Recently, popular stock trading platform for retail investors Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) announced that it plans to extend both their morning and evening trading hours to allow users to participate in extended trading, with the ultimate goal of have 24/7 trading availability.
Prior to now, the app only provided hours that ran from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. Robinhood's new hours run from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
"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," Robinhood wrote in a blog post late last month.
"Our new extended trading hours for equities will give them more opportunities to manage their portfolio at a convenient time for them, whether that's in the early morning or in the evening," the company added.
Fellow competitors Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) and Fidelity have already offer extended trading hours, running from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Robinhood's new hours may create further competition with these other companies, as Robinhood has always been a disruptor in the retail trading space. The extension of trading hours will likely aid Robinhood when it comes to financial growth and trade. Shares of the platform are down about 28% this year.
In spite of the fact that there will be risks when it comes to the extension of trading hours, they have also taken into consideration that more hours would provide consumers with the chance of trading based on factors such as quarterly earnings. One of Robinhood's primary objectives is to avoid commission in trading. They believe that they have "democratized finance" through the utilization of new products and programs, thus reaching a variety of investment arenas, such as cryptocurrency, fractional shares, automatic investments, and customer support.
All in all, according to Robinhood's blog, "Today's launch is just another step on this journey, and we're just getting started."