Robinhood - Free (or near free) Stock Trading

I recently ran across a page online that provided information on how to get a free stock via Robinhood (see details at the end of my post).  I was familiar with Robinhood, and have played around with stocks in the past ( most recently via Scottrade but it has been a while since I did any trading ).  I had my eye on Robinhood in the past, but didn't signed up until just recently - the key aspect of Robinhood is that there are no fees to purchase stocks.  Make sure you read up on other fees before diving in, so there are no surprises.

If you are ready to sign up, use my referral link ( https://share.robinhood.com/victorj95 )  Make sure you confirm your email.

Keep on reading..

Signing up for Robinhood is pretty simple, but keep in mind this is a financial site/app so you will need to share information like your social security number.  Overall the process wasn't difficult, if additional information is needed they will let you know.

NOTE: If you have your credit frozen, make sure you unfreeze it before signing up for Robinhood since it will likely help you avoid extra steps to confirm your account.

Once my account was verified, the first thing I did was claim my free stock.  It didn't take long to show up, I figured I wouldn't get one of the high value ones like Apple and I was right - I got Chesapeake Energy (CHK).  It was a free stock, and more importantly it put something in my account so I could start to become familiar with the application features.

My free Chesapeake Energy (CHK) Stock

Next, I linked my account to my bank and pulled in a few bucks.  The money showed up as instantly being available in Robinhood which was very cool.  It didn't take me long to play around with the various options to purchase shares, and I ended up buying a stock in Ford (F).  It wasn't a well researched decision, I just like Ford.  So now I have two stocks, one free and one purchased without a fee.  More importantly, I think Robinhood may have gotten me interested into playing around on the stock market again.

Portfolio view

Portfolio View ...continued
Positions = Stocks you own
Watchlist = Stocks you are tracking

For someone trying out the stock market without racking up fees, this seems like a good area to get started.   If I remember correctly Scottrade has some neat reporting and tracking features, and their trades were cheap compared to other offerings at the time but it is hard to argue with free stock purchases and a simple interface even if you miss out on some of the bells and whistles that other options may have.

Bottom line, I think Robinhood is a great way to start getting familiar with buying and selling stocks since you can try things out for free (or minimal fee) to see if you want to dive into stocks further.

If I run into any other cool features, or problems, I will update this post.

Free Stock Details

As of 9/9/2017 here are the key points of the "Free Stock" offer from Robinhood but make sure you read to see what has changed if you sign up later:

- You and the person who refers you will get a free stock certificate
- The stocks are chosen randomly, and will be in the $2.50 to $200 range but that depends on the market.
- You can refer others and get up to $500 in stocks

If you are ready to sign up, use my referral link ( https://share.robinhood.com/victorj95 )  Make sure you confirm your email.

If you want another option to try and more free stock, check out my review of Stockpile:
http://bigboystoys13.blogspot.com/2017/09/stockpile-review-and-free-5-stock.html

If you want to see other freebies/offers, go here:
http://bigboystoys13.blogspot.com/2016/11/get-some-free-stuff-or-free-money.html