I like Robinhood. I know if I you go on Reddit you will find millions of people telling you why it sucks, that they are just stealing my info to make other people rich, that it is basically a gambling site, or plenty of other reasons, but guess what, I still like it.  Why, you might be asking? Well for the simple reason that thirty years a ago, the regular investor like me did not have the ability to do what I can do now.

I don't want to be some big time day trader, but, I like being able to do things that they do.  This week, I bought 8 shares in the Spacex IPO, and sold it two days later when it was up about 50 percent.  No, 500 dollars is not life changing, and what do I know, it could have tanked right out of the box and I could have lost 500 bucks, or had to hold it for five years until it rebounded.  That is not the point. The point is that platforms like Robinhood made it possible for a nobody like me to pull out his phone and join an IPO and take advantage of the same activities that were reserved for very few people.  Can you imagine calling up your broker in 1995 and saying you wanted to get in on the Netscape IPO for 1000 bucks? He would tell you to get lost and keep paying your 35 bucks (plus a precentage) if you wanted to buy a currently traded stock, you weren't touching an IPO as an average retail investor.  

So, I like it. I get to spend my time researching and buying and selling like a big timer, with only a few thousand bucks in my "fun" account. So, while I won't be a billionaire, I get to act like one.