I think Robinhood wants to send the message that they offer a simple, elegant stock trading app. I feel (no proof) that they target people with net worths of less than $50k to come and trade a few stocks. AAPL, TSLA, NFLX, MSFT, GOOG, etc.

I don't think they actually want you to trade on margin. It's just, some people are addicted to volatility / the chance of "sweet gainz" and they see "regular Joe" posting pictures of turning $1k into $100k by making "the correct lucky" options trade, so they are down to try to do it too.

I don't think that's Robinhood's message. It's just a side effect of having an easy to use app with no fees.

> I don't think they actually want you to trade on margin.

Have you used RH? I use it for exactly your example, every other paycheck I put some in VOO and a bit on some individual stocks. They push Robinhood Gold so hard. There used to be a glowing gold banner at the top of your portfolio advertising to join gold and get $10,000 today or whatever.

Why don't you just buy VOO on vanguard considering there is no commission fee on vanguard when buy vanguard ETFs?

Because I'd still like to buy other stocks. There's also no fee on RH so what is the downside of using RH?

RH can simply not offer margin if they don't want their customers to use margin. "not handing out money" is the traditional way that anyone avoids the risk of losing money due to handouts.

I disagree. I signed up to check it out and they’ll consistently push notifications about upcoming earnings calls. They’re clearly trying to promote a very short horizon mindset