Scott’s List · broker review

What it is

Robinhood is a US brokerage with a mobile app and a desktop platform called Legend. It started with commission-free stocks and options, added index options and, more recently, futures, and it pays interest on uninvested cash for members of its paid Gold tier. It’s a cash account in the plain sense: your own money, your own rules, no evaluation to pass and no firm’s daily-loss cutoff sitting above your own.

The facts at a glance

• Commission-free stock and ETF trading; options with no per-contract commission, only the regulatory fees every broker passes through.
• Futures trading with a per-contract commission, lower for Gold members, at the time of writing. Check the current schedule before you fund an account for futures.
• Robinhood Gold is a paid monthly subscription. It’s what unlocks the higher interest rate on idle cash and lower margin rates.
• Idle cash in my account earns 3.5% at the time of writing. The rate follows the Federal Reserve, so it moves.
• Securities are covered by SIPC. Uninvested cash is swept to partner banks with FDIC coverage. Neither one protects you from a losing trade.
• US residents only, with the usual account and options-approval process.

Details are as published at the time of writing and change without notice. Read the current terms on the company’s own site before you pay for anything.

How it fits the VWAP Wave System

The Two Doors lesson is about the choice every VWAP Wave trader eventually makes: a prop firm’s capital under a prop firm’s rules, or your own capital under your own. Robinhood is my second door. The system doesn’t change between them. The VWAP Bounce is the same setup whether the account is funded or mine. What changes is who imposes the discipline, and in a cash account the only daily stop is the one in my trading plan.

Two jobs it does for me. First, the cash accounts themselves: the money is mine, there’s no evaluation clock, and there’s no trailing drawdown to trade around. Second, options execution: when a trade is better expressed with an option than a futures contract, this is where I place it. And the part most people ignore: capital that’s waiting for a setup earns 3.5% at the time of writing rather than sitting at zero. Patience is a rule in this system, and it’s easier to be patient when waiting pays.

What it isn’t: a replacement for a futures platform with depth of market and one-click order entry. Read the Tradovate and NinjaTrader reviews for that side of the stack.

Scott’s notes

This section is mine to write and I’d rather leave it short than pad it. How I split capital between the cash accounts and the funded accounts, what the options side actually looks like against a VWAP Wave setup, what has annoyed me about the platform, and the rules I trade it under are coming here, with screenshots. Until then, the facts above are public and the fit section is my read as a trader who keeps real money here.

Verdict