news Robinhood Extends Its Trading Hours

[MrD]

Attention sweatpants-wearing, meme stock-chasing, amateur retail traders everywhere: Your hours of operation (and, we must add, your availability to receive scary margin calls) are about to expand.

On Tuesday, Robinhood announced it is adding four hours of extended trading for its users as it slowly moves to offering 24/7 services.

These Are the People in Your Robinhood

Amid meme stock mania and the bitcoin blitz, Robinhood had a blockbuster 2021 on the backs of millions of new users. Its revenue jumped nearly 90% to $1.82 billion, it announced in an earnings report in January, while its user base increased from 12.5 million to nearly 23 million. But then a not-so-surprising thing happened for the day trading app: Much of its clientele had day jobs and social lives and family matters to attend to. Growth fell off, with Q4 revenue tied to stock trades dropping 35% YoY.

“Our customers often tell us they’re working or preoccupied during regular market hours, limiting their ability to invest on their own schedule or evaluate and react to important market news,” the company explained in a blog post announcing the news. With extended hours, Robinhood hopes to meet its users where they are (presumably on the couch, after work, surfing Reddit for hot tips and new cryptocurrencies):

The app is extending its pre-market trading hours to 7 a.m. ET and its after-hours trading availability to 8 p.m. Previously, its extended hours lasted from only a half-hour before open and two hours after close, or from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The move brings its operating hours in line with chief rivals. Fidelity and Interactive Brokers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for most basic accounts, although Charles Schwab is open virtually 24/7.

Robinhood’s stock closed up 24% following the announcement on Tuesday, but it still needs a GameStop-esque run to rise out of the red for the year.