[curiousphil]

This assumes that the other competitors aren't vastly overcharging for their services. The current commission structure for most brokerages is still based on a time when computers couldn't execute a trade nearly instantly and a lot of paper and people were involved with the execution. There's really no good reason for a trade costing between $5-10 dollars to execute today. So far my experience with the Robinhood app has been pretty great. When you aren't trading thousands of dollars per trade, not having a commission is pretty dang nice and removes a good sized barrier for light hobbyist investors like myself.

[themartorana]

Completely agree. I'm playing with investing ideas with under $2000. I could run through 10% of my money in 20 trades.

This has nothing to do with the validity or intelligence behind being an armchair day trader. This is entirely about my ability to participate in the market in a small way, without trade fees having a significant enough impact to wipe out short-term gains completely.