FinTech News

Robinhood Debuts “Investor Index” with App’s Most-Owned Stocks

Since the brokerage app Robinhood launched in 2015, its seen more than its fair share of media attention. In addition to high-profile coverage of the company’s own missteps, there’s also been plenty of focus on what types of investments the app’s users are pouring their money into. Now, Robinhood has announced the launch of its Investor Index that will provide a bit more insight on that topic.

The new Investor Index tracks (in aggregate) the performance of the top 100 most-owned stocks on Robinhood. However, instead of being weighted by dollars, these investments are weighted in the index by “customer’s conviction,” which is the percentage of each investment in an account holder’s portfolio. According to Robinhood, the Investor Index will be updated once a month.

Accompanying the launch of the Index, Robinhood also released some initial observations. Among them, they noted that companies, such as Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, have consistently been among the top holdings on the app. Also interesting is that, in addition to Tesla being a top pick, investors on Robinhood have supported other electric vehicle manufacturers, with Ford and NIO rising in the rankings. Overall, the Investor Index currently contains 75% large cap stocks, 16% mid cap, and 9% small cap companies. 

In a blog post about the new feature, Robinhood wrote, “Over the last several years, we’ve seen our customers—and millions more like them—play an increasingly important role in the market. With the launch of the Robinhood Investor Index, we’re giving customers, and the world, a look at everyday investor positioning and performance on Robinhood.” Elsewhere in the post, the company also noted, “Contrary to what might have been heard in the news, our customers are similar to the OGs of investing. That is, they invest in what they know, understand and believe in for the long-term.”

Previously, third-party observers have kept track of Robinhood investor activity. In turn, headlines were often written about popular stocks among the Robinhood community. However, the company has hindered such efforts by shutting down an API that had provided most of the data to sites like Robintrack.

Although the new Robinhood Investor Index is sure to offer some interesting insights going forward, it seems unlikely that the platform will reach the levels of data previously offered by third parties. Additionally, while some customers may look to the Index for a bit of inspiration, it’s hard to imagine it being a game-changer for many. Nevertheless, it is notable to see Robinhood attempting to share their investor data considering how much a spotlight — and an often negative one — has been placed on such figures before.