Robinhood unveils AI trading agents, 10x crypto perps and weekend stock trading

Robinhood has unveiled AI agents that can research markets and place trades for customers, crypto perpetual futures with up to 10 times leverage, and weekend trading in US stocks, as the brokerage tries to win more business from active traders.

The products were announced on Tuesday at the company's HOOD Summit in Houston, Texas. Robinhood is also extending options trading hours, offering more intraday margin and adding contracts, offered through Cboe, that let users trade on whether companies hit metrics such as revenue or earnings per share, CoinDesk reports.

Agents with a separate account

With Robinhood Agents, customers name an agent, open a separate account for it and pick a model from OpenAI or Anthropic. The agent can analyse markets, build watchlists and trade stocks, options and crypto. A feature called Loops, which Robinhood says is coming soon, will let customers give an agent standing instructions to execute a strategy when set conditions are met, including overnight.

By default, customers must approve every trade an agent proposes, although they can switch that off. Agents can only use the money in their dedicated account and cannot borrow on margin at launch. Robinhood says more than 150,000 agentic accounts have been opened since it let technical users connect their own agents in May, and that agents now call its tools almost 30 million times a day.

Reports differ on timing: CoinDesk says Robinhood Agents is "coming soon" to eligible US customers, while Fortune reported that all of Robinhood's roughly 29 million customers would have access starting this week.

Leverage and weekend hours

Perpetual futures, contracts that let traders take leveraged positions without an expiry date, will be offered to eligible US customers through Robinhood Derivatives and Bitstamp. Bitcoin and ether contracts will carry up to 10 times leverage, and other supported assets will start at three times. CoinDesk notes that a 10% move against a 10x position can wipe it out. The perps are due in the coming months.

Weekend trading in selected stocks and ETFs will run through Bruce ATS, an alternative trading system, filling the gap left by the 24 Hour Market the company launched in 2023. "We're making Robinhood the best place in the world for active traders by delivering tools once reserved for hedge funds, big banks, and quant firms," chief executive Vlad Tenev said.

Sources

• CoinDesk
• CoinDesk
• Fortune