Markets
markets
Jack Raines
10/17/24

Courting more advanced traders, Robinhood adds futures, index options, and a desktop presence

To kick off Robinhood’s HOOD Summit yesterday, the trading platform’s founder and CEO, Vlad Tenev, announced several new products and features. The big takeaway: the retail brokerage wants to cater to advanced traders as much as the retail investors that have long been its core customer group.

(Sherwood Media is an editorially independent subsidiary of Robinhood Markets Inc.)

Robinhood will now offer futures contracts on indexes, currencies, and commodities, with crypto futures coming soon. However, the biggest update coming to the fintech company is "Robinhood Legend,” its new browser-based trading platform for desktop users.

The new trading platform, which is available to customers immediately, comes with dozens of settings and allows users to open as many as eight charts in a single window.

While Robinhood got its start helping retail investors buy their first stocks in its app, the now 11-year-old fintech is looking to compete with incumbents such as Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab by offering a compelling platform for its advanced traders. The moves appear to be a salvo at Schwab’s thinkorswim trading platform.

(Sherwood Media is an editorially independent subsidiary of Robinhood Markets Inc.)

Robinhood will now offer futures contracts on indexes, currencies, and commodities, with crypto futures coming soon. However, the biggest update coming to the fintech company is "Robinhood Legend,” its new browser-based trading platform for desktop users.

The new trading platform, which is available to customers immediately, comes with dozens of settings and allows users to open as many as eight charts in a single window.

While Robinhood got its start helping retail investors buy their first stocks in its app, the now 11-year-old fintech is looking to compete with incumbents such as Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab by offering a compelling platform for its advanced traders. The moves appear to be a salvo at Schwab’s thinkorswim trading platform.

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Rocket lab soars to new record close amid rally for retail faves

Rocket Lab ripped by roughly 10% Friday to close at a new all-time high, riding an upturn of retail enthusiasm for a coterie of tech-themed favorites, even as the broader market was more or less flat on the day.

Goldman Sachs’ basket of “retail favorites” — its heaviest weights are Reddit, AppLovin, and Tempus AI — was the second-biggest gainer among the company’s flagship US equity baskets on Friday, rising about 1.6%. The S&P was almost dead flat.

It’s not Rocket Lab’s first retail rodeo, as the money-losing company has more than doubled this year and is up nearly 700% over the last 12 months.

Oracle Wall Street Revisions

Analysts revise up anything and everything they thought about Oracle

After the company’s bombshell earnings this week, Wall Street thinks Oracle’s trajectory has changed.

markets

Six Flags pops after reiterating its guidance as theme park attendance rebounds

Six Flags shares rose more than 7% today after the company reported a rebound in attendance and early season pass sales heading into the fall. The nine-week period ended August 31 saw 17.8 million guests, up about 2% from the same stretch last year, with stronger momentum in the final four weeks. 

More importantly, Six Flags reaffirmed its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance of $860 million to $910 million, showing confidence that its cost and operations strategy can stay strong for the duration of the year. Riding that wave, Six Flags also said early 2026 season pass unit sales are pacing ahead of last year, and average season pass prices are up about 3%.

The good vibes come despite a drop in in-park per-capita spending, especially from admissions, where promotions and changes to attendance mix (which parks or days guests visit) have weighed. Earlier this week, the amusement giant signed a new agreement that extended its position as the exclusive amusement park partner for Peanuts™ in North America through 2030.

Despite the rally, Six Flags shares are down about 52% year to date.

markets

Rivian turns red on the year, squeezed by a recall and the looming end of the EV tax credit

Shares of EV maker Rivian are down more than 5% on Friday following the company’s recall of 24,214 vehicles due to a software issue. The stock move erases Rivian’s year-to-date gain and turns the company negative on the year.

Rivian’s 2025 model year R1S and R1T are affected by the defect, which was identified after a vehicle’s hands-free highway assist software failed to identify another vehicle on the road, causing a low-speed collision. Rivian said it’s released an over-the-air update to fix the issue.

The recall marks Rivian’s fifth this year, affecting nearly 70,000 of its vehicles.

Rivian’s shares are down more than 20% from their 2025 high, which came prior to the passage of President Trump’sbig, beautiful bill.” Through the legislation, the $7,500 EV tax credit is set to expire at the end of the month.

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.