Robinhood is offering extended trading hours, eyes 24/7 trading

Robinhood Markets also faces stiff competition from traditional asset managers and brokerages such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab Corp. (Photo: Reuters) — Robinhood Markets also faces stiff competition from traditional asset managers and brokerages such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab Corp. **(Photo: Reuters)**

2 min read . Updated: 29 Mar 2022, 10:23 PM IST Will Feuer, The Wall Street Journal

Shares jump on the news as brokerage tries to combat slowing growth

Robinhood Markets said it is extending the hours it will let its users trade to between 7 am ET and 8 pm ET.

The brokerage, which is popular with individual investors, is expanding its trading hours in an attempt to combat slowing growth tied to trading revenue. The company previously only allowed for a half-hour of trading before the market opened and two hours after the market closed.

The extended trading hours in the morning and the evening put Robinhood’s availability more in-line with other traditional brokerage firms. Robinhood said the move was in response to customer demand and it is working toward offering 24/7 investing, but didn’t offer a time frame for when that would be available.

Shares of Robinhood jumped 20% on Tuesday. Even with the rally, the stock is still in the red for the year.

“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 said in a blog post. “They’re juggling a lot, from full-time jobs to school, families and side gigs."

Robinhood’s investing app grew in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic as millions of new investors dabbled in investing, attracted to meme stocks such as GameStop Corp. and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and dogecoin. The company said in January that it has 22.7 million customers with funded accounts, up from 12.5 million in 2020.

But much of that growth came in the first half of last year. Maintaining that momentum has proved challenging. The company also faces stiff competition from traditional asset managers and brokerages such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab Corp.

Robinhood’s new trading hours are similar to many of its competitors. Fidelity says it starts accepting customers’ premarket orders at 7 a.m. ET and accepts after-hours trades from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Charles Schwab offers nearly 24/7 trading.

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