Recurring investments
With recurring investments, we’ll automatically purchase fractional shares for you on a schedule that you choose. This is a great way to make investing a habit and build your portfolio for the long-term.
How do recurring investments work?
Here’s an example:
Say you set up a $10.00 weekly recurring investment for MEOW, set to occur every Monday. When Monday rolls around, we’ll purchase $10.00 worth of MEOW for your account.
This means if MEOW is currently trading at $40 per share, you’ll receive 0.25 shares of MEOW. If MEOW is trading at $20 per share the following Monday, you’ll receive an additional 0.5 shares, for a total of 0.75 shares.
We only support dollar-based orders on recurring investments, which typically results in fractional shares. You can't set up a recurring investment for an order of whole shares.
How do I set up a recurring investment?
From the detail page of the stock or ETF you’re interested in:
- Tap Buy or Trade > Buy
- Tap Dollars in the top right to go to the Order Types screen
- Choose Recurring Investment
- Input the dollar amount, start date, frequency, and preferred payment method. If you choose to pay with buying power, you can add a backup payment method as well. This can help make sure your recurring investment stays on track if you run out of buying power.
- Tap on Review Order. Double-check all the details..
- If it looks good, swipe up to Submit.
From the detail page of the stock or ETF you’re interested in:
Click on the down arrow in the top right corner of the sidebar.
- From the list of order types, choose Recurring Order.
- Input the dollar amount, start date, frequency, and payment method you prefer.
- Click on Review Order. Double-check all the details.
- If it looks good, click Submit.
Please note that if your order is for an amount higher than your instant deposit limit, a bank transfer for funds will begin on the scheduled date, but the order won’t be placed until the transfer completes, typically within 4-5 trading days. This transfer won’t count towards your instant deposit limit.
How does the timing of a recurring investment order work?
Recurring investment orders will typically start to be processed between 12:00 PM ET and market close on the scheduled date. If your recurring investment order falls on a day that the market is closed, like a weekend or holiday, it will be scheduled for the next trading day.
On partial market holidays, recurring orders will process earlier in the day to accommodate for the early market close. Please note that in 2021, the day after Thanksgiving (November 26) will be the only partial market holiday.
How do I edit my recurring investments?
You can always edit, pause, or delete your recurring investments at any time.
There are 2 ways to view your recurring investments in the app.
On the Investing tab (home):
- Scroll to the Recurring Investments section
- Tap on the recurring investment you want to edit
- To pause this recurring investment, tap the green toggle to turn it to Off
- To delete this recurring investment, tap Delete Investment at the bottom of the screen
On Account tab (person icon):
- Tap Investing
- Scroll down to Recurring Investments
- Tap View Recurring Investments
- Tap the recurring investment you want to edit
- To pause this recurring investment, tap the green toggle to turn it to Off
- To delete this recurring investment, tap Delete Investment at the bottom of the screen
You can also edit the amount you’re investing, cadence of the investment, payment method, and backup payment method by tapping on the appropriate row.
From the homescreen:
- In the right-hand sidebar with your holdings, scroll down to the Recurring Investments section
- Click on the recurring investment you want to edit
- Click Edit Investment
- Make the changes you want and click Review Changes
- If all looks good, click Save Changes
How does pricing for a recurring investment order work?
To fill recurring investment orders in a fair way, we typically group them in batch orders to be sent to market. In general, one batch order is created for each security—although please note that we may create multiple batch orders in rare cases.
For example: if Robinhood customers have set up 4,000 recurring investments in fictional stock POWA, then our system would create one batch order to send all 4,000 POWA orders to market at the same time. Creating batch orders like this ensures that all customers who created a recurring investment for POWA get their orders filled at around the same price.
To figure out how many shares you’ll receive for your recurring investment, divide your investment amount by the price per share at the time the batch order executed. You may end up with fractional shares.
For example: if you have a weekly investment for $50 of POWA, and the price of POWA when the bulk order executes is $5 per share, you’ll receive 10 shares of POWA that week.
Our batch orders typically are filled around 1:30 PM ET, though this time may vary.
Why is my recurring investment paused or skipped?
There are several reasons why your recurring investment might get paused automatically.
- You didn’t have enough buying power to place the order at the time.
- The bank transfer for your order reversed. This sometimes happens if there are insufficient funds in the bank account.
- The bank account you chose for your primary payment method was unlinked.
- There was a trading restriction on the security at the time the order would’ve been placed.
- Your account was set to position-closing only, meaning you weren’t able to place buy orders.
Your recurring investment also might skip automatically for these reasons:
- You didn’t have enough buying power to place the order at the time.
- The bank transfer for your order failed.
- There was a technical error on our end.
Are all securities on Robinhood eligible for recurring investments?
Generally, securities that have a share price of over $1.00 and a market cap of $25 million or more are eligible for recurring investments. However, there are some exceptions. Here’s a list of the types of securities that we currently don’t support recurring investments for:
Inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and inverse exchange-traded notes (ETNs) are designed to track the inverse of a set of stocks or underlying indexes—the idea being that when those stocks fall in price, the inverse ETF or ETN will rise in price.
Inverse exchange-traded products are designed to be used as short-term trading vehicles. Most of them reset daily or within a short time period and, as a result, are meant to be held and sold on a daily basis.
Leveraged ETFs and ETNs use borrowed funds and other financial products (like options contracts) to try to magnify the returns of the index they track. Because the tools used to create the leveraged ETF or ETN are typically short-term tools (for example, options contracts have short-term expiration dates), holding one of these products as a long-term investment would result in the returns being quite different from the underlying index they track.
Like inverse ETPs, leveraged exchange-traded products are designed to be used as short-term trading vehicles. Most of them reset daily or within a short time period and, as a result, are meant to be held and sold on a daily basis. As a result, Robinhood does not support recurring investments in them.
Volatility ETPs track volatility in the market. Volatility is generally associated with uncertainty or fear because a highly volatile market is often one that is losing value. Many of these products track the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) Volatility Index, also known as VIX or the “fear index.”
Because volatility ETPs reset daily or within a short time period, they’re meant to be held and sold on a daily basis, so Robinhood does not support recurring investments in them.
We currently don’t support recurring investments for pre-IPO instruments because investing in a pre-IPO instrument means you’re taking place in the company’s IPO in the primary market (where securities are created) before the instrument trades on the secondary market (where investors trade the security). If you’d like to set up a recurring investment in a newly-listed stock, wait until the first day of trading to do so.
There are several different reasons why a security might not be available for trading at a given point in time: the security might be in a trading halt, undergoing a corporate action, might be very illiquid (meaning it's hard to find a buyer), or might be delisted (meaning it no longer trades anywhere).
Recurring investments use dollar-based orders to automatically purchase fractional shares of a stock or ETF. However, some securities don’t support fractional shares, so we can’t offer recurring investments in those securities.
Securities that are set to “position-closing only” can’t be bought on Robinhood. Robinhood may set securities to “position-closing only” for a variety of reasons depending on the situation. For example, a security might be set to position-closing only in response to operational changes or government action.
Disclosures
All investments involve risk and loss of principal is possible. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing.
Recurring investments do not ensure a profit or guarantee against loss. Not all securities on Robinhood are eligible for recurring investments. Recurring investments may result in a purchase of fractional shares, which are illiquid outside of Robinhood and not transferable. For a complete explanation of conditions, restrictions and limitations associated with fractional shares, see our Customer Agreement"Customer Agreement") related to fractional shares.
Investors should consider the investment objectives and unique risk profile of Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs) carefully before investing. Leveraged and Inverse ETPs may not be suitable for all investors and may increase exposure to volatility through the use of leverage, short sales of securities, derivatives and other complex investment strategies. A prospectus contains important information about ETPs and should be read carefully before investing. Customers should obtain prospectuses from issuers and/or their third party agents who distribute and make prospectuses available for review.
This is not investment advice, a recommendation, an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security.
Securities trading offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, a registered broker-dealer and Member SIPC, and a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc. (“Robinhood”).