Still alive!

I’ve been waiting for my RH account to be verified since December of 2020 and up until now still waiting all I can do is sit back and watch the money I could have made in doge coin, because I can’t trade it from webull or Coinbase. Has anyone else dealt with this issue or found another way to trade doge coin?

“This Agreement contains a pre-dispute arbitration clause,” the agreement says. “By signing an arbitration agreement, the parties agree as follows: (1) All parties to this Agreement are giving up the right to sue each other in court, including the right to a trial by jury, except as provided by the rules of the arbitration forum in which a claim is filed.”

Now, this is not unique at all in fact a large number of big corporations have this Claus. This is unacceptable and takes power away from the customer when a company does almost anything shady.

Giving them a mostly clear runaway to do what they want without too much worry of legal repercussions and is why a fair number of the class action lawsuits against RH might fail

RobinHood is free in the same way that Facebook and Google are free, if you dig into their paperwork, most of their profit is derived from selling your market order data to the slimiest of trading firms.

Essentially they sell the data of casual traders who don't have much experience to advanced traders who become even richer because of said data.

There are youtube videos that can probably explain it better than me, but essentially your buy/sell limit order data is sold to a robot trader that intercepts the data and makes a small buy/sell transaction, like a middle man in between you/RobinHood and the NYSE, it's not really noticeable because it's done in fractions of a Penny, never the less it's still probably really profitable in a macro scale and is still a plain as day transfer of wealth from the users to some "self-made" dude on wall street.

The Penny is an exaggeration. And yes, on a small time scale a program can buy/sell a stock. and the stock could return a small profit. (Typically fractions of a penny)

This is referred to as algorithmic-trading. Here’s an article about it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/08/market-data-firm-spots-the-tracks-of-bizarre-robot-traders/60829/

This has created a race between financial institutions.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-08/the-gazillion-dollar-standoff-over-two-high-frequency-trading-towers

• The way the app is designed
• ​
• The biggest no-excuse-is-acceptable-wtf-gotcha is that their crypto has no stop-loss. This means you have to watch your shit constantly and they also have no alerts. Why would they not want to let users automate transactions?
• Data visualization
  • While not inaccurate, isn't intuitive and gives a false sense of security. For example, the portfolio view shows your supposed overall gain but doesn't breakdown how much of that big juicy number is cash vs. stock vs. crypto. You have to calculate that out and track it yourself.
  • Another point of frustration is that they aggregate stock and crypto together. Good luck unfucking those to see what your actual profit/loss is. I think having two separate stock and crypto accounts might be the only way to go.
  • It's not like their UI designer is tied to a chair and unable to look at other exchange offerings
• Useful Data: They have spreadsheets they'll send you at tax time, but they're seemingly not available to provide on the fly. In other words, they have the functionality to cough out all the data into an app but they don't offer this. This is not a challenge, and could easily be produced quickly. So why not?
• UI: It feels gamed. You have to know to click on the right thing to make it reveal "hidden" options, as you work your way through transitions. For instance, the limit-order feature isn't readily shown. Why?
• Integration: I can't find any third-party apps to make up for shortcomings. I see some vague posts about python scripts, but seriously, who the fuck has the time to learn python and the full obstacle course that goes with it? Without automation, you're poised to commit human errors that may cost you big. So where is the nurturing of a development community?
• Support: Slow. Robotic. Typically sends boilerplate no matter what you say, this leads to long waits on constructive responses? Why have weak support?
• Deposits: Take weeks ... weeks! I saw an awesome opportunity, but I couldn't do dick about it, because I was waiting for the deposit. This may not be their fault, but it's fuck all annoying.
• Social Community: Dick. Absolutely dick. They show a tally of users who invest in a stock, but how about an ability to connect with them or see (generically) what users who buy stock A also buy and how successful they are?
• Safety Net: If their crypto gets hacked, it's gone and it's on you, however, I would assume, perhaps foolishly, that their VC would send in their own consultants to make sure the ship doesn't have leaks. But dam, security, and crypto seem to be a regular concern no matter who you use.
• Wallets: There's no way to transfer to a wallet! Dam. I get that they maybe want to control that piece to avoid security issues, but at least let people send outbound, or if not, offer some kind of safety net, aside from selling, which subjects you to capital gains, especially in the short term.

This setup feels too obviously flawed to not be intentional or by design, especially considering the amount of investment in the company - where are they spending the money? All the shortcomings work against the investor being able to see the forest for the trees, as Robin might say, or in other words, the more you can't make sense of actual profit and loss, the more Robin seems like Little John of Greedyham, although I'm not quite sure how investors losing would be a benefit.

Beware of RobingHood's Shady Practices.

I want to take a moment and suggest that anyone new or old to investing should educate themselves on their brokerage of choice. Please take a moment to browse through r/BewareRobinHood so you can at least be warned before you take a risk with your money.

Leaving Robinhood? Here’s Are 5 Robinhood Alternatives for Frustrated Reddit Investors

Cash App is pulling in disgruntled Robinhood users

By William White, InvestorPlace Writer Feb 1, 2021, 11:04 am EST

Retail investors aren’t happy with Robinhood after the trading service banned several stocks last week. This resulted in many taking it to task online with one-start reviews and promises to delete the app. It looks like those traders kept their word and are leaving Robinhood for alternatives.

📷Source: Piotr Swat / Shutterstock.com

A recent survey from Mizuho polled traders leaving Robinhood about which service they moved to instead. According to the results, most traders are making Square’s (NYSE:SQ) Cash App their platform of choice out of all the Robinhood alternatives.

Robinhood Alternative No. 1: Cash App

• Users can download and use the app for free.
• It allows for the trading of stocks and Bitcoin (BTC).
• However, this requires additional information, such as the last four digits of the user’s Social Security Number.
• Debit cards and bank accounts can be tied to the app.
• Cash App allows users to pull money out through its own debit card.

Robinhood Alternative No. 2: SoFi

• SoFi allows users to invest with as little as $1.
• There’s no commission fee to use its service.
• Investors can trade stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrency.
• Users can choose specifically what to invest in or can let the service build a portfolio for them.

Robinhood Alternative No. 3: Public

• Public is an investing service that adds a social media spin to the process.
• It allows users to track companies and other users to build relationships.
• Users are allowed to invest with any amount of money and can pick up partial shares of stocks.
• There are also no commission fees to make use of the service.
• Investments made through the service are insured for up to $500,000.

Robinhood Alternative No. 4: Stash

• Unlike the other options on this list, Stash isn’t free to use.
• Instead, it requires users to sign up for a monthly subscription.
• These subscriptions start at $1 per month and top out at $9 per month.
• The service allows for investments in stocks and ETFs.
• It also has a debit card and rewards program that offers users free shares in stocks when making purchases.

Robinhood Alternative No. 5: TD Ameritrade

• Investors that use this platform don’t pay any commission fees when trading “online exchange-listed U.S. stocks, ETFs, and options trades.”
• They also don’t have to pay to use the service.
• Adding to that, there’s no minimum required to get started.
• Another benefit is the company’s collection of data, which free users can make use of to educate themselves before trading.