It’s common on social media sites like Reddit for users to share what stocks they are buying and selling. For better or worse, this activity serves as inspiration for others to imitate what those traders are doing and, in Europe, this so-called “copy trading” is baked right into brokerage platforms. On Wednesday, Robinhood began rolling out its version of this feature, which it calls Robinhood Social, to select users.
“Customers will be able to follow other Robinhood traders, swap strategies, discuss market moves, and trade with clarity. Plus, they can trust that every customer profile belongs to a real person, verified through KYC,” said the company in a blog post, announcing the beta launch of the tool.
Robinhood is taking a go-slow approach to the feature, which it announced last year, in part due to regulatory uncertainty over copy trading. Specifically, there are concerns that accounts endorsing stocks could be viewed as the sort of advice that, under U.S. laws, can only be dispensed by registered advisors. Meanwhile, there are broader concerns that social influencer style financial accounts are being operated under fictitious accounts in order to manipulate markets—a familiar concern on platforms like Reddit or X where some users talk up stocks or cryptocurrencies, or share doctored screenshots purporting to show their trades.
