Robinhood alternatives
Hello All, I have seen multiple discussions on folks moving out of RH to other alternatives. I’m a newbie in investing field, which alternative would you suggest is better for a beginner planning to switch? (PS- I’m not specifically focussing on cryptos-based - so didn’t add coinbase., in there) I’l like to know how many here use the following accounts. If there are other alternatives that I’ve missed, please feel free to post them in the comments. Thanks! #investments #stocks
I use Schwab. They have an excellent banking product as well. They refund all ATM fees anywhere in the world, which is convenient when traveling internationally as you always get better rates from an ATM than a money exchange. I moved my investment portfolio from Ally when they took weeks to approve options trading on my account. Schwab had it done in a day. If you’re moving $25k+ DM. I’ll refer you and you’ll get some free money. I also have a friend who uses WeBull and he’s happy with that. He likes the option to see open order volumes on mobile.
Will we be able to move our portfolio from Robinhood to Schwab?
You should be able to. Robinhood will charge you a $75 fee to transfer anywhere because... it’s Robinhood. If you have crypto you want to keep you’d need to transfer it to a wallet first, but you shouldn’t keep crypto on an exchange in the first place. https://robinhood.com/us/en/support/articles/transfer-stocks-out-of-your-robinhood-account/
I think Robinhood is good but lacks in many other ways. Tech is shoddy (if the company isn't manually restricting trading and these "outages" are by design). But if you're a passive trader not looking to buy OTC penny stocks, for instance, then it's a really easy way to get exposure to the stock market. If you were looking to buy cheap stocks on the app, it's pretty easy too and I came across an article that discusses all of the aspects of the app for anyone who's new (https://pennystocks.com/featured/2021/01/26/how-to-buy-penny-stocks-on-robinhood/)
Any broker with IRA accounts opotion will do but RH. IBKR pro/vanguard don't do PFOF so best execution. please note that IBKR pro charges commission(not a big deal to me, it costs very small and upfront), the best margin rates you can find anywhere.
PFOF and best execution has nothing to do with each other. In fact trades on PFOF is required to be better than NBBO by regulation, which means you actually get better pricing through PFOF. That's the whole point of PFOF's benefit from customer's standpoint.
Given you are a newbie I imagine you don't trade a lot and just want something simple that you don't need to think about a lot. Would consider Chase / JP Morgan, BoA / Merrill Lynch, Schwab, etc. all ok options especially if you have a checkings with them as well, so transfers are super easy, you have everything in one place, and potentially qualify for "have X amount of money with us" benefits. IB is good, but the UI is very very hard to understand for a newbie. Vanguard would be my top choice, especially if you want broad access to their etfs and low fee mutual funds. Never was a RH guy and recently saw the app from a friend and OMG it is bad. I heard RH was all about intuitive UI and stuff but it just straight up sucks. Can't see overview of your positions, cost basis, tax lots, etc. The UI is 100% designed to make buying & gambling easy and other standard features are subpar or missing. I don't see why anyone would think their UI is better than Vanguard and other Retail banks UIs... Maybe if you *really* need to trade on your phone while taking a poop instead of trading on desktop
Personal preference
Boomer☝️assume every better UI is gambling UI. U gamble? How do u know ?
I have used RH as a beginner since 2016 and still only use RH. "Haters gonna hate and potatoes gonna potate." Don't follow herd, follow your mind. People said the same about every new thing ever, there is a reason why everyone else is copying Robinhood and why Robinhood is working at scale. Just see number of users, downloads, accounts etc. Schwab had to buy an older company just to be competitive.
If you are the buy and hold type I’d recommend you stick with RH. The rest (can speak for fidelity and etrade) have pretty similar outages when the market is volatile
I made a comment a while back about penny stocks on Robinhood. To clarify, we're talking about stocks under $5 and yes, even people like Cathie Wood buy them: https://pennystocks.com/featured/2022/02/09/7-penny-stocks-to-buy-based-on-cathie-woods-ark-invest-holdings/
If you’re just buying and holding, just go with RH. Not worth moving imo despite all the hate.