Robinhood is a mobile-first inventory and ETF buying and selling platform that’s made a reputation for itself as a simple but surprisingly highly effective investing device. You, like tens of millions of different customers, could already be conversant in Robinhood’s free model, however you will not be conscious that they provide a paid membership referred to as Robinhood Gold.
So what’s Robinhood Gold, anyway? How a lot does it value? What does it deliver to the desk? And most significantly, is it price it?
Hold studying to search out out whether or not Robinhood Gold is definitely worth the value of admission.
What it Prices
Robinhood Gold is fairly low cost. In the intervening time it’s simply:
So that you’ll pay at most $55 for the primary yr, then $60 for every year afterwards.
For reference, $5 per 30 days is similar it prices to subscribe to various totally different streaming companies, together with:
Apple TV+
Discovery+
Peacock
Indieflix
In addition to a ton of subscription bins, newspapers, magazines, and plenty of, many different issues.
In order that’s the bar for what it is best to get for $5 a month. Now maintain this query in thoughts whereas we undergo the advantages of Robinhood Gold: does it present no less than as a lot worth, enjoyment, and/or utility as with the ability to stream Ted Lasso or Parks and Recreation everytime you need?
Professional Tip
Robinhood Gold is Robinhood’s premium subscription that prices simply $5 per 30 days, after a 30-day free trial. Plus, while you join Robinhood utilizing this hyperlink, you’ll rise up to $200 to spend on shares. And while you refer associates, you may earn as much as $1700 in free inventory yr!
The Massive Offers
Robinhood Gold comes with these main advantages:
4.15% curiosity on uninvested brokerage money
Greater immediate deposits
Skilled analysis from Morningstar
Degree II market information from Nasdaq
Margin investing at an rate of interest of seven.25%
Since Robinhood Gold is just $60 per yr, there’s an excellent likelihood that any a kind of advantages (with the potential exception of larger immediate deposits) might present greater than sufficient worth to cowl the price of a subscription. Let’s dig a bit of deeper into every profit and see what they carry to the desk.
Curiosity on Uninvested Money
If you begin utilizing Robinhood the very first thing you do is deposit some money into your account. You often use that money to purchase shares, choices, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies; whichever ones you assume will go up in value and make you essentially the most cash.
If you happen to don’t really feel like shopping for something in the mean time for no matter cause—perhaps you cashed out on the high of the market, otherwise you assume the market’s going to remain in damaging territory for some time, and so on—you may both switch that money out to your checking account or simply depart it in your Robinhood account.
If you happen to resolve to maintain your uninvested money in your Robinhood account, you may select to decide into Robinhood’s brokerage money sweep program. When you’ve opted in, Robinhood will sweep your uninvested money to considered one of its companion banks, the place it will likely be used (and insured) like every other deposit.
Regular Robinhood members can earn 1.5% annual curiosity on their uninvested money. That’s not nice. At 1.5% APY you’d solely earn $15 in curiosity on a $1,000 deposit, which is effectively below the speed of inflation. You’d actually lose cash by doing that.
Robinhood Gold members, alternatively, earn 4.15% annual curiosity on their uninvested brokerage money. That’s $41.50 a yr on a $1,000 deposit. It’s nonetheless not nice, and doesn’t come near beating the inflation charge, nevertheless it’s higher than loads of high-yield financial savings accounts.
Is the Curiosity on Uninvested Money Price It?
Leaving out the inflation issues, in in the present day’s {dollars} you’d must let Robinhood sweep $1,446 at an annual charge of 4.15% to earn over $60 in curiosity, as
$1,445.78 * 0.415 = 60
Math.
Professional Tip
Robinhood Gold is Robinhood’s premium subscription that prices simply $5 per 30 days, after a 30-day free trial. Plus, while you join Robinhood utilizing this hyperlink, you’ll rise up to $200 to spend on shares. And while you refer associates, you may earn as much as $1700 in free inventory yr!
Greater Immediate Deposits
Immediate deposits are just about precisely what they sound like. Usually it takes a while for a switch out of your financial institution to make it into your Robinhood account, however immediate deposits allow you to skip all that ready and get proper to investing.
If you happen to don’t have Robinhood Gold you’re restricted to a most of $1,000 in immediate deposits. So when you have been to switch $10,000 into your account you’d have $1,000 accessible immediately however have to attend on the opposite $9,000.
Robinhood Gold raises that immediate deposit restrict by an nearly absurd diploma. With Gold your immediate deposit restrict is raised to a max of $50,000 IF your portfolio is already price no less than $50,000. Presumably that works for numbers lower than $50,000—you may immediate deposit as much as $20,000 in case your portfolio is price no less than $20,000, and so on.
Are the Greater Immediate Deposits Price It?
Positive, when you completely must deposit cash in your account proper now for worry of lacking a profitable alternative. In any other case that is extra of an ancillary profit than an actual promoting level.
Skilled Analysis from Morningstar
Morningstar is well-known round investing circles. Their analysis is thorough, well timed, and usually top-notch, and many of us subscribe to Morningstar for effectively over $60 per yr for the analysis alone. (Learn our Morningstar Investor evaluate.) Robinhood’s free model doesn’t have the most effective analysis and evaluation options included, so having access to Morningstar analysis generally is a massive assist.
A subscription to Robinhood Gold will get you entry to in-depth analysis reviews on round 1,700 totally different shares, together with up-to-date details about essential occasions, fundamentals, information, and future prospects. There’s a cause folks pay Morningstar massive bucks for these items.
Is the Skilled Analysis Price It?
This actually is dependent upon the form of dealer you might be. If you happen to’re the form of dealer who does extra development following and technical evaluation/prognostication than elementary investing, you most likely received’t get an excessive amount of out of this function.
If you happen to’re the form of one that likes poring over dry reviews and drilling down into the basic components behind shares, their costs, and their prospects, you’ll get rather a lot out of Morningstar analysis.
From a pure greenback worth perspective, $60 a yr is a superb deal for having access to the product of Morningstar’s steady {of professional} merchants and analysts.
Degree II Information from Nasdaq
That is form of a bizarre function. Degree II information is all of the real-time data from the Nasdaq’s order ebook, which principally means you’ll get a way more in-depth have a look at the transactions driving adjustments in inventory costs.
You’re already conversant in Degree I information. It’s simply the bid and ask costs, each of which can be found on most platforms. Degree II information goes a bit deeper. It reveals you what’s driving these bid and ask costs, basically exhibiting you the availability and demand behind inventory value ranges. It’s nice for getting an excellent granular have a look at what’s driving inventory costs, however that’s about it.
Is the Market Information Price It?
This can be a difficult one. Most individuals received’t ever need or must dive into the Degree II weeds. All that intraday information is just helpful to people who find themselves actively buying and selling day in and day trip, and that simply isn’t most individuals’s bag.
Alternatively, you’ll most likely get lots of worth from this function when you’re a kind of day merchants on the lookout for actually detailed value data.
Margin Investing at 7.25% Curiosity
If you wish to purchase shares, ETFs, choices, or crypto, however you don’t manage to pay for to do it immediately, you may ask Robinhood to lend you cash on margin.
The final thought is that you simply’ll borrow the cash on margin at a set rate of interest, make investments the cash, and make sufficient off of the funding to repay the principal and curiosity with some revenue leftover. The upper the rate of interest you pay, the tougher it’s to cross that worthwhile threshold.
Regular Robinhood margin is at the moment lent out at an rate of interest of 11.25%. That’s lots of curiosity to repay.
If you happen to join Robinhood Gold, although, your first $1,000 in margin is interest-free, then at 7.25% for any quantities above $1,000. That’s 4% lower than with the free model, which is much more than it appears like.
Is the Margin Investing Price It?
Once more, it relies upon. If you happen to’re a savvy dealer who’s already comfy utilizing margin then sure, it most likely will probably be price it to you.
This function most likely received’t be too helpful to you when you aren’t the form of one that likes to play with borrowed cash. Why? Easy: you received’t use it.
Professional Tip
Robinhood Gold is Robinhood’s premium subscription that prices simply $5 per 30 days, after a 30-day free trial. Plus, while you join Robinhood utilizing this hyperlink, you’ll rise up to $200 to spend on shares. And while you refer associates, you may earn as much as $1700 in free inventory yr!
The Verdict: Is Robinhood Gold Price It?
Robinhood Gold prices $5 a month. For that value you get a small however numerous set of options that may very effectively pay for themselves.
If you wish to earn curiosity in your uninvested money, it’s price it.
If you wish to deposit tons of cash and have it accessible instantly, it’s price it.
If you happen to’re a worth investor and wish fascinating analysis from Morningstar, it’s positively price it.
If you happen to’re a day dealer on the lookout for extra granular value information, it’s price it.
And if you wish to make investments on margin it’s completely price it.
Lengthy story quick: Robinhood Gold might be price it.
If you happen to’d like extra data on the opposite options Robinhood provides, you’re in the proper place. We’ve finished loads of in-depth analysis on Robinhood’s choices, on every thing from their common brokerage accounts to their trustworthiness as an organization. Learn our articles on the Robinhood Crypto Pockets and Robinhood IRA Evaluate.