Robinhood launches AI trading agent, perpetual contracts, and weekend stock trading

According to CoinDesk, brokerage Robinhood (HOOD) announced at the HOOD Summit held in Houston, Texas, that it will launch executable trading AI agents, cryptocurrency perpetual contracts with up to 10x leverage, and weekend trading for U.S. stocks, while extending options trading hours, providing more intraday margin, and introducing contracts based on corporate earnings metrics.

Robinhood Agents allow customers to create AI agents within the app, choose models from OpenAI or Anthropic, and authorize them to access independent trading accounts. The agents can analyze the market, create watchlists, and trade stocks, options, and crypto assets. A feature called Loops allows customers to give long-term instructions to the agents to monitor the market and execute strategies when specific conditions arise. Since opening its trading infrastructure to external AI agents earlier this year, over 150,000 agent accounts have been created. By default, every trade proposed by the agent requires customer approval, and users can disable this protection; agents cannot use margin when they go live and can only utilize funds in dedicated accounts.

Regarding perpetual contracts, Robinhood plans to offer them to eligible U.S. customers through Robinhood Derivatives and Bitstamp, initially focusing on crypto assets, with Bitcoin and Ethereum contracts having leverage up to 10x, while other supported assets starting at 3x. Additionally, Robinhood will provide earnings binary contracts through Cboe, allowing customers to trade directly on whether companies meet revenue, earnings per share, and other metrics; weekend trading will offer select stocks and ETFs through Bruce ATS.