[ar_lan]

I am interested to know what percentage of their user base they lost after the past few months. I know I personally cancelled my account with Robinhood, but I don't know if I'm in the minority or not.

I just don't see the point of them anymore. Once the other trading platforms started offering $0 transactions, I saw way less value in Robinhood - then, following that, the argument was "fractional shares", which many other platforms offer.

Is it just that they are the most famous name in the retail investor space?

[Someone1234]

I moved away but not because of the GME/liquidity issues but rather their handling of 1099 tax information the last two years has been terrible (delayed, altering website to cover up their delays, and corrected both years). It is just unprofessional.

Plus they only offer "First In, First Out" stock sales which can have absolutely MASSIVE tax implications. Most real brokers offer FIFO, LIFO, and most importantly specific lots.

PS - I do keep a few bucks in RH so I can continue to use their real time graphs/watchlists/options information/etc, since my normal broker's website/app has terrible UI/UX by comparison (and it isn't close). RH is known for bringing free transactions, but maybe they should be known for being the first broker with non-terrible UI.

[tomc1985]

I don't get this fascination with their UI. The charts are terrible (other than looking cool) and the current holdings list sucks. It is as if it is written for people allergic to information density.

[Someone1234]

I don't understand what you mean about their charts, my regular broker has no real time charts at all, and the charts they do provide leave a lot to be desired. RH chart's also allows you to jump between day/week/3 month/etc and get a summary of performance within those ranges (which would normally be tabular data). Plus you can mouse hover over the history to get spot pricing on that date.

High information density has a place, but when it directly results on me needing two different screens to get the information I need on one screen then it is a real problem. For example my regular broker's order flow requires me to have two tabs, one to order, and one to show my existing position's cost basis. That's broken.

I think the situation speaks more to just how terrible existing broker's UI/UX is, rather than RH inventing something novel. They just make an interface that was basically solid, which is oddly rare for brokers.

Google's homepage has better stock charts than my regular broker for example (and RH's charts are better than Google's).

[tomc1985]

On the iPhone app their charts look like this retrowave sci-fi garbage, with no axis labels or meaningful markings

And your regular broker doesn't do real time charts? Uhh.... I don't know who you're talking about but if my broker lacked this I'd strongly consider switching to someone better (but not RH)

[fioawjpoifajio]

It's simple, fast, and at least back when I used it, was reasonably consistent.

I'm all for information density, but using Schwab, Vanguard, whatever results in slow to load pages which refresh every time I click a button. Half the pages look completely different than the other half of the pages, I use ctrl-f to find any buttons to click, and sometimes pages just don't load because they don't feel like it.

Banking websites are horribly broken and outdated on a technical level, even if I don't consider the design aesthetic.

[exclusiv]

Schwab executes my trades as they should and I don't have to worry about them lying about liquidity problems. Vlad was a complete disaster during the congressional testimonies.

He got obliterated on his suggestion that they have suicide support (A rep called the support hotline and it went straight to voicemail). He said "I admit to always improving". Was extremely shady if there was no wrongdoing.

Chamath said "I remember when I met the @RobinhoodApp founders when they were raising their Seed, Series A and Series B. I passed. Why? Optimize for integrity whenever possible because integrity compounds and assholes will fuck you." [1]

I think we'll find out a lot more about Vlad and his operation in the near future. I do not wish them luck on their IPO.

[1] https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1354947541125611526

[windowojji]

I don't think parent was saying Robinhood was good at executing trades, just that its UI was more functional than other brokers'.

[mehlmao]

I think a lot of what people are talking about when they say "Robinhood UI" is buying/selling, instant deposits, etc. Purchasing fractional shares on Schwab requires depositing money, waiting for it to clear, and clicking through several different pages. Robinhood making every account a margin account to allow purchases before deposits a gamechanger. That said, I agree that the charts are useless and viewing all of your holdings is a chore.

[subsaharancoder]

By far the easiest way to look at and buy options. I use Fidelity and it's a PITA!!

[altspace]

Yeah, FIFO only is constraining. I’m definitely waiting for them to offer LIFO and Highest Cost lots

[nefitty]

I think the UX is what really makes apps like Robinhood stand out. People are used to a certain level of slickness, and a lot of traditional services just haven’t kept up. It reminds me of when I first downloaded the Chime bank app... It was glorious compared to every other bank app/website I had used before.

I think focusing on UX really does have a big impact on adoption, as it can differentiate a company in a competitive and saturated industry.

[PragmaticPulp]

I would guess they gained more users than they lost.

The outrage was real and obviously some users left, but at the end of the day most people will still use whatever platform is easiest and cheapest for them.

[nathanvanfleet]

Wait why are you assuming they gained more than lost? OP also mentioned that other places have $0 trades anyway in terms of the cheapness.

[stu2b50]

Any news is good news. They gained a surge of users when they had that huge outage when COVID first hit. People overestimate the degree to which anyone cares about the controversy, and underestimate the degree to which it's free advertising.

[whimsicalism]

But they aren't anywhere near as seamless or slick as Robinhood. I exclusively use Charles Schwab but I don't even really think they're competing for the same type of users that much.

[willio58]

Agreed. I bet the GME stuff that happened resulted in _a lot_ of free advertising for Robinhood.

[voidfunc]

Probably a small but not insignificant loss. I don't think the WSB / Memestock users are the majority of the platform. For a lot of people I know RH still has the best feeling UX and easiest access for simple investing.

I think they're fine but if pessimism means the stock takes a haircut or dive when it starts trading I'm going to buy-in. There really is not a similar investing app that appeals to the Gen-Z / Millenial market as well as Robinhood does.

[whimsicalism]

Absolutely this. Too many people overfocus on the $0 trading fees because that is how Robinhood initially differentiated itself, but it is absolutely the experience that is keeping people today.

$0 fees have been commonplace for a few years now.

[AlwaysRock]

Probably very few. People use it for its ease not its stability or actual trading functionality. They have had massive issues for years with the app crashing during large trading periods and the vast majority of users don't care enough to move. Why would they care about this issue that realistically impacted very few?

[jc713]

I personally left to Schwab after all of the issues RH had with poor customer service and services going down all the time.

[missedthecue]

I don't think there is another broker with zero commission options trading is there? That seems like a big reason for a lot of people

[mandeepj]

Not sure about others but Ameritrade is charging $.65 per option trade and that's almost nothing - https://www.tdameritrade.com/pricing.page

[missedthecue]

That's not per trade, that's per contract.

[whimsicalism]

Massive difference.

[chewmieser]

I think Fidelity does zero commission options trading.

[bingo_cannon]

Fidelity has $0.65 per contract

[ragnarok451]

Surprising that everyone else was quick to pick up zero commission trades for equities, but not for options

[doh]

I would think it's not insignificant amount of money considering that propagation of cost basis is taking over two months and counting. All brokers are saying Robinhood id slammed by people that left and is unable to make it within the standard 14 days.

I can't speak for the size or amount of users, but definitely it had an impact.

[subsaharancoder]

Worth mentioning that if you move out all your stocks and funds from RH to another broker, they keep your account open but they deactivate trading and won't allow you to reactivate, the only option is to open a new one. I wonder if they count those "open but deactivated" accounts as part of their MAUs.