Trading with $0 commissions -- "Robinhood"

Fees are irrelevant as they sell order flow, therefore you get worse executions - effectively paying higher commissions than some competitors who charge commissions.
 
Does that matter with limit orders though? If I know what price I'm willing to pay for stock X and set my limit buy; I either get it at that price or I don't.
 
LMT orders get gamed just like the rest. My point was that this "free" thing is false because just like everyone else there are regulatory fees that they do have to pay on your orders. Why would they pay it for you? Do they have too much money and just want to spend it on random traders?
 
They need an API and allow trading from non mobile devices. Ideally, they should offer extremely cost effective co-location to their matching engine, either a dedicated server or a VM. If they are just routing orders to other people, then fine but still need an API. The API also has to be of the highest integrity - one player doesn't get to jump the order queue over another no matter what. Time priority period. No fractional pennies.

They should then expand to more models. Free commission like now, and in addition, commission but all the perks. In that case, it has a great chance to succeed assuming they don't screw people over. They should be very explicit in their website about how orders get routed. For example, if the orders are mostly internalized, they should say that. Transparency and honesty should be their highest ideal.

Otherwise, it is gimmicky. It might still work, but won't get any real flight until they truly try to empower the little guy, investor or trader, to live up to their name.
 
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williane said:
They do have an API, it's one of the ways they plan on making money; just a work in progress at this point.

https://support.robinhood.com/hc/en-us/articles/203585145-Robinhood-API
http://blog.robinhood.com/news/2015/11/20/new-integrations
More...
I see. Hmmmm.

Ok well, two points:

  • If there is any human intervention in the trading API needed, that is not a real API. If it runs only on mobile devices, it is not a real API.
  • There needs to be an API that is not embedded in someone else's program. Just a plain old C++ and JVM for linux and C# for windows API.
  • For the matching engine if there is one, SCRATCH/ITCH or just FIX.
 
Should be language agnostic assuming a Restful service. I remember seeing some projects pop up on github a few months back from people who got access.

I agree though, some non-mobile options would be nice.
 
d08 said:
Fees are irrelevant as they sell order flow, therefore you get worse executions - effectively paying higher commissions than some competitors who charge commissions.
More...

I agree, d08...
there is no such thing as a free lunch -- you have to pay some how, some way.
lobster_fra_diavolo.jpg
 
I just downloaded Bluestacks to be able to run android apps on my PC. I am now in the process of funding my new Robinhood account. There are alternatives to Bluestacks, such as Andy.
Looking forward to saving mucho dinero in commissions!
 
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