Robinhood makes first foray into international market with UK launch

Stock trading platform Robinhood is expanding into its first international market with an expansion into the UK.

Five years in the making, Robinhood is now granting early access to the app starting today, writes TechCrunch. Those who join the waitlist will be able to try it out first, with a gradual rollout planned for early next year.

The waitlist was first launched back in 2019 before shifting to a US-focused approach in mid-2020 without giving an apparent reason as to why. With hindsight, the pressure on Robinhood at the time was clear, with controversies centered around allegations that it was misleading customers, multi-million dollar fines over service outages, and the infamous Gamestop saga.

Three years on, Robinhood is now once again ready to expand overseas. While reporting its Q3 earnings this year, Robinhood outlined plans to launch brokerage operations in the UK, followed by crypto trading in EU markets.

“We’ve certainly learned from our previous launch attempt, and as a business, we’ve grown and matured to a level where we’re 23 million customers, $87 billion in assets, and a listed business,” Jordan Sinclair, Robinhood’s U.K. president, explained to TechCrunch. “We’ve also built technology that allows us to scale internationally.”

Robinhood translates trading services overseas

British users can now trade more than 6,000 American stocks using Robinhood, including major companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta. Consumers can place trades during standard market hours (9.30 am ET until 4 pm), translating into 2.30 pm to 9 pm UK time.

Outside of those hours, Robinhood’s 24-Hour Market service means that people can also place so-called limit orders on 150 different stocks anytime from 1 am Monday until 1 am Saturday.

Robinhood does not charge commissions to buy and sell stocks, meaning people can start building an investment portfolio with just one US dollar (79p). Regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), users can earn 5% interest on uninvested cash, which must be converted from pounds to dollars.

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