Avoid Robinhood (for now)

Robinhood, creator of the first free investing platform began trading as a public company today, with a market value over $30 billion. That’s roughly the same cap as Kroger (KR), but the grocery chain does more in bottom line net income than Robinhood generates in top-line revenue. The market is truly strange at the moment and likely building a bigger bubble.

As far as active user accounts, Robinhood only trails Fidelity and Schwab. Schwab is valued at north of $130 billion. Robinhood has already forced Schwab, Fidelity, and others to offer free trading to users. It’s only a matter of time before the technology platform allows for more and more and more.

I like using it personally, but I’m not trading a bunch of money there and understand that glitches have happened. So what. What matters is the stickiness of the accounts over the long-term. My guess is it’ll be around for a while.

That said, it’s not exactly a bargain at the current valuation, and if the stock gets cut in half or 1/3rd from this price point it may be worth owning.