https://www.robinhood.io/ Looks interesting. Assuming it's direct access of course. Anyone heard of it?
I actually just learned of it this week. There is a waiting list that keeps growing with some extreme speed. Anyone interested in having access has to put in his or her email and wait for a special invite. It just received funding from Google of 3 mil. It claims revenue will be generated from being as automated as possible and getting paid from the exchanges to route order flow. My question to people on here who know more about brokers is do you think this will work and more importantly will there be good fills? It seems the company may sacrifice the best fill price for getting paid more by another exchange for the order flow. They will also make money on margin, which I am guessing means they will charge more than most brokers. It would be great if they can compete on order fills like the leaders. Sometimes when it seems too good to be true it. Nothing is free. Any thoughts on this? I don't an awful lot about the insides of the industry
Agreed, nothing is free... I'm no industry insider, but my understanding is that market-makers set the bid/ask price quote, and market-takers (the brokers) get rebates for taking the quoted bid/ask -- which means robinhood will have to act on its own best interest, and you might as well forget about ever getting filled at the mid. this might be of interest http://blog.pragmatrading.com/blog/...-in-the-Maker-Taker-Model-Equities-vs-Futures