Robinhood to offer 24/5 hr trading

Robinhood Markets, known for its app and PFOF, has announced that it will soon enable its users to trade Tesla shares at any hour of the day.

On Wednesday, Robinhood revealed plans to introduce 24-hour trading for selected stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) throughout the week. This initiative is part of a broader trend in the financial sector to extend trading hours beyond the conventional Wall Street schedule.

The brokerage intends to facilitate continuous trading from 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday to 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday for 43 securities. This includes popular stocks such as Amazon.com, Apple, and Tesla.

The new feature is set to be launched next week, with Robinhood expecting all its customers to have access to it by June. Over time, the company aims to increase the number of stocks and ETFs available for overnight trading, according to CEO Vlad Tenev.

Tenev views this as a progressive step towards transforming the market into a 24/7 operation, more akin to a software system than a traditional brick-and-mortar institution bound by U.S. East Coast business hours.

Robinhood hopes that the introduction of 24/5 trading will help it recapture some of the excitement it has lost as the surge in individual investor activity during the pandemic has subsided and its stock has declined since its 2021 IPO.

It's worth noting that Robinhood is the same company that faced numerous lawsuits after it disabled the buy option for several equities in January 2021.