Robinhood UK FAQ
The following are some of the most frequently asked questions and their answers about how the Robinhood UK app works.
Robinhood U.K. Ltd (Robinhood UK) is a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., a US-based company that has several subsidiaries for different business lines.
When you open a Robinhood account, services will be provided to you by Robinhood UK and Robinhood Securities, LLC (Robinhood Securities), our affiliated US clearing broker. A clearing broker holds your assets (i.e. your cash and securities) and clears and settles your trades. When you place a trade on the Robinhood app, Robinhood UK will receive and transmit your order to Robinhood Securities, which interacts with the market. This is what makes investing in US stocks possible.
With both your Robinhood UK brokerage account and stocks & shares ISA, you can trade US exchange-listed stocks and American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). Follow the steps in Open my account to open a Robinhood UK brokerage account.
After you’ve successfully opened a Robinhood UK brokerage account, you can then open a Robinhood stocks & shares ISA. For details, check out Stocks & shares ISA overview.
Investing with Robinhood UK is commission-free when trading stocks, however contract fees apply when trading options and futures and we pass on exchange fees for index options and futures. We don’t charge you fees to open or maintain your account.
Other costs do apply, such as foreign exchange (FX) fees and regulatory trading fees. Review our Fee Schedule and Trading and ADR fees on Robinhood for more details.
Robinhood UK is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 823590). You can find us on the FCA register.
To apply for a Robinhood UK brokerage account and stocks & shares ISA, you’ll need to meet the following requirements:
What you need to get started has more details.
Your cash and securities in your brokerage account are held by Robinhood Securities, LLC. This means that your assets are not protected in the traditional way by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Instead you get the benefit of alternative, US protections. However, cash in your stocks & shares ISA account is held by Quai Investment Services Ltd and the FSCS protection rules apply to that cash. For details, review How you're protected.
Adding money to your Robinhood account is easy—all you need is a UK bank account and their app or website for funding.
The current foreign exchange (FX) rate will show in the app when you convert currency. All trades are executed in USD, but you control how to manage the funds in your account. You can keep your uninvested cash in GBP or USD and only need to pay the foreign exchange fee ( 0.1% during FX market hours or 0.3% on Fridays between 5-9 PM Eastern Time (ET)) when converting GBP to USD or vice versa. FX conversion fees are included in the FX rate shown. For details, review Multi-currency experience.
Stock markets have potential buyers who name their highest price (like a bid) and potential sellers who name their lowest price (the ask). A trade is executed, or completed, at a price somewhere between the bid and the ask. If you want your order to execute at a particular price, you can place a limit or stop limit order. For more details, review Order types.
All your trades require USD because you're investing in the US stock market. You can keep your uninvested cash in GBP or USD and only need to pay the FX fee when converting GBP to USD or vice versa (0.1% during FX market hours and 0.3% on Fridays from 5 PM ET to 9 PM ET).
Traditionally, the markets are open from 9:30 AM-4 PM US Eastern time (ET) during regular business days (Monday-Friday, except holidays). But with extended-hours trading and the Robinhood 24 Hour Market, you can execute trades from 8 PM ET Sunday until 8 PM ET Friday, with some restrictions. Orders placed outside these hours will be queued to process when the market opens on the next trading day.
Check out Extended-hours trading and Robinhood 24 Hour Market for more details about how you can trade during regular, extended, and overnight market hours and the potential risks involved.
For futures trading hours, check out Before trading a futures contract.
Our app will show you the equivalent British Summer Time (BST) that matches up with the US Eastern times for trading hours. For example, 9:30 AM ET is 5 hours behind GMT and 4 hours behind BST, so the time displayed will either be 2:30 PM GMT or 1:30 PM BST.
Robinhood UK is a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., which has a number of subsidiaries with revenue streams that allow it to offer a range of financial products and services at a low cost, including commission-free trading in US stocks (contract fees apply when trading options and futures). For more details, review How we make money.