They dont want to cannibalize their existing suckers, ie, regular customers. Lets see how this plays out.
I wonder who this lite account is for? Buy and hold: transaction fees much less relevant in this case. Frequent trader: needs an ApI to say the least. Possibly swing traders holding positions for a week or 2?
And how could lite benefit from free data and not pro? Data has nothing to do with order rooting and execution.
I'm not familiar with Gateway, but why can't they allow Lite accounts trade via Gateway? Should not require any development for them and they would hit a few birds with one stone. If Robin Hood creates a decent API ...
Those guys use much simpler solutions like Wealthify here in the UK (majority of them at least)... Still unsure about the size of the market. AND we want free data for all!