst Points to Fee Fumbles

Jordan Sinclair, Robinhood's U.K. chief, anticipates 24-hour trading will be famous, allowing users to react to market news immediately, CNBC reports.

Robinhood's previous attempts to enter the U.K. market include a scrapped 2019 launch due to increasing domestic demand and a failed acquisition of British crypto-trading app Ziglu in 2021, resulting in a $12 million impairment charge. 

The launch comes after a turbulent period for Robinhood, which faced significant challenges in the U.S., including allegations of misleading customers and adopting gamification strategies that encouraged risky trading. 

The platform faced multimillion-dollar fines for system outages and other issues. Moreover, the tragic suicide of a 20-year-old student who misinterpreted his account balance brought intense scrutiny to Robinhood's practices, TechCrunch reports.

Robinhood has introduced a waitlist and a referral program for potential U.K. users to build early interest.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is confident about this launch, highlighting the platform's robustness and good relationship with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the U.K. regulator. Unlike in the U.S., Robinhood will not offer payment-for-order-flow (PFOF) in the U.K. due to regulatory restrictions. 

Instead, the company plans to generate revenue through securities lending, margin lending, interest on uninvested cash, and its Robinhood Gold subscription service. 

Ark Fintech Innovation ETF bought 143,063 Robinhood shares worth $1.2 million this week. Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL sold all its remaining shares in the online trading app operator.

Price Action: HOOD shares traded higher by 3.25% at $9.21 premarket on the last check Thursday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.