Placing an options trade
Robinhood empowers you to place options trades within your Robinhood account.
You can learn about different options trading strategies by checking out Basic options strategies (Level 2) and Advanced options strategies (Level 3).
For existing options positions or pending orders, you can swipe to take the following actions in the app:
Swipe right to buy or open it
Swipe left to sell or close it
For a pending order:
Swipe right to cancel it
Swipe left to replace it
Check out Trading with Robinhood Legend for information on trading options in Legend.
There are many things to consider when choosing an option:
Chance of profit is an estimate based on model assumptions and doesn't guarantee future results. Numerous factors that aren't reducible to a model determine the actual chance of profit for a particular option contract or strategy.
You can place Good-til-canceled (GTC) or Good-for-day (GFD) orders on options. A GTC order remains open for 90 days until you cancel it, or it’s filled. A GFD order is automatically canceled at market close on the day it’s placed if it doesn’t execute.
You can view the price (and determine the theoretical value) of an options contract in the following ways:
As a reminder, the bid price is the highest price other traders in the market are willing to pay for an asset at a moment in time, and the ask price (also known as the offer) is the lowest price traders are willing to accept for an asset at a moment in time.
By default, the Natural price is shown when buying and selling options, but you can change it to show the Mark price instead on the web or in the app:
Regardless of your default setting, mark price will still be used for:
We’re required to evaluate whether various levels of options strategies are appropriate for customers, based on information, such as their trading experience, investment objectives, and financial situation. Each brokerage has the discretion to set the specific parameters for their customers.
With a Level 2 designation, you can execute options trades, including Long calls, Short covered calls, Long puts, and Short cash-secured puts.
With a Level 3 designation, you can execute all of the above trades, along with limited risk spreads like Credit spreads, Debit spreads, Iron condors, and Iron butterflies.
Just like stock trading, buying and selling (or selling and buying) the same options contract on the same day will result in a day trade. It’s the same contract if the ticker symbol, strike price, expiration date, and type (call or put) are all the same.
Because of pattern day trade restrictions, you’re generally limited to no more than 3 day trades in a 5 trading day period, unless you have at least $25,000 of portfolio value in your margin account at the end of the previous day. At account opening a margin account is the default setting.
If you have a non-margin account, you're not subject to pattern day trading restrictions, but you can't access certain features, like trading with unsettled funds.
Options are complex products, involve significant risk and are not suitable for all investors. You could lose more than your initial invested capital. You should only invest in financial products that match your knowledge and experience. Please review Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options prior to engaging in options trading.
Review our Day Trading Risk Disclosure Statement and the FINRA Options investing Information to learn more about the risks.
Robinhood doesn’t promote day trading. Day trading can be extremely risky. Day trading is generally not appropriate for someone of limited resources, limited investing experience, and low risk tolerance.