The stock market has always been a dicey place to invest in. The traditional ways of trading are monotonous with names and numbers displayed everywhere. The founders of Robinhood i.e. Baiju Bhatt and Vladimir Tenev were tired of the way one had to deal with trading. Also, in the prior years investing and trading options were considered only by the members of the elitist club. With the help of on-demand app development, you can develop an app like Robinhood.
But Robinhood changed it all. Robinhood, as one might’ve heard, is named after an English fairytale character. The one who takes from the rich and gives to the poor. The name is a clear indication that the app is built for almost everyone.
The millennials in the prior years were alien to the world of finance as the conventional way of trading was just too boring. The founders of Robinhood spotted this distaste and designed an app targeting the millennials who wanted to learn stock market trading or amateurs trying to earn money from their experience.
This blog aims to improve your understanding of the stock-trading app and things to keep in mind while building one.
Statistics
The statistics of the Robinhood app that was launched in 2013 are just too good to be true. Let’s catch a glimpse of the same.
- The app had more than 1 million people on the waitlist before the app was launched.
- Since the launch of the app in 2013, the current valuation of Robinhood has reached 11.2 billion USD.
- Almost 15% of the users in the USA agreed to use a trading app while 20% plan on using one soon.
- The app’s user base reached 7, 00, 000 in 2015, 3 million in 2018, and a whopping 25.9 million users by 2025.
- The waitlist of this app was 2/3rd filled with aspiring investors who wanted to use Robinhood just because their friends and colleagues had recommended them.
The stats paint a clear picture of the optimistic future of Robinhood.
What does the Robinhood app offer?
- Robinhood is a mobile trading application that allows one to carry out commission-free trades of equities and exchange funds. It offers real-time data at a significant speed.
- Robinhood app also suggests insights into the “hot investment” opportunities in real-time.
- It reminds one of their upcoming important events like dividends.
- Unlike other brokerage apps, Robinhood allows their free as well as paid users to trade without waiting for “funds” to settle.
Insight into Robinhood Stock-Trading app
Let’s have a look at how you can access the Robinhood app for trading stocks and the other facilities it renders.
- First, you sign up providing the required information. You will see the home screen with a search option. Here you can search for your desired stock.
- When you click on your preferred stock the app offers all the information related to that particular stock.
- The foremost information is in the form of a graph that offers you the price fluctuation for that stack over 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 1 year, and up to 5 years. One can place their finger at any place in the graph to know the price of the stock at that particular time.
- This is followed by the statistics of the stock you’re researching. It offers information like Dividend Yield, P/E Ratio, and much more.
- Then you will see a news section that features the current and past news related to the stock company that you’ve searched.
- Following this would be the ratings and feedback given to that stock by experienced analysts.
- Robinhood also offers the numbers earned by the stock owners per day and every quarter. The ‘frequently bought stock’ options follow after.
- In the end, you’d see the information related to the company.
- The app also allows you to add stocks to your watchlist so that you can keep a tab on them.
- The app has a separate account section that offers users their past account summary like their purchasing power, monthly account statements, withdrawable cash, stock list, etc.
Robinhood’s Profitable Business Model
- The company is backed by strong investors hence, it can afford to keep its app free.
- Robinhood earns by offering its premium features through ‘Robinhood Gold’.
- This upgrade is for experienced stockbrokers willing to take greater risks. The premium version allows a user an increase in buying power and extended training hours. But one must have at least 2000 USD in their account to access this upgrade.
- It also rebates from trading venues and marketplaces.
- Counterparties that generate stock loan incomes.
- Cash generated income.
- Fees from program banks and Interchanging fees from cash managing debit cards.
Why has Robinhood gained so much popularity?
Let’s have a look at how you can access the Robinhood app for trading stocks and the other facilities it renders. Let’s have a look at how Robinhood managed to gain so much popularity in such a short time.
- Robinhood is a member of the “Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)” and “Financial Industry Regulatory Authority” (FINRA) “, this establishes a level of trust between the customers and the company.
- This builds trust with customers. The app is secure and all the sensitive data you feed is encrypted.
- It aims to democratize finance for all.
- Their commission-free trade benefit has spurred other established brokers like E*Trade, Charles Schwabs & TD Ameritrade to eliminate their commissions.
- They offer an intuitive user interface that makes it easy for beginners to access the application.
- Robinhood is also a gamified stock trading app. One can unlock different levels as they move forward. For example,
Level 1: Buying and trading stocks
Level 2: Options trading
- One can unlock more levels as one learns. This approach adds a video game feel to the app.
- One can earn free stocks using a referral code when they sign in for the first time.
How to Develop an app like Robinhood?
Making an app like Robinhood would hold a lot of challenges on the technological end. Apps like such have to ultra-secure a client’s sensitive information. The app offering these services has to be simple & sleek in design.
The technology one uses to map their business acts as a communication channel between the service providers and users. It is imperative to choose a tech stack that is sturdy and functional enough to do justice with the current and future features that need to be inculcated.
Let’s have a glimpse of the features that would account for a functional Stock-Trading app.
Features of the app like Robinhood
- Sign in/ Sign up
- Easy-to-access dashboard
- Trader’s portfolio
- Real-time updates
- Stock trading
- Secure payment gateway
- Watchlist
Push notifications
The preceding features would require a roadmap and fitting tech to transform them into an app. A roadmap is a path an app developer or IT service firm would follow that would theoretically map the timeline and how the development would take place.
Product Roadmap
IT service providers like Technource, follow a dedicated framework that helps them build an app while providing the Stakeholders with constant updates about the same. We at Technource follow the Agile-Scrum Framework that permits us to achieve our above-mentioned goals with the utmost ease.
Agile-Scrum Framework allows teams (all kinds) to work together. Scrum holds rules, meetings, and tools that allow development teams to manage work and help structure teams.
Let’s understand this process in brief-
- Scrum at its core appeals to learning and adjusting to change. It aims to allow teams to naturally adapt to new requirements and changes in the markets.
- The development process revolves around ‘Sprints’ i.e. short iterative release cycles. Sprints are normally two weeks long but your team can decide the length accordingly.
- The development team has a list of features, requirements, stories, and fixes to work on.
- This is called a ‘Product Backlog’. A to-do list that helps the team choose which task they will work on in the next sprint. A time period where the team can create a shippable increment of the work done.
- Ceremonies are the hallmark of the Scrum framework. They bring regularity in development and are responsible for transparent and clear communication. The four of Scrum’s ceremonies are:
Sprint planning: This ceremony helps the team members decide on what they want to accomplish in the following sprint.
Daily Scrum or stand-up: A super-short meeting that allows the team members to voice their concerns, problems, or bugs they’re unable to solve and provide updates so that everyone stays on the same page.
Sprint review: An informal session to see a demo of what the team has accomplished so far. The team showcases its progress on the backlog items and seeks approval from the product owner for its release. The product owner reworks the backlog based on the tasks accomplished. This acts as a starting point for the next sprint.
Sprint retrospective: A retrospective is where teams talk about what worked well and what didn’t in the sprint. They also discuss what can be improved next time.
How can Technource assist to build an app like Robinhood?
The app development process can be challenging and cumbersome. For instance, developing apps for native platforms such as iOS and Android would require one to write dual-code that serve the same functionalities. Not only this the code should be written so intelligently that it works in the same manner while serving different devices that have different screen sizes and aspect ratios.
A business person is not prone to have all the knowledge and experience that would account to build a successful mobile or web application. Here’s where we can be of assistance. We possess a decade-long experience of working on a myriad of web and mobile apps. Our development and design team have taken on various challenges that have helped us shape a resilient attitude towards this process.
The construction of an app like stock-trading would also require high-security features that would keep your customer’s sensitive information encrypted. An IT service provider or individual that is inexperienced with this craft would only waste resources along with the user’s information and your reputation at stake.
We happen to fall in the geographical region having the lowest hourly development rate i.e. India. This would ensure an invariable budget check. In case you have strong budget constraints we also recommend users to create a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) using cross-platform technologies like React Native and Flutter. An MVP would help the owners avail of both iOS and Android apps while spending a minimal amount. It would also help them assess their niche and how they respond to their app.
Technource is known for creating customized web and mobile applications that are reliable and functional. Our clientele is an evident example of our persistent attitude.
Let’s transform your stock-trading dream business idea into reality.
