Robinhood’s main problem isn’t that they stopped people from buying GME (a lot of brokers did that), it’s not payment for order flow, and it’s not glitches.
GME: That was a liquidity problem based on an extremely rare event that a LOT of brokers had as well. IBKR, TDA, Schwab, Merrill, etc. also did that but no one seems to care.
PFOF: Price execution IS worse on Robinhood, but this should only be an actual issue for traders. If you buy AAPL when it’s $175.12, and it fills for $175.14, it’s not really a big deal.
Glitches: Seem fairly rare and usually resolve themselves. Though this is definitely a real issue, I don’t think it’s as big of a problem as the biggest one.
There’s something about the way Robinhood’s app works that makes you want to trade. I think the graph next to all of your holdings, the immediacy of the animations, the real time changing graphs, the trajectory of the graphs when things go up/down, etc.
I used to have a problem with Robinhood where I’d check it a lot and it made it hard to stick to my strategy. I would constantly be making little adjustments and trading in and out of positions each week.
I’ve switched to Fidelity, only use it on desktop, and have not made a trade in weeks. I have my strategy, don’t really look at daily fluctuations, and login to add to my positions when I get paid.
If you’re having this problem, it’s probably not you, it’s probably just that you’re using an app that is designed to get you to trade as much as possible. Switch to a traditional brokerage, and don’t use apps. Or, keep a small amount of money on robinhood to mess around with, and keep your real investments on a traditional brokerage.
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