No, you cannot use Robinhood in Canada. Only United States citizens, US permanent residents or those with a valid United States visa can sign up for a Robinhood account.
What is Robinhood?
Robinhood is a Menlo Park, California-based tech startup. It became extremely popular after introducing its trading app for iPhone and Android devices. Talking about the Robinhood app. you can trade stocks, ETF, options, and cryptocurrency, etc.
You won’t pay any fees to use Robinhood trading, including setting up and maintaining a brokerage account or transferring money for investments.
A broker-dealer with FINRA approval, Robinhood has 15.9 million active users and $93 billion in assets under custody. Additionally, there are about 22.8 million funded accounts overall.
Now, if you are a Canadian thinking, Can I use Robinhood in Canada? Here we have the details.
Why Robinhood can’t be used in Canada?
The company has a US-only securities sales license as of June 19, 2022.
Moreover, such foreign no-commission trading platforms like Robinhood have also been unable to develop a foothold in Canada. This is because of the law that forbids brokers from using market-makers to execute transactions for a charge.
Canadian brokers are required to execute trades on exchanges in order to provide the highest level of transparency.
Robinhood services are solely offered in the US, as is made explicit by their account-holder criteria:
- You should be 18 years or older.
- You should have a valid Social Security Number.
- You must be a US citizen, US permanent resident, or have a valid US visa.
- You must have a legal US residential address within the 50 states or Puerto Rico. Some exceptions may apply for active-duty US military personnel stationed abroad.
Alternatives of Robinhood in Canada:
Some of the popular alternatives for Canadian investors are:
1. Wealthsimple
One of the popular alternatives to Robinhood in Canada is Wealthsimple Trade. You can have trades executed on your behalf without paying a commission using Wealthsimple Trade platform.
The best part of the Canadian brokerage firm is that you can opt to start a TFSA or a personal investment account. There is no account minimum or paperwork required. You can start using the mobile app in only a few taps.
However, Wealthsimple is not a startup that popped up overnight. The business secured a large CAD $750 million investment in May 2021 from some of the biggest banks in the world, including Meritech and Greylock.
Numerous Canadian celebrities, including Michael J. Fox, Ryan Reynolds, and Drake and his business DreamCrew, also contributed money to this funding round.
Wealthsimple’s valuation increased to CAD $5 billion following this fundraising round. The startup had received over 900 million dollars in funding over nine rounds as of June 2022.
Other Robinhood Alternatives in Canada
Canada has a bulk of alternatives to a trading app like Robinhood. Some of these include:
- Questrade
- Qtrade
- Interactive Brokers
- TD Direct Investing
- CIBC Investor Edge
Have you opened a brokerage account yet? Which stock broker is your favourite and why? Do share your feedback and queries.