(Bloomberg) — Soon, Robinhood Markets Inc.’s retail traders won’t have to leave the platform to brag about their positions or post taunting memes celebrating their investment victories. The online brokerage is breaking into social media.
The move is a return of sorts to the firm’s origins. Before starting their trading platform, Robinhood founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt planned an online community for sharing investing information. Robinhood traders have long been more active on social media than other brokerages’ customers, comparing trading strategies with accompanying screenshots and commentary.
Most Read from Bloomberg
That became more pronounced during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, when novice investors flocked to Reddit and its WallStreetBets section. Robinhood now wants to harness that online enthusiasm for investing and the markets while keeping it within the confines of its own ecosystem.
The company will invite a small group of customers to join Robinhood Social early next year, then broaden the availability later, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Initially, all posts by traders will be required to include a trade of equities, options or other assets. Those positions will continue to update in real time after they’re shared, and comments on posts will be allowed.
“We always thought it was something that we wanted to get into more of, especially with social and investing becoming more and more tied together,” Abhishek Fatehpuria, vice president of product management at Robinhood, said in an interview.
Investors also will be able to follow the moves and statistics of other users who join Robinhood Social, including their one-year and daily profit and loss statements and profit rates. Profiles for public figures, such as former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, for example, will also be on the platform, with their trades populated via public disclosures required by law. Pelosi’s shares are held by her husband, according to the filings, and a spokesperson said in an emailed statement that she “does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”
While it’s unlikely Robinhood customers will ditch their existing accounts on other social-media platforms, Robinhood Social provides something Reddit and other platforms don’t, Fatehpuria said.
