Key points
- Robinhood plans weekend trading for some stocks
- The launch still needs regulatory review
- AI agents are coming inside the app
Robinhood Markets (HOOD) plans to let customers trade a selection of U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds on weekends, an extension of its weekday 24-hour market. The company announced the plan on Tuesday at its HOOD Summit in Houston and said weekend trading is coming early next year, pending regulatory review.
Robinhood's 24 Hour Market, which launched in 2023, runs from Sunday at 8 p.m. ET through Friday at 8 p.m. ET and covers hundreds of stocks and ETFs. Weekend trading would start with a selected list of stocks and ETFs across all account types, the company said. Robinhood didn't name the stocks or say how many there will be.
"Breaking news doesn't wait for an opening bell," said Steve Quirk, Robinhood's chief brokerage officer.
Who will handle the weekend trades?
Weekend orders would run through Bruce ATS, an alternative trading system operated by Bruce Markets. An alternative trading system is a trading venue that registers with the SEC as a broker-dealer rather than as a stock exchange.
"We're about to change when the world can trade," said Jason Wallach, CEO of Bruce Markets. He added that "soon 24/7 trading won't be a dream, it will be the new global standard."
Why are brokers pushing for longer hours?
About 10 months after Robinhood launched weekday overnight trading, the company said as much as 25% of total daily volume on busy days came from outside traditional hours. Weekend trading would be a first for Robinhood.
Thin liquidity outside regular hours can mean wider bid-ask spreads and less favorable execution prices. Exchanges including Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange are still pushing ahead with plans to extend trading hours.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins spoke about the issue at a roundtable earlier this month. Waiting to adjust a position "until the clock strikes 9:30 on Monday morning may beget missed opportunities or additional risk, especially these days," Atkins said.
How will the AI agents work?
Robinhood also unveiled Robinhood Agents, which lets customers build an AI agent inside the app to research the market, build a strategy, and place trades within limits the customer sets. The agent can only use the money in a dedicated agentic trading account. Manual approval of each trade is on by default, and customers can change that setting at any time.
Customers choose a model "from several leading AI labs including OpenAI," according to the release, and usage of OpenAI's GPT-Luna will be free until the end of the year. A feature called Loops, due soon, will let an agent repeat a strategy on a standing instruction, such as checking the market every morning and trading when set conditions are met. Robinhood said Agents is coming soon to eligible U.S. customers.
Robinhood first let customers connect their own outside AI agents in May. More than 150,000 customers have opened agentic trading accounts since then, and agents now use Robinhood's tools almost 30 million times a day, the company said.
What derivatives and trading hours are changing?
Robinhood also plans perpetual futures, which have no expiration date, on eight cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and ether. Leverage will go up to 10 times on bitcoin and ether and three times on the others. The contracts will be offered by Robinhood Derivatives through Bitstamp in the coming months, with a fee of one basis point per trade through the end of the year.
Earnings contracts are coming to Robinhood's prediction markets hub in the next few weeks. They're binary options contracts, offered through Cboe, on whether a company beats earnings, hits a revenue target, or crosses a financial milestone. They'll require options approval. Robinhood added Crypto.com prediction markets earlier this month.
Starting in October, options trading on Robinhood's most popular symbols will run from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET. Eligible margin customers will also be able to opt in to up to 4 times buying power during market hours, up from 2 times today.
What did the stock do?
Robinhood shares closed at $116.22 on Tuesday, down 0.2%, before the evening announcements. The stock traded at $117.59 in after-hours trading as of 8:20 p.m. ET, up about 1.2% from the close.
