Robinhood's Big Swing: Perpetual Futures, 24/7 Trading, and 4x Margin
Robinhood used its HOOD Summit to unveil perpetual futures, expanded trading hours, 4x margin, earnings-trading contracts, and new Legend and Social features — a bid to win over active traders with tools once reserved for professional platforms.
Robinhood ($HOOD) unveiled a sweeping product roadmap at its HOOD Summit in Houston on Tuesday, pushing the brokerage further from its "beginner-friendly" roots toward a platform built for active, round-the-clock trading.
Perpetual futures arrive first. Robinhood is rolling out perpetuals — futures contracts with no expiration date that trade continuously, including nights, weekends, and holidays — through Robinhood Derivatives and its own exchange, Bitstamp. The initial lineup focuses on crypto, with bitcoin and ether offering up to 10x leverage and other supported assets starting at 3x. Trading fees will run just one basis point (0.01%) through the end of the year. Robinhood said the launch makes it the first major brokerage to offer six asset classes on a single platform.
Trading hours keep expanding. A 24/7 trading window for select U.S. equities is coming, pending regulatory review, alongside a separate weekend-trading rollout for a selected list of stocks and ETFs, expected in early 2027 and routed through a venue operated by Bruce Markets. Options hours are also extending: select names including SPY, QQQ, TSLA, and NVDA will trade from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET, once regular and extended sessions are combined.
More buying power, smarter order types. One-cancels-other (OCO) orders for stocks and ETFs are rolling out on both Legend, Robinhood's advanced trading platform, and mobile. Intraday margin is increasing to up to 4x buying power during market hours, with what the company describes as built-in risk controls.
Legend gets social and agentic. Robinhood Social — verified commentators, plus trade, chart, P&L, and allocation sharing — is live and coming to Legend as an embedded widget. An agentic charting feature that can analyze setups, spot patterns, and screen stocks is planned for Legend in October, alongside workspace customization and drawing tools.
Earnings season gets a trading layer. New in-app tools will let users watch earnings calls with live transcripts, rewind key moments, and trade directly from the call player. Separately, new earnings contracts — offered through Cboe as binary, event-style contracts — will let customers trade on whether a company hits specific metrics like revenue or EPS, covering more than 20 symbols to start.
Hardware support follows. Dual-display support for Robinhood's trading tools is set to ship October 23, alongside broader device and performance upgrades the company is branding internally as "Helios."
This platform, including MarketCatalyst LLC, is not a registered investment advisor and doesn't manage client assets. Content here is for informational and educational purposes only — not investment advice, and not a stock-picking or trade-alert service. Trading stocks and options carries risk, including possible loss of principal. Consider your own goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance, and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.