Hey guys and gals,
This is my first post on this forum. I've been using Robinhood for awhile now. I really like the platform because it is simple and free from clutter for the intended millennial demographic.
As pointed out, it is dangerous because it encourages users to obsessively check their stocks. When I first started, I found myself checking more than fifteen times per day, sometimes even watching by the minute, swiping for the latest price update. It certainly encourages people to gamble by timing the market and placing daily limit orders to capitalize on volatility. For newbie investors like myself, learning to not emotionally respond to stocks is hard. Robinhood makes it harder by showing you your portfolio value rise/fall in real time with every stock price update.
Nothing was more terrifying for me than watching KBHomes drop some 20% in real time with their Q4 report saying "we won't make so much this quarter, but we'll bounce back next quarter". I bought as it kept sinking, which was the right thing to do in this case for long term growth. Then emotions got the best of me and I sold it all to minimize loss, after realizing I dumped way too much into it getting excited with each drop. KBH is returning to a healthy level, but emotions run rampant with Robinhood since you really can purchase a stock with just two swipes.
Annoyingly, there is no Y axis measurement of price, and no specific dates below the stock. So to an amateur investor, a stock could look excellent or extremely volatile visually but really be stagnant, moving pennies over a year. If you use both thumbs on the chart, you can see specific dates and price in a range-- but they don't advertise that. Also, the platform seems to not be able to show the "MAX" lifetime of the stock, because the option is always blacked out.
The interface is black when the market is closed, and white when it's open. A simple but unexplained subtlety that looks good.
Overall, Robinhood is simple for simple people. The lack of cluttered information and trading fees removes the daunting "I have no idea what that means" feeling that keeps people from investing, however I think Robinhood makes trading TOO EASY, which can land some of these people in hot water.
It's badass to see your friend sink $10 in Candy Crush while you earn $10 on a day trade, but I think there can be a lot of irresponsible investing because of this app.
PM me for invites, I have three and will talk you through the platform if you're serious about learning it.