This Financial App Lets You Trade Stocks Like A Pro For Free

Robinhood

Investing can be a scary concept. You’re taking a huge risk by putting your money out there into the world and hoping that its value increases. The stock market is unpredictable and there’s no guarantee. We get it. But what if you got one share of free stock just for signing up for an app? Would you start investing? Well, with the Robinhood app, you can.

Known as the “stock trading starter kit” by its current users, Robinhood is a free investing app will give you free stock just for signing up. After that, you can buy and sell stocks with ease, which makes investing money seem almost too simple. We decided to give Robinhood a spin, and here’s what we found.

Before you download Robinhood, know the basics.

• It’s free and available for both Apple and Android users.
• It’s free to download and to invest your own money. It’s called zero-commission trading.
• As you build your portfolio, Robinhood will help you learn how to invest in the stock market.
• It’s accessible via its mobile app, as well as on your desktop.
• You’ll have access to free options trading. An option is a contract between a buy and seller that allows the buyer of the contract the right to buy or sell 100 shares of the stock at a specific price before a specific expiration date.
• It takes about five minutes to sign up with all of your personal information.
• Once you connect a bank account, you can transfer money and start trading immediately.
• Robinhood is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), so your securities in your account are insured up to $500,000.
• Trading hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the Robinhood basic plan, and 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. with Robinhood Gold.

You can start investing with just $10.

Swirled/Hilarey Wojtowicz

When you sign up, Robinhood gives you one free share of stock. So basically, you can start investing with no money right away, but one share won’t do much, so you’ll want more. Plus, it’s smart to diversify your portfolio and have stocks in different companies.

After we created our Robinhood account, we transferred $100 over so we could start trading and really test out the app. However, in reality, all you need is $10. Robinhood lays out stocks in a very clear way so you can see exactly how much it costs per share and how the stock is performing. It’s all on the home screen dashboard in the app.

If you transfer $10 over into the account, you can buy one share of a stock that costs less than $10. Robinhood does calculate in 5 percent on top of the total price for the number of shares you’re buying to prevent overdrafting, so keep that in mind. If the app thinks you’ll overdraft, it will stop you and ask you to check your buying power so that it’s within your budget.

Pro Tip: When you first log into the app, Robinhood will serve you some helpful content on stocks, such as those that are under $25 per share. Read it. You’ll want to do your research on which stocks fit your budget, as well as which ones you’ll be most likely to make money on.

You can see how your investment is performing in real time.

Robinhood keeps your investment front and center on the home screen dashboard. It fluctuates in real time to show how much you’re making and losing on your investment. As you scroll down, you can also see your stocks and the number of shares you have with each one. Plus, you’ll see a small graph and how each individual stock is performing, as well as what the price is right now.

Beyond seeing how your stocks are performing in real time, you can look at each stock’s history, too. Robinhood tells you how the stock has performed over the last day, week, month, three months, one year, five years and lifetime. It’ll even give you data on the stock’s recent highs and lows, its earnings and its volatility. You can also learn more about the company in general. Robinhood suggests other stocks similar to yours, too, so you can see what other people have bought.

Try cryptocurrency trading, too.

If you’ve been debating whether you should buy Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum or any other type of cryptocurrency, you can easily do it through Robinhood. Not all states support Robinhood Crypto trading, though, so be sure to check if it’s available to you first.

When buying cryptocurrency on Robinhood, you don’t have to buy the whole coin. The app doesn’t currently allow transfers of other cryptocurrencies into your Robinhood account, either. Also, you may not be able to withdraw your coins. You can access Robinhood Crypto right on your home screen dashboard.

Refer friends and get free stock, or upgrade for more perks.

Robinhood

For every friend you invite to join Robinhood, you’ll earn one free stock. Robinhood promotes the fact that you have the chance of earning Facebook, Microsoft or Apple stock for free, but it’s not guaranteed. What is guaranteed is the fact that you’ll get free stock for referring friends.

Pro Tip: Refer your friends. This app is super easy to use, and we think more people should know about it.

For even more buying power and perks, you can upgrade to Robinhood Gold. When you upgrade to Robinhood Gold, you’ll be able to deposit more money than you can with basic Robinhood. With the basic plan, you can instantly deposit up to $1,000 and start trading. With Robinhood Gold, you can instantly deposit more money, though the app doesn’t say exactly how much that is before opting into the upgrade (which we didn’t do).

Another perk with Robinhood Gold is the amount of buying power you gain. Gold Buying Power kicks in when you have fully invested your cash balance into stocks but want to quickly buy more. It acts as a sort of loan for investors. For instance, if you have $200 left in your account but want to buy $1,000 worth of one stock, you’d first use that $200 and then $800 of Gold Buying Power. Once you have $800 cash in your account, you can pay back that $800 worth of Gold Buying Power.

If you want to start investing in the stock market, download Robinhood.

Robinhood is seriously the easiest trading app we’ve ever seen and used. Its user experience is top notch and buying and selling stocks has never been easier. We’re a little upset we didn’t download it sooner.

Investing money is a great way to increase your wealth, especially in the long run. Investments are not meant to be quick money makers, especially with the way the stock market fluctuates. But if you’re ready to have your money do some of the work for you and are set with a long-term strategy, try trading stocks on Robinhood. You might just be an expert investor by happy hour.

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