Ask HN: What Are the Alternatives to Robinhood?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25946366

by vira28 • 5 years ago

70 27 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have used Vanguard, Etrade and M1 finance (https://www.m1finance.com/). I heard good things about Interactive Brokers. What are the other ones. Would love to see some research on this.

What about Ally or Alpaca? Can one trade using those banks (api) ?

vira283• 5 years ago

Just saw a post on M1 using Apex and not allowed to trade certain stocks. https://twitter.com/M1_Finance/status/1354837064072753152

nitrogen• 5 years ago

Darn, if Apex is blocking at the clearing house level, then the platform I would have recommended is also not going to work.

Edit: just checked, and yeah, there's a message that Apex has blocked buying, plus an investor warning about significant losses. Weirdly my test trade (I'm not involved in this game, just spectating) was accepted though.

vira283• 5 years ago

Right. Certainly one needs to have some level of crypto on their assets?

sloaken• 5 years ago

I was surprised to hear about Robinhood blocking trades on some companies. Can they do that?

PKop2• 5 years ago

They can do whatever they want if no one stops them. The question is simply who is the sovereign and who makes and enforces the rules. It should be clear that financial oligarchy has a prominent position doing just that in our society in the US at least.

PKop2• 5 years ago

An alternative is invest some portion of money in crypto assets, and Defi which can be a sort of decentralized alternative to established financial players. Obviously this isn't the stock market but this incident should raise scrutiny of the merits of being involved in that rigged casino in general.

sschueller• 5 years ago

There is a list on wsb of which still allow you to trade. https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/l6wrig/you_...

dragontamer• 5 years ago

Interactive Brokers is a monthly payment. Only if you're VERY active in trading (many trades every month) should you consider IB. But yes, they're very premium service, but I don't think they're for typical investors (who might only trade once or twice a month).

Your standard brokerage firms all work: E-Trade, TD Ameritrace, Schwab, Fidelity etc. etc. Stocks are easy, they all got them covered. It really doesn't matter who you go with for stocks.

Fidelity is a bit better with bond offerings. TD Ameritrade is known for their nicer interface (Think or Swim), especially for options trading. E-Trade IIRC has some good international offerings but still has a pay-per-trade business model.

It depends on what you want. But... stocks are real easy, everyone does stocks just fine. Its more about asking what your secondary investments are going to be: Forex, Options, Bonds, and the like

solumos• 5 years ago

Interactive Brokers also offers a "Lite" version that is pointed at a similar market to RobinHood (no fees, no comissions). Also worth noting that they run their own clearing house.

https://www1.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=45196

https://www1.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=45500

justin662• 5 years ago

Interactive Brokers also offers a "Lite" version that is pointed at a similar market to RobinHood (no fees, no comissions).

Who charges fees or commissions on stock trading anymore?

platz• 5 years ago

The Monthly Minimum Fee is $10.00 a month for Interactive Brokers.

I can cancel my netflix and then it's about even.

mrgreenfur• 5 years ago

IB put in the same limits as RH

throwitawayfam• 5 years ago

Don't use Interactive Brokers. They halted GME today. Interactive Brokers chairman on CNBC, asked why they halted trading: "Honestly, to protect ourselves": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RH4XKP55f

E-trade and TD Ameritrade halted GME today as well.

Same bullshit as Robinhood.

simplemen2• 5 years ago

Why is this downvoted? This true and I would not trust IB. My friend had been trying convince me to come to IB but now he is moving to Fidelity.

Jugurtha• 5 years ago

TD Ameritrade was the only brokerage firm that agreed to open an account for me, living in Algeria, when I was a student about a decade ago. They even mailed in all the required paperwork at the time, got on the phone and explained the details and answered my questions.

Every other firm I tried to open an account with refused for policy reasons. It was shortly after that that PayPal blocked my account without giving any reason, even after exchanging with their support team. They insisted it was a definitive, irrevocable, decision with no recourse.

rcdexta• 5 years ago

I think it is better to prefer brokers that have their own clearing house

https://investorjunkie.com/stock-brokers/broker-clearing-fir...

vira283• 5 years ago

Update: Just got an email from Alpaca that even they are also stopping trading on some stocks.

qorrect2• 5 years ago

Looks like they just lifted it, with conditions*.

unstatusthequo• 5 years ago

thinkorswim or tastytrade. Though both did the same or similar as Robinhood with stopping opening positions. I just got an email from tastytrade saying that restriction was lifted.

karlzt• 5 years ago

See this:

https://alternativeto.net/software/robinhood/

anderspitman• 5 years ago

Index funds.

qorrect2• 5 years ago

I wanted to use IB but the api was hideous, ended up going with Alpaca.

simplemen2• 5 years ago

Fidelity, I daytraded GME today without any issues. I also have accounts with Tastyworks and Think or Swim. Tastyworks sent email that their clearinghouse had blocked certain stocks but ToS didn't sent any email. So assuming ToS is also safe to use for high risk trading.

jklepatch• 5 years ago

crypto!

Ask HN: What Are the Alternatives to Robinhood?

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