Our Editorial Principles
Robinhood Snacks are curated digests of business news stories with insights delivered in our newsletter, videos, and other formats, as well as on social media and in the Robinhood app. The Snacks team of writers and editors work hard to make this news accessible to everyone, which is an integral part of Robinhood’s greater mission to democratize finance for all.
In helping to achieve this important mission, the Snacks editorial team aims to deliver news coverage that’s accurate and fair and free from real and perceived conflicts of interest. We exercise substantial editorial independence from Robinhood and take care to ensure our neutrality and credibility. Nothing is more important than earning and maintaining the trust of all our readers and viewers.
The following lays out our most important editorial standards and practices.
Our writers and editors cover a mix of headline news and other stories that we think our audience will find relevant, informative, and intriguing. We conduct research using a variety of primary sources (including economic data, financial reports, press releases, and public statements) and secondary sources (mostly news articles).
In addition to covering news, we provide insights, highlighted in our editorial “takeaways,” based on our understanding of trends and our own experiences. We also strive to delight our audience by using cultural references, creative analogies, and more. Our overarching goal is to deliver valuable information and a unique perspective that our readers and viewers can critically assess for themselves.
To avoid any real or perceived conflict of interest, Snacks doesn’t cover news about Robinhood. We will mention Robinhood only in exceptional cases when it’s relevant to other news. Also, Snacks doesn’t cover or incorporate data collected or published by Robinhood, or surveys it conducts or sponsors, including research about investing and financial trends or its customers. We do cover news about Robinhood’s competitors, as we do any other company.
Robinhood’s IPO Access program lets people buy shares of select companies at the IPO price as the stock becomes available to the public. Robinhood acts as a selling group member to the issuing company as part of the program and must follow SEC rules for IPOs, including the “quiet period.”
The quiet period extends to Robinhood Snacks, so we won’t cover a company that’s in the IPO Access program. When there’s a company in IPO Access and it’s a company we would normally cover, but can’t because of restrictions, we will include an FYI that the company is IPO’ing, with a link to its prospectus.
Also during this period, the Snacks editorial team won’t feature third-party news about IPO Access companies in any manually curated news spots in the Robinhood app.
When a Snacks writer or story editor owns or has beneficial interest in an account that owns a stock, an option, or a cryptocurrency mentioned in our coverage, we will clearly disclose it. Examples of beneficial interest include a joint account with one’s spouse or child; a trust account in which one is the trustee; and other accounts of related people over which one has control.
When we make a minor correction in the newsletter, such as fixing a typo, we’ll update the newsletter, both online and in the app. When a substantial factual error warrants a correction, we’ll update the online version of the newsletter as well as the app, and include a correction in the next available email newsletter.
For videos, when there’s a substantial factual error that warrants a correction, we’ll note it in the next available video or consider replacing the video with a corrected version. We may update videos if, in light of developing news events, they no longer meet our standards.
To avoid real or perceived conflicts, we can’t accept gifts, tickets, discounts, meals, travel, hotel stay, and the like, from people, companies, or organizations we cover or may cover. An exception: we can accept gifts whose value is $100 or less.
Robinhood Snacks reflect the opinions of only the Snacks team, who are associated persons of Robinhood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robinhood Markets Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are for informational purposes only, and are not a recommendation of an investment strategy or to buy or sell any security, digital asset (cryptocurrency, etc.) in any account. They are also not research reports and are not intended to serve as the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided does not reflect the views of Robinhood Markets Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk including the loss of principal and past performance does not guarantee future results.