In November of last year, StockTwits announced that it had partnered with Robinhood to bring true social trading to the largest investing and trading community. The integration enables StockTwits members to connect their Robinhood accounts, trade commision-free from their watchlist with one swipe, and easily share the trade with their followers. It is available in StockTwits’s iOS and Android apps.
The success of the integration has far exceeded even StockTwits’ most optimistic expectations. Since November’s launch, over 20,000 people have connected their Robinhood accounts to StockTwits, and assets connected to the StockTwits platform have just surpassed $50M. StockTwits is now adding $2M in connected assets per week and we are seeing 1000 daily trades initiated on our platform. Stocktwits is not in the asset gathering business, but the growth is interesting and I believe the whole industry should take note.
Why?
1. Robinhood is so new. Both Robinhood and Stocktwits spend almost zero on marketing. Go read the financial statements of the largest e-brokers. Check their marketing budgets.
2. Millennials are supposed to hate the idea of do it yourself investing/trading.
3. Stocktwits is pseudononymous…but people are connecting their accounts to Robinhood.
Our community trusts us and Robinhood. Millennials don’t automagically trust the old system and are willing to try new brands. Mobile first matters. Robinhood and StockTwits are simple apps with great individual utility that also work really well together for beginners and experts.
It’s very easy to connect your Robinhood and Stocktwits account to get going.
StockTwits will continue to work with Robinhood to find new ways to integrate brokerage functionality in their product as both seek to redefine what a brokerage and financial media platform can be for the next generation of investors.
As for all the hoopla in FinTech these days I will leave you with this thought from Michael Kitces that drives home the biggest opportunity I see for communities and networks with trust and attention (like StockTwits):
The reality is that the real inhibitor to bringing financial planning to the masses is not about the use of technology to drive down the cost of delivering financial planning. The real challenge is how difficult it remains to get new clients in the first place, especially given that so many financial planning firms have relatively little cash flow available for broad-based marketing programs. The end result – the real challenge in bringing financial planning to the masses is not about the cost to deliver it, but the incredibly high cost necessary to get those clients in the first place! When we figure out how to bring down the cost to acquire clients, we will figure out how to truly bring financial planning to the masses.