Christine Brown, the Robinhood executive in charge of the trading platform’s cryptocurrency ambitions, announced her departure in a tweet on Tuesday. Brown, who worked at the firm for five years, said she would stay in the crypto area, although she didn’t say what venture she would be engaged with. Brown said,
“I’m moving on to start something new. I joined RH when it was under 100 people—before we even offered a crypto product. Watching us grow through IPO and serving more than 22m users has been the greatest professional experience of my life.”
Furthermore, Robinhood Chief Operating Officer Gretchen Howard told local media,
“We’re so grateful to Christine for her contributions over the past five years – from leading our self-clearing initiative to scaling our Crypto team. We’re excited to follow her entrepreneurial journey going forward.”
Robinhood gets closer to its all-around-the-clock dream
Because RH Markets hasn’t been able to grow its user base in recent quarters, the company is doing the next best thing: providing existing consumers even more trading time. Customers will be able to purchase and sell shares from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Eastern time, according to the investing app.
Customers can trade from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today on Robinhood. They can now log on after work or other duties, or check their phones first thing in the morning, thanks to the extra hours.
The more clients can trade equities around the clock, the more the stock market will mirror the cryptocurrency market, where traders sometimes feel compelled to follow Asian markets after they go to bed, and even on weekends. Robinhood has also advocated for quick transaction settlement, which it claims will reduce client risk. It also has the potential to lower the company’s capital requirements.
After-hours trading was once thought to be too risky for typical investors, but in the last two decades, electronic trading and looser rules have made after-hours trading accessible to a far larger number of investors.
Retail traders should have the same access to services as institutional traders, according to RH, and this new functionality reflects that attitude. At the same time, it appears to contradict RH’s recent shift toward encouraging investors to use tried-and-true investment practices. Although Robinhood has been known for its speed, this may not be a competitive advantage.