Robinhood attempts to bring the WSB forum into its own app! Aims to create a new gathering place for retail investors through its own platform

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, retail investors from the popular "influencer brokerage" Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD.US) will no longer need to leave the Robinhood investment platform to showcase their holdings or post provocative memes celebrating their investment strategy victories on other social media platforms. This online brokerage is venturing into social media, aiming to create a retail investor hub similar to the well-known subreddit WallStreetBets on Reddit.

The company stated in a release on Tuesday that it will invite a small group of customers to join its own social platform "Robinhood Social" early next year, with plans to expand access later. In the initial phase of this social media platform, all traders' posts must be accompanied by a transaction of stocks, options, or other assets. This holding data will be allowed to continue updating in real-time after retail investors share it, and posts will also allow comments.

"We have always believed this is an area we want to further explore, especially as social and investing are becoming increasingly intertwined globally," said Abhishek Fatehpuria, Vice President of Product Management at Robinhood, in an interview.

Investors will also be able to follow the operations and statistics of influential star investors added to Robinhood Social, including their one-year and daily gains and losses, as well as profit rates. Profiles of public figures will also appear on this social media platform, such as former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman from Wall Street, with their trading details filled in through public disclosures required by U.S. law.

Returning to the Original Vision

In a sense, this is a return to the company's original starting point. Before being officially launched as the favorite trading platform for retail investors across the U.S., Robinhood co-founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt envisioned an online community for sharing investment information. Throughout, Robinhood's retail investors have been more active on social media than customers of other brokerage platforms, often sharing screenshots and comments to compare their trading strategies.

No period exemplified this strong sense of community more than the most challenging phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, when novice investors flocked to the WallStreetBets forum under Reddit. Robinhood now hopes to harness and sustain this enthusiasm for investing and the market within its own ecosystem.

"While Robinhood customers are unlikely to abandon their existing accounts on other social media platforms, Robinhood Social can indeed offer some exclusive timeliness that Reddit and other platforms do not," Fatehpuria said in an interview “How can we leverage this to upgrade the entire ecosystem of social discussions about stock market investments and bring credibility to it?” he stated. Fatehpuria added that credibility will come from Robinhood Social users knowing that behind each post are real people engaging in real stock or options trading, rather than potentially manipulated, modified screenshots posted on external platforms. “These things can only be realized on our platform.”

Robinhood also stated in an official announcement that features such as private messaging, website or app links, image sharing, and other common social media functionalities are likely to be launched quickly after initial testing.

In addition to the social media platform, the company will also empower a broad base of retail investors with the ability to short stocks directly, which is often considered a more advanced investment strategy. Robinhood also indicated that starting early next year, some index options will offer overnight trading levels.

Robinhood aims to create a social platform similar to the retail investor hub WallStreetBets

The drastic reduction in barriers (zero commissions + mobile brokerage) + the significant increase in social media engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic + the high-risk, meme culture and “real trading sharing” mechanism of the retail investor community propelled WallStreetBets (WSB) to become the center of traffic and sentiment for retail investors in the U.S. during 2020-2021; events like GameStop turned it from a niche interest into a mainstream topic among retail investors, significantly boosting the member scale and market influence of retail investors.

WSB posts emphasize real trading, real positions, and “loss/profit sharing,” combined with exaggerated meme images and bullish narratives like “YOLO” and “buying the dip,” easily creating a flywheel effect from viewing—imitating—participating. Academic research and industry analysis have recorded that increased attention on WSB raises investors' risk tolerance and aggressiveness in positioning.

YOLO—an aggressive investment group with the motto “You Only Live Once”—is keen on betting on specific stocks by going all-in or buying high-leverage options in a “gambling” manner. This year, “YOLOs” have been particularly obsessed with betting on the hottest AI computing industry chain companies like Nvidia, Broadcom, and TSMC, betting that “AI faith” will continue to create waves globally.

Statistics show that the number of subscribers to the WSB forum has reached eight digits (in the tens of millions), with discussion volume and activity consistently ranking among the top on Reddit. Robinhood's core plan for the near future is to leverage the immense retail investor community to create a social platform comparable in scale to WSB.

Overall, the rise of WSB is not coincidental: the low trading cost revolution provided the soil, meme culture + verifiable retail trading provided the diffusion mechanism, and the COVID-19 pandemic and GameStop event instantly provided the “breakout” catalyst; ultimately, it formed a super node for retail investors that can gather them, price a hot topic, and influence trading structures