Is Webull a Good Robinhood Alternative?

While some people are fond of online broker Robinhood, which charges no sales commissions, other people are looking for an alternative to Robinhood. One contender is Webull, another commission-free stockbroker.  This article will chronicle my experince with Webull and offer you, my readers, a free share of stock.

I first found Robinhood alternative Webull when I was perusing Google Play for more apps for my phone and Webull was listed as a free online broker.  I hit Google to see what folks had to say about it, and found that it was an alternative to Robinhood if you were looking for a free online broker.  I also saw that you got a free share of stock for trying it, so I did.

Getting Started with Webull

Robinhood for the Web: My Review

I've written several times about my experience with Robinhood, an online broker that allows investors to buy and sell shares of stock, ETFs, options and even cryptocurrencies without paying a sales commission.  Up until recently, the only weakness I found was that Robinhood required you to use a smartphone app; the website was not much more than a landing screen directing you how to download the app.  However, the last time I went to their website, I found something new, and it looked a lot like what you see above.  Yes,  you can now buy and sell via Robinhood's website.  So, let's take a look at the website and its features.

Appearance:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this beholder doesn't much care for the black background with white print.

What You Get:

The screen you see above is what I see once I've logged in.  You can see that my portfolio lost value today ($5.52) but then gained in after hours trading ($1.88). On the right side of the screen, you can see a list of the stocks I own, and how much each is worth, as well as a chart showing its progress today (green for gain, red for loss).  

If I click on the symbol for a stock, I am taken to a page like this.  You can see that today, AT&T decreased in value, per the red chart.  It shows that the current value of my AT&T shares is $316.26 and that my average price per share is $36.25.  This screen also tells me that I own 9 shares of AT&T and that they make up 19.04% of my portfolio.  From this screen I can both buy and sell my shares, and it tells me I have $4.12 buying power at this moment.  I would guess that this is all pretty standard stuff for a stock brokerage.

Robinhood has a couple of interesting things on this screen that due to the size of the screenshot, you can probably barely see.  Above where it says AT&T, are the words "100 Most Popular", "Telecommunications" and "Wireless".  These are what Robinhood calls "collections", groups of stocks that have something in common.  Click on "100 Most Popular" and  you get 

This particular collection is a list of the 100 stocks most popular with Robinhood investors.  Besides the current price and how the stock performed today, I can see what percent of analysts recommend the stock.  On the right side of the page is a simple stock screener that I can apply to the current collection. Of those 100 most popular stocks, only are recommended by more than half the analysts.  Of those, only four are small cap companies.  Three of those deal with drugs or health, and one, Plug Power, which I had never heard of before starting this article, provides alternative energy technology.  As happened when I clicked the AT&T symbol on my homepage, clicking the Plug Power symbol took me to a page about them.  

From the AT&T page shown above, if I click on Analysts' Rating, I am taken further down the screen where I see

I like the way it shows both points of view and tells you that 40% of analysts recommend buying AT&T, 57% recommend holding it, and only 3% recommend selling it.  I wish I knew how many analysts they polled, and who they were.  Perhaps Robinhood plans to monetize that information later, but right now, I don't see any way to access it.  Still it is good information to use to screen stocks to pick those worthy of further investigation.

As I continue down the page, I see what is above--a graph of AT&T's earnings per quarter and my history with the stock at Robinhood.  You can see that I will get a dividend on May 1 and if I click the word "Pending" it tells me that I'm going to get $0.50 per share for a total of $4.50.  

Some stocks also have links to articles about the company and its potential as an investment.

Finally, the front page offers me links to articles.  From what I can see, these, shown above,  are just articles of general interest to investors as opposed to articles about my stocks. 

Web or Phone?

I was a late adopter of smartphones--I got my first one a Christmas, and one of the reasons I wanted it was to run the Robinhood app.  At this point, the app is easier on my eyes but the website has more information.  Interestingly, the app also has the black background with white letters and it doesn't bother me.  

Neither "collections" nor analysts ratings have made it to the app at this time, so I think if you are looking for a company in which to buy stock, more information is available on the web (and I prefer a keyboard and screen for any serious research.  

How Does Robinhood Compare to Other Options?

Stockpile

Robinhood wins many comparisons to other online brokers. I have reviewed Stockpile, which offers gift certificates and supervised trading for minors. Robinhood does not offer either one, but it also does not charge $0.99 per trade, and it offers a much larger variety of investment choices.  Stockpile offers fractional shares, whereas Robinhood does not.  Stockpile engages in once per day batch trading, Robinhood offeres real-time trades.   I prefer the appearance of Stockpile's website.  If you want $5.00 worth of free stock, use this link to open a Stockpile account (and I get $5.00 too).  

Motif

Motif offers free first opening price trades, or you can pay for real-time trades.  However, if your account is under $10,000 Motif charges you a $10 account fee every other month.  Also, Motif has started charging a fee for owning one of the "motifs" or baskets of stocks that they designed.  Robinhood offers real time trades and no monthly account fees.  While Motif allows the purchase of factional shares, Robinhood, as stated above, does not.  

Vanguard

Vanguard is my favorite mutual fund company, hands down.  They have a large portion of my net worth under their umbrella.  However, I just "tried" to buy stock from them.  The interface was easy, and I had no problem setting up the order.  However, there was a $7.00 commission whether I was buying one share or a thousand.  Clearly buying individual stocks via Vanguard is not realistic for people who don't want to invest a lot of money in any one company.  

How Does Robinhood Make Money?

If a company is going to stay in business it has to make money.  Otherwise, it ends up going out of business, like Loyal3 did, or it has to change its business model and start charging fees.  Motif, for example, used to charge a $9.95 commission to buy or sell a "motif" or basket of stocks, but no monthly fee.  Now they've reduced sales commissions but added a monthly fee for small accounts.  

Robinhood says that they make their money by charging for Robinhood Gold, which is basically a margin account that allows after hours trading, and by the interest earned on uninvested money in stockholder's accounts.  

How to Get Started

If you would like to invest with Robinhood, use my link and we'll both get a free share of stock. The last free share I got was Sprint, which has increased in value by 15% in the last month.  Fill out a few simple forms, link your bank account and you are ready to go.  Robinhood will even let you instantly invest up to $1000 that is en route from your bank to Robinhood.  

While full service brokers may offer features Robinhood does not, if you are looking for a place to dabble in the stock market without paying a lot of fees, Robinhood is a great fit.  

*Part of Financially Savvy Saturdays on brokeGIRLrich.*

What Are Options and Should I Invest In Them?

In the investing world, what are options?  Simply put, they are contracts that require the holder to buy or sell a certain stock at a certain price on a certain date.  For example, right now (Saturday morning, 12:03 CDT) the latest price for one share of AT&T is $34.86.  Via Robinhood, I can buy "Calls", which are options to buy AT&T at a certain price, or "Puts" which are options to sell AT&T at a certain price.  

Calls

One example is that  I can buy a Call that expires on March 29, 5 days from now, which allows me to purchase 100 shares of AT&T stock for $35.50 per share.  This call will cost me $15.00.  On March 29, if the market price for AT&T is above $35.64, and I still own that option, I make a profit.  I can use my option to buy the shares, and then almost immediately, to sell them (unless I want to own them, in which case I can keep them).  If the market price is below $35.64, I lose money, but my loss is capped at the $15.00 I invested.  In short, it is possible to lose 100% of my investment, but the dollar amount I risk can be less than if I purchased the stock outright.

I can also buy a Call that allows me to by 100 shares of AT&T at $37.00 on January 18, 2019.  That would cost me $132.00 In order for me to break even on this option, AT&T would have to go up to $38.32 on January 18, 2019.  If the market price is more than that, I make money; less than that, I lose money, but whereas my total gain is hypothetically unlimited, my downside is limited to $132.00.  

Once you own a Call, you can sell it at any time before it expires.  For example, if over the weekend AT&T announced that they had invented a super new type of internet bandwidth that was going to revolutionize everything, and investors reacted Monday morning by bidding up the price of AT&T to $50 a share, people would love to get their hands on my option to buy shares at $35.50, and they'd be willing to pay more for it than what I did. I can sell the option to someone else, and make a profit.  The price of call options tends to move in the same direction as the price of the stock.  

Puts 

Puts are the option to sell 100 share of stock for a certain price.  Right now I can buy a Put that expires March 29 to sell 100 shares of AT&T for $35.00 per share.  The cost of that Put is $59.00.  On March 29 if AT&T is worth more than $35.00 per share, I can buy 100 shares and then sell them immediately for more than I paid.  In order to make a profit (because I did pay for the Put), I need the price of AT&T to drop below $34.42.  With this Put the most I can lose is $59 (my investment) and the most I can gain is $3441 (assuming AT&T drops to zero).  

More long-term, I can buy a Put that expires January 18, 2019 for $348.00.  In this case, I make money if the price of AT&T drops below $31.52.  The most I can lose is the invested $348 and the most I can gain, assuming AT&T drops to zero, is $348.00

Like Calls, Puts can be sold at market rates, at any time before they expire.  The lower the price of the stock goes, the more valuable Put options become.  

But Why?

Why do options trade?  What is the point?  To make money of course.  If I own a stock and sell a call option on it, I collect the sale price.  Using the example above, if I had been the originator of that March 29 call option and it originated today, I would collect 15 cents per share for those one hundred shares.  At that point, two things could happen.  First, the stock could end up below $35.50, in which case I keep my fifteen cents and I can keep my stock or sell it at market price.  The other thing that could happen is that it sells for more than $35.00, in which case I have to sell it to the holder of the call for $35.00 per share.  Basically I say that in return for getting 15 cents per share now, I am willing to limit my upside.  If the stock goes through the roof, you are the one that gets the extra profit.

Please note however, that one I (the owner of the shares) sells you an option, you are free to sell it to others.  Selling to option to others does not obligate you to provide shares to the person who owns the option at expiration.  

Options allow investors who own stock to give up some possible profits in return for a known payment.  Options allow other investors to invest relatively small amounts of money and to possibly gain a lot.  Trading options--buying and selling the options only, and not owning the underlying stock, is a high-risk high-reward (and high loss) way of investing. 

How Do You Invest in Options?

Most brokerage houses allow options trading, though the SEC has more stringent requirements for trading options (which can and often do expire worthless) than for trading stocks.  While I have never traded options, my Robinhood account was just enabled for them.  I'm going to study the types of trades and the risks involved a while longer before investing.

If you would like to get a free share of stock, sign up with Robinhood, an online brokerage firm that charges no sales commissions.  If you sign up, we both get a free share of stock.  

Low Cost Brokers: Robinhood vs Motif vs Stockpile

Until recently, one thing that kept small investors from investing in individual shares of stock vs mutual funds was the fees charged.  Most brokerage houses had a minimum fee per transaction and if that transaction only involved a few shares, the fees made it cost-prohibitive.  The advent of the internet and electronic trading has made it possible to reduce those fees considerably, to the point that it is possible to buy a single share of stock in one company or even fractions of shares.  Let's take a look at a few of the companies set up to serve small investors.

Stockpile:

Stockpile charges $.99 per trade, and offers a large selection of stocks, though not the entire market.  The market they seem to be trying to reach is that of the young and inexperienced investor.  Stockpile's website includes a "Learn" section which includes articles on such topics as "What is an Exchange?" and "What Is NASDAQ?".  The articles are short, informative and easy to read.

Another way Stockpile reaches small investors is by offering fractional shares.  As of this writing, Amazon stock costs $1448.69, which is more than I want to invest in any one company.  Stockpile allows me to pick any dollar amount to invest, so that I could invest $145 and get 1/10 of a share of Amazon, or $14.50 to buy 1/100 of a share.  

A unique feature of Stockpile is that they offer gift cards, either physical or virtual.  With Stockpile I can choose to give you stock in Disney rather than Disney bling.  However, when you go to redeem the gift card, you are allowed to invest that money in any stock you please, so if you prefer Universal to Disney, go ahead and switch (and you don't even have to tell me).  

Stockpile does not charge account maintenance fees and they do not offer IRAs.  However, they do offer custodial accounts for minors.  With these accounts, an adult custodian is responsible for the account, but it is owned by the minor.  Minors can be given their own log in information.  The only difference is that when a minor tries to enter a buy or sell order, the request is routed to the custodian for approval.  

If you want to get started with Stockpile, clicking this link will give you $5.00 worth of whichever stock you want.

The main disadvantage of Stockpile is that trades are made at the closing price the day you order them.  You cannot make a quick choice to get out NOW, and, if the market drops noticeably between the time you requested the trade and the time it executes, you may find that you don't get the price you were expecting.

Stockpile charges $.99 per trade, so if you are buying a very small amount of stock it could get expensive on a percent of assets basis.  I recommend a minimum investment of $100.00.  Other fees include a 3% debit/credit card fee (though you can transfer money from your bank account at no cost) and a $2.99 gift card fee.  While there are other fees, these are the ones most investors will be most likely to see.

Motif

Motif's claim to fame is enabling small investors to buy fractional shares of a variety of companies in one basket, dubbed a "Motif".  Motif offers some professionally designed motifs as well as many designed by ordinary people.  If you design a motif and convince others to buy it, you will get a sales commission.

The minimum amount of money necessary to invest in a motif is $300, and each motif can contain up to 30 different stocks.  

Motif recently changed its fee schedule.  Now, you can get commission-free next market open trades of both individual stocks and professionally designed motifs.  If you want to trade in real time, professional motifs will cost you $9.95 per motif, a motif you build is $19.95 per trade or if you want to trade single stocks, the fee is $4.95 per trade.

For larger or more active investors Motif offers "Impact" or "Motif Blue" accounts.  An "Impact" account is a fully-automated portfolio what is automatically rebalanced and which has a composition that changes as you age.  Regarding the cost of an Impact account, Motif says "The fee structure for a Motif Impact account, that provides a fully automated portfolio aligning your financial goals with your values, is 0.25%, expressed as an annual fee rate."  A "Motif Blue" account is one in which you pay a $19.95 per month fee in exchange for three "free" real time trades per month, plus real time quotes.  If you would like to try Motif Blue, click this link and you will get three months free.  

Motif is now charging $10 per quarter for each account that is under $10,000 and which has had no commissioned trades in the last three months.  In my opinion, that cost is high, percentage-wise, if your account is much under $5,000.  

Right now I own eight professionally designed motifs, most of which were purchased when Motif was offering them at no commission as "motifs of the week".  I also own one that I designed, which I did pay a commission to purchase.  Today I made my first use of the commission-free trade service and used my accumulated dividends to buy a fraction of a share of NVIDIA.  

If you would like to try Motif, use this link; you'll get three months of Motif Blue (and then you can decide whether to keep it or not) and I'll get one.

Motif's strength is allowing you to spread a moderate amount of money among a large number of stocks for a relatively low amount of money.  However real-time trading will cost you, and fees will disproportionately affect small accounts.  

Robinhood

Robinhood is a smartphone app only (for now) brokerage.  They are planning a webpage but it is not live yet.  The app is available for both Apple and Android phones.  

While Robinhood does not offer IRAs, it offers margin accounts and is in the process of rolling out options trading and crypto-currency trading.  

Stock trades on Robinhood are in real time but most users are not allowed more than three day trades (buying and selling the same stock on the same day) per five day window.  Trading on Robinhood is commission free, which makes it easy to buy and sell one share of stock at a time.  

One nice feature is "instant deposit".  Once your bank account and Robinhood are linked, you can deposit up to $1,000 into your Robinhood account and have instant access to it.  When the market fell quickly last week, I deposited an additional $200 in my account and went shopping.  I did not have to wait for the check to clear.

Robinhood offers a margin account, known as "Robinhood Gold" Besides allowing you to borrow money with which to buy stocks, a Robinhood Gold account allows you extended trading hours and a larger instant deposit.

I find the Robinhood interface to be easy to use.  When I log in I see my account balance, along with how much it moved that day.  As I scroll down I see each company in which I own stock with a notation of how many shares of each I own.  There is a small graph that shows whether the stock is up or down for the day, and the latest price per share.  If I click on any company, I get a graph that shows its movement in the last day, week, month, three months, year and five  years.  I can click to buy or sell.  I can scroll down and see what my equity value (shares times share price) is, and how much my average price per share was, and my percentage return both in total and today.  I can see my history with the stock, along with an earnings chart.  Often there are links to articles about company.

If you would like to invest via Robinhood, use this link and we both get a free share of stock.

So, Which Is the Best?

Honestly, it depends.  I have accounts with all three.  Right now, I have little reason to use Stockpile.  My Motif account is almost $10,000 and with their new pricing structure, I plan to bring it up to that level soon, thereby eliminating the quarterly charge.  For people who have an account big enough to avoid Motif's fee, I'd recommend using it to purchase fractional shares, as you can do so without commission.  If you do not have that much money and want to be able to purchase fractional shares, I'd recommend using Stockpile for that purpose.  

For purchasing shares in companies you can afford to buy full shares of, I'd recommend Robinhood.  It is free, easy to use and trades in real time.  The only downside is that you have to use a smartphone, at least right now.  

Motif is the only one of these companies that offers IRAs, but unless you have $10,000, the fees get high.

If you are interested in opening an account with one of these companies, please use my referral links.

My Stock Portfolio: AT&T

I've said before that I firmly believe that the best investment strategy for most people, me included, is to invest in a diversified portfolio of index mutual funds.  You should pick an asset allocation ratio (what percent of your money is in stocks vs bonds, and foreign vs domestic) set it, and generally leave it alone.  Invest regularly and do not try to time the market.  If you do this I can almost guarantee you:

• You are not going to double your money in a year or two
• You are not going to lose money, in the long run
• You will have up years and down years, but if you don't sell during the down years, you will eventually recover (and then some)
• 
  

That being said, I personally find the stock market to be fascinating and I like playing around with it.  We allocate a very small percent of our assets to purchasing individual stocks using low-fee or no-fee brokers.  Robinhood allows you to purchase individual shares of most companies in realtime for no commissions.  Robinhood also allows you to set stop loss, limit buys and limit sell orders.  If you use my Robinhood link, you will get one free share of stock, and so will I.  What have you got to lose?

This article will begin a periodic series on the individual stocks in which I have invested.  These articles are not a recommendation that you purchase the stock, but rather an indication of why I purchased it, how it has performed, and what I plan to do with it.  

Name of Company and Description of Business

According to AT&T's website 

At AT&T, we’re bringing it all together. We deliver advanced mobile services, next-generation TV, high-speed internet and smart solutions for people and businesses. That’s why we’re investing to be a global leader in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications industry.

In the United States, we offer TV and wireless nationwide, plus a large high-speed internet footprint. We offer a wide choice of internet speeds to meet customers’ needs. With our 100% fiber network, customers in 67 markets can download a 90-minute HD movie in less than 36 seconds, a 30-minute TV episode in 3 seconds and 25 songs in 1 second¹. We plan to expand these speeds to at least 75 metros in total. We also offer pay TV in 11 Latin American countries.

We offer solutions that help businesses in every industry serve their customers better. We deliver advanced services to millions of businesses on 6 continents. That includes nearly all of the Fortune 1000 as well as neighborhood businesses across the United States.

Our high-speed mobile internet network covers more than 400 million people and businesses across the U.S. and Mexico. We also wirelessly connect cars, machines, shipping containers and more. It's all part of our leadership in what’s called the Internet of Things.

Speaking historically, AT&T is "the phone company" that got its start when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.  It has gone through several rounds of break-ups and consolidations but today offers a variety of telecommunications products.

Date Purchased

I purchased two shares on November 21, 2016.

Purchase Price

My purchase price was $37.67.

Current Price

The current price, as of 12:49 CST, on 1/29/18 is $37.49.

Stop-Loss Price

I do not have a stop-loss set for this stock.  I don't think AT&T is going anywhere so I'm not afraid of losing a lot of money on this.  While the price may go up and down, the business itself is profitable and it is paying a good dividend.

Dividends Received

I received $.49 per share on May 1, August 1, November 1 and will receive a $0.50 dividend on February 1.

Gain or Loss Since Purchase:

My dividends plus the current cost of the stock total $38.47; I purchased the share for $37.67, giving me a current gain of $0.80 or 2.1%  over 14 months. By comparison, the S&P has risen about 35% since then.

What Others Think

Dividend Value Builder:  "T is a great addition to any large diversified portfolio. However, it should be viewed differently than in the past. I’m afraid the long term risk of a dividend cut is higher than most investors perceive."

The Money Madam at Seeking Alpha:  "AT&T is a good pick for 2018"

Stone Fox Capital at Seeking Alpha:  " Ultimately, the highly competitive domestic wireless market and cable television markets limit any material upside for the stock. Investors in AT&T will get to enjoy the large 5% dividend yield, but not much else."

Discount Fountain at Seeking Alpha:  "[M] view is that AT&T will continue to be a strong long-term investment going forward. The stock pays a very attractive yield, its core business remains strong, and the implications surrounding the ongoing Time Warner deal appear to be causing irrational avoidance of this stock, leading to quite a good buying opportunity."

Brian Bollinger (10/26/16): "However, my preference is to watch major transformations from the sideline for a while. AT&T has a lot of new businesses to digest and optimize between DirecTV and Time Warner. The media industry could certainly evolve the way AT&T is expecting (and in part trying to force with its deals), but there are plenty of other risks involved as well. Certainly no one can forget AOL’s disastrous merger with Time Warner.

For now, I prefer to stick with other high dividend stocks in our Conservative Retirees dividend stock portfolio. "

Jason Feiber (11/12/17):  "AT&T Inc. (T) is a high-quality business with a tremendous record for paying shareholders a huge and growing dividend. Their ability to continue doing that could very well improve moving forward, yet the stock’s recent price action apparently discounts much of this. But short-term volatility is often a long-term opportunity, and this stock has the potential for 14% upside on top of a market-crushing yield of almost 6%. If you like your dividends big, and you want them to get bigger every year, this dividend growth stock should be on your radar."

Why Did I Purchase?

I purchased AT&T stock because I was looking for a company that paid good dividends and that would be around for the long haul.

What Are My Plans?

I plan to maintain my position into the indefinite future, though if the price drops below $37.00 in the next few months, I may buy another share.

Additional Comments:

A couple of days after I wrote most of this article, AT&T released their fourth quarter earnings per share.  While the expected earnings per share were $0.65 per share, the actual earnings per share were $0.78, and as a result, share price rose $1.19 in after hours trading.  

Robinhood: Commission Free Stock Trades

Last week I wrote about Loyal3, which is one commission-free stock broker.  This week I am writing about another, Robinhood. 

What is Robinhood?

Robinhood is a smart-phone based stock brokerage.  All transactions are done via phone app.  In order to use Robinhood, users can register on the website but then must download either the Android or Apple version of the Robinhood app.  No trades can be conducted via the website.  

How Do You Use Robinhood?

Once the app is installed on your phone, you can enter your banking information and transfer money to your Robinhood account.   A feature known as "Robinhood Instant", if activated, gives you immediate access to up to $1,000 that is en route from your bank account.  It also gives you instant access to money made via selling shares.  

To purchase shares of stock, simply search for the ticker symbol or company name on the app. Tell the app how many shares you want to purchase and whether you want a market order (meaning you'll pay whatever the going price is at the time the trade is made) or a limit order (meaning you tell the app how much you are willing to pay per share and if the stock is at or below that price, the shares will be purchased.  Selling shares works the same way--you tell the app how many shares to sell, and whether you want to sell for the market price, or whether you only want to sell if a certain price is reached. 

How Much Does Robinhood Cost?

Robinhood does not charge for stock trades involving US stocks, so you can buy one share or a hundred without worrying about trading fees.  Robinhood does have fees for transferring your account to another broker, for buying foreign stocks (even Canadian) and for paper statements or confirmations. 

Robinhood also offers  a service called Robinhood Gold that allows you to buy stocks with borrowed money, allows you to trade after hours (without it, orders placed after the market closes are executed first thing in the morning) and gives you instant access to larger deposits.   The cost of Robinhood Gold increases as the size of your account increases.  

What Can You Not Do With Robinhood?

As with most things, a lower price means a lower level of service.  Some things you can do with a full service broker that you cannot do with Robinhood include:

• You cannot buy or sell options 
• You cannot short sell stocks
• Robinhood's terms of service indicate that limits are in place to make the platform unsuitable for day trading
• They do not guarantee instant execution of trades
• They do not offer any research on companies or any investment advice
• They do not currently offer retirement accounts
• There is no website access; all trades must be accomplished on a smartphone or tablet app

Have I Used Robinhood?

I'm a Baby Boomer, not a Millenial.  I do not own a smartphone and don't particularly want the bill that comes with one.  I have a "blackberry" style phone which, to me, is easier to text on that a smartphone.  I have wanted to try Robinhood for some time but have been unable to do so because I lacked a smartphone.  However, my husband recently needed a new phone so we got him a smartphone (which he hates).  

I was able to register online and download the app with no trouble.  Getting all the needed information into the app was a bit of a pain---he has a small cheap smartphone and typing errors were common.  However once it was set up and money was in the account, trading was easy.  I put in market orders for two shares of AT&T and one share of Lending Club.  Those executed at the opening price the next day (I placed the orders after hours). 

Once that was done, I entered an order to sell the Lending Club stock if the price increased by 10% and to buy another share if it decreased by 10%.  So far those orders haven't executed and from what I can see on financial websites, those prices haven't been reached.  

How Does Robinhood Compare to Loyal3?

Robinhood offers far more choices and far greater flexibility than Loyal3 does.  It allows you to trade any US listed stock at no charge and to have control over the price you pay or receive.  

The only advantage of Loyal3 (assuming you are willing to trade via app rather than website) is that Loyal3 sells fractional shares, and therefore allows you to invest as little as $10 per company, no matter what the price of the shares.  While the lack of commissions makes it feasible to buy only one share of a company on Robinhood, the cost of those shares means that $50 is likely to only buy you part of one company, rather than part of five.  

Investors who want to buy stock in a variety of companies for a small amount of money may find they prefer Loyal3.  If you have several stocks on their list that you want to own, if those stocks are not very volatile and you want to invest as little as $10 per purchase, you may be happier with Loyal3 than with Robinhood. The fact that Loyal3 limits your choice of stock can be an advantage (limiting your choices generally makes decisions easier) or a disadvantage (if you want a stock not on their list). 

If you want to invest in volatile stocks and want some say over the purchase price, or at the least want to be able to push a button and buy "now" (realizing that "now" will have some lag), then Robinhood will better meet your needs. 

Have you used Robinhood or Loyal3?  What do you think?

If you want to try Robinhood, use this link and both you and I will get a free share of stock.