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Robinhood unveiled in-app AI agents that trade for users, plus weekend stock trading and crypto perpetual futures, sending HOOD up 4.7% before the bell.
- Robinhood Agents builds strategies and places trades inside dedicated accounts; more than 150,000 have opened since May.
- Weekend equities trading on Bruce ATS is planned for early 2027, pending regulatory review.
- Crypto perpetual futures offer up to 10x leverage on bitcoin and ether, arriving in the coming months.
Lead
Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) introduced Robinhood Agents on Tuesday at its HOOD Summit in Houston. The feature lets customers build AI agents that analyze markets, form strategies and trade stocks, options and crypto on their behalf. The company also outlined plans for round-the-clock stock trading and leveraged crypto derivatives. Shares rose 4.7% in premarket trading. CEO Vlad Tenev said the company is delivering tools once reserved for hedge funds, big banks and quant firms.What Are Robinhood Agents and How Do They Work?
Robinhood Agents are AI trading assistants embedded in the app. Customers name an agent, choose a large language model from providers including OpenAI and Anthropic, and open a separate agentic account. The agent can reach only the money in that account.
Trade approvals are switched on by default, so an agent cannot place an order until the customer confirms it. Customers can turn approvals off, which allows autonomous execution. Robinhood says agents already run about 30 million transactions a day across more than 150,000 agentic accounts opened since a May soft launch.
A forthcoming feature called Loops will let agents repeat standing instructions, such as checking the market each morning and trading when set conditions are met. The company is offering free usage of its GPT-Luna model through the end of 2026.
Agent Apps add paid data layers for agents. Eleven providers are participating, including Unusual Whales at $30 a month and Nasdaq (NDAQ) at $10 a month, each with a one-month free trial.Robinhood's terms state that customers assume all risk for trades executed by agents and for any use of their data by third-party model providers. The company does not supervise, monitor or audit agents.
Will Robinhood Offer 24/7 Stock Trading?
Robinhood plans to add weekend trading of select U.S. equities and ETFs in early 2027, pending regulatory review. It would extend the 24 Hour Market, which has run from Sunday 8 p.m. to Friday 8 p.m. Eastern since 2023. Weekend sessions will run on Bruce ATS, an institutional-grade alternative trading system.
Other trading changes are scheduled sooner. Options hours will lengthen by 35% to 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Eastern in October, and one-cancels-other orders arrive for equities the same month. Eligible margin customers can opt into 4x intraday margin, up from 2x, next month.
How to Day Trade Crypto With the New Perpetual Futures?
Under the new product, customers will trade perpetual futures, contracts with no expiry date that track a coin's price and allow leverage. Robinhood will offer them on bitcoin, ether, solana, XRP, dogecoin, cardano, chainlink and HYPE to eligible U.S. customers in the coming months.
Leverage reaches 10x on bitcoin and ether and 3x on the other tokens. The tools include stop-loss and take-profit orders and real-time liquidation prices. Fees are 1 basis point per trade through the end of 2026. The contracts run through Robinhood Derivatives and its Bitstamp unit.
Leverage magnifies gains and losses alike. A 10x position is liquidated after a 10% adverse move, before fees and funding costs.
How Did Markets React?
HOOD gained 4.7% before the opening bell. The shares sit roughly level for the year after a rebound from a 52-week low of $63.51 in late March, and they hold above their 100-day moving average. Short interest stands at 36.17 million shares, or 4.6% of float, up 9.1% in the latest reporting period.
The company also announced earnings contracts with Cboe Global Markets (CBOE). These are binary options tied to company results such as earnings beats, rolling out in the coming weeks to customers with options approval. Fees are waived through 2026, subject to regulatory review.
Strategic Context
The package targets active traders, the most lucrative segment for retail brokers, through higher-frequency products. Autonomous agents raise order volume, and the perpetual futures and margin increases raise leverage. Both feed transaction-based revenue.
Regulation is the main open variable. Weekend equities need approval, and agentic execution and leveraged crypto derivatives for retail customers sit in areas where U.S. rules are still being applied.
Outlook
Robinhood has set out a roadmap that pushes retail trading toward continuous, automated and leveraged activity. Near-term milestones are the October options-hours and order-type changes, the perpetual futures launch in the coming months and the earnings contracts in the coming weeks. Weekend equities trading in early 2027 depends on regulatory clearance.
