Robinhood says customers deposited a record $6.5 billion in April as active traders try to profit off market chaos

• Robinhood has not always prospered During periods of extreme volatility, but customers continued to flock to the online trading platform last month, even after the deployment of President Donald Trump's chaotic rate.

The uncertainty of commercial policy and economic discomfort have public enterprises in the industry of airlines to fast food that draw their prospective advice for investors. The Robinhood online brokerage platform offered a confident perspective during its quarter profit call On Wednesday, however, with its awareness of active merchants helping to propel the company to an April fort despite the prices of President Donald Trump who unleash chaos on the stock market.

Robinhood has built its reputation as a disruptive disruptor of Silicon Valley, offering unaccompanied exchanges that allowed adolescents and twenty investing by using their smartphones. The current appetite for retail investors is closely monitored, but CEO Vlad Tenev said that the company had focused on the types of traders who dive in the lead on the agitated markets.

“Unlike the place where the company was back in 2022 where we were mainly focused on novice investors, the new concentration on the best platform for active traders made us more resistant in times like these,” he said. “Because we just didn't have a lot of mechanisms for more sophisticated customers, who wanted to exchange [in] In lateral or decreasing markets. »»

Volatility has not always been Robinhood's friend. While merchants flocked to the platform during the Mesmes in January 2021 stock mania, record volumes put pressure on the company's financial plumbing. After a securities regulator struck Robinhood with a capital call of 3 billion dollars, the company briefly prohibited investors from buying Gamesop and other popular memes actions on the platform, leading to accusations that the company was collusion with open sellers who were tightened.

The company's IPO later that year was a bust, the shares going from an initial price of $ 38 to $ 7 in 2022, when the S&P 500 dropped to 18% when the Federal Reserve has considerably increased interest rates to combat inflation.

But the action is now negotiated above the $ 45 mark, and the platform received a record of $ 6.5 billion in net deposits last month, although the shares are along the way. The deployment of Trump's chaotic price has dropped the S&P 500 from the S&P 19% from its record in mid -February, only for the index to increase 9% on April 9 – its best day since October 2008 – when the president announced a 90 -day break on his “reciprocal prices”. A worried calm has largely impregnated because the administration claims that it is about to obtain several major commercial transactions.

Customers used the platform in a coherent manner throughout the month, said financial director Jason Warnick, the shares currently negotiating at a four-year summit. Optional trading is also close to a peak of all time, he added, and user sales on the fringes – which means that money borrowed – has not succeeded at $ 8.4 billion compared to last year.

“So I would say that there is a fairly wide force of the retail commitment that we see,” said Warnick, “and all the signs are positive throughout the month of April.”

Robinhood also launched future trading and extended its prediction market activities in the first quarter. The latter sparked criticism and a regulatory examination for similarities with the game, but Tenev highlighted the two areas as sources of growth.

About 4.5 million contracts were negotiated in April only, said the CEO, more than all of the first three months of the year, allowing customers to use the platform to take short positions for the first time.

“So that really opens up new behaviors and new negotiation styles for our active merchants,” said Tenev.

Despite all the optimistic comments, Robinhood's actions fell by more than 2% on Thursday. While the company beat expectations at the top and bottom, revenues fell to $ 927 million, against a record of $ 1 billion at the end of last year. Crypto revenues dropped from $ 358 million to $ 252 million in the same period by $ 30% in the same period as a stock-up post-lelection rally in digital assets has given way to a historic rout.

This story was initially presented on Fortune.com