Interest on accounts? I can't be bothered to read through their disclosures, but if you already know, are they referring to stock borrow loans? Margin loans? That all brokerages quickly followed suit to eliminate commission on stocks and ETFs tells me that they do very well in the interest loan business. A crazy world we are living in. Something tells me that IB is the best positioned in the retail broker industry. But then the lack of intellect of the average Schmuck with TD America and Schwab accounts must not be discounted. I think it is very shortsighted to think those brokers will hurt. They will raise platform fees, ancillary fees, data fees as soon as shareholders demand better roi.
You are right in an industry and nation where people can be swayed with daily promotions and quarterly planning. Such short term focus never worked out quite so well for consumers but it brings in plenty enough for companies to continue to embrace short term thinking. How retail traders can move entire accounts without doing the math is beyond my comprehension. I bet among the top 10 retail brokerages IB still offers the best deal to any category of trader, intraday to long term investor. Unless of course an investor defines diversification as taking exposure to the US market only, though historical correlations show that dispersion among US stocks during strong downturns drops almost to zero. Some niche brokers may offer better terms to traders who specialize in a very unique set of instruments such as options spreads.
I am afraid it's not lack of competition that keeps prices up in the US for wireless carrier fees. It's the expensive infrastructure that keeps them charging an arm and a leg. In Hongkong there are 3 competitors but because it's just a city and infrastructure is relatively cheaper per penetration capita they all charge around 15-20 US dollars per month for 4G LTE and 5-6GB of data with media data consumption often thrown in for free.
Not that much cheaper than US carriers' charges. For example ATT charges $40 per month per line for unlimited data and free media, for 4 lines.
I see 40/line, 160 for 4 lines. But even that is still reasonable. What are people then always screaming about? Social media is full of people whining about unaffordable wireless carrier costs in the US. I digress, back to the topic
When he bought it at 25 in 2017, it sank at some point below 5 bucks. I doubt he held it. The day Snapchat went public, the volume on Robinhood went up 50%. It tells us exactly who are the demographics of the purchasers (average age of Robinhood users is very young). The "revolution" of Robinhood was the phone app combined with no fees. Many think here they are pioneers of no commissions and they paved the way. That is not true. There were other attempts by companies like Zecco (bought by Ally) to provide zero cost, and that did not catch on because mobile trading was not as popular. The demographics of account sizes are getting smaller and smaller, and "free" appeals to them. The big brokers realized it as well, and they did their research what "free" seekers overlook in terms of cost, and that is where they would make their money. No free lunch. The above is my opinion.