Review: Robinhood

I’ve been using the Robinhood app for a few months now and have executed a small handful of trades. There is much to like about the app as the aesthetics of the GUI have been carefully implemented so as to achieve a very neat streamlined feel. There is certainly no danger of cluttered data views overloading you with information as some other apps seem to do.

Unfortunately, sleek and sexy interfaces are not the qualities I value most in my trading applications. Relevant, concise, and consolidated data views in conjunction with intuitive interfaces catered to speed are the qualities that will help you make money with your trades. While using the app there were too many times I found myself stumbling through views looking for my order history or even my open positions. It’s a special kind of frustration to be stuck in a trade for longer than you’d like because you have to waste time figuring out how to get out.

It also worried me that being offered only a single point of access to my account, the app, I could become stuck in trades if my device froze up, broke, or otherwise became unavailable for use. There was no backup computer-based application to turn to.

Before I make myself seem too much like a bumbling old geezer struggling to grasp the concept of technology, I should say that it was actually the simplicity of the app that caused me the most problems. The linearly nested structure of navigation made me feel as though I were sitting at someone else’s computer attempting to find files hidden within arbitrarily named folders. I would have preferred a navigational scheme that branched out from a central point so getting to what you’re looking for required fewer clicks. Don’t fear the clutter Robinhood, we need speed!

Worse still, I would never have felt confident basing a trade solely on the chart views offered within the app itself. It simply wasn’t robust enough to allow me to make an informed decision. And by forcing the use of secondary software, it really limited the usefulness of the app.

So at this point the free trades were the only remaining attractive quality but what demographic does this serve? Serious traders who place many trades might benefit the most from a lack of fees but would scoff at the limited set of features and deprioritizetion of speed. And would the casual trader who only places a few trades a year actually be saving money if they made those trades using the limited information offered by the app? My guess would be that a more developed, feature-rich application is worth the cost of trading fees.

If Robinhood has any hope of success, they need to expand their offerings to entice more people. Have some sort of backup to trade with if the app isn’t working (even if it's just another android app). Offer margin accounts or an API to extend its usefulness. There is hope, but at this point I can’t offer any enthusiastic endorsements for Robinhood.