Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD) CEO Vlad Tenev said on Thursday that the brokerage wants to empower retail traders with the same tools and power that institutional investors at high-frequency trading firms have enjoyed for decades.
During an interview with CNBC, Tenev highlighted the end goal of Robinhood’s agentic AI trading offerings for retail investors.
Robinhood shares were up nearly 3% in Thursday’s pre-market trade.
Tenev predicted in the interview that AI agents will soon have the same capabilities as human traders.
“I was doing programmatic trading as an institutional player before starting Robinhood, and what you don’t realize is a large portion of trades are already automated and AI powered,” Tenev said.
He added that programmatic trading has been out of reach of retail traders so far, a gap that Robinhood is trying to plug following the launch of agentic trading on its platform in May this year.
“The end state of agentic trading at Robinhood is to give the everyday person access to the same tools, the same computation, the same power that institutional investors in high-frequency trading firms have been enjoying for several decades,” Tenev said.
Robinhood introduced Agentic Trading and the Agentic Credit Card in May this year, allowing customers to connect AI agents that can execute trades and make purchases on their behalf. Users can set spending and trading limits, monitor activity in real time and disable agents at any time.
Agentic Trading, launching in beta for equities, lets AI agents analyze portfolios, execute strategies and automate trades based on user-defined goals. Support for options, crypto and other asset classes is planned.
The company said both products prioritize user control through fraud detection, manual approvals and other safety features, with more AI-powered financial tools expected to roll out in the coming months.
According to TheFly, Mizuho raised its price target on Robinhood to $130 from $115 while keeping an ‘Outperform’ rating, implying an upside potential of nearly 20% from Wednesday’s closing price.
The firm compared Robinhood's strategy to the playbooks used by Amazon.com Inc.’s (AMZN) AWS and Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Azure, arguing that the company is disrupting a fragmented market before evolving into a broader financial platform.
Mizuho said Robinhood's combination of 27 million funded accounts, a best-in-class user interface and strong appeal among Gen Z investors positions the company to become the first truly global "hyperscaler" in online brokerage.
The firm also expects Robinhood to accelerate its international expansion, with Europe serving as the next major growth market followed by Asia.
BTIG said Robinhood's "The World Is Flat" event reinforced the company's strong product momentum, highlighting its push into international markets, AI-powered agentic trading and crypto.
The firm said the announcements demonstrate Robinhood's ambition to evolve beyond a U.S. equities trading platform while deepening engagement with existing users and attracting new customers.
BTIG reiterated its ‘Buy’ rating and $125 price target on Robinhood.
Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around Robinhood trended in the ‘bearish’ territory at the time of writing.
HOOD stock is down 4% year-to-date, but up 18% over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up 21% over the past 12 months, while the Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF (VUG) is up 19%.
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