Purchase Shares on Robinhood: A Step-by-Step Information

Shopping for a inventory on Robinhood is a handful of steps as soon as your account is funded. The half folks get caught on is every part round these faucets: {dollars} or shares, market or restrict, and what occurs in case you purchase after the market closes. I walked by way of the purchase display in my very own Robinhood account to indicate you every step.

Should you’ve by no means positioned a commerce earlier than, the SEC’s investor web site has a brief information to the varieties of orders you’ll see on the purchase display. Learn it earlier than your first order.

About that present inventory: Robinhood offers new clients inventory price wherever from $5 to $200, and about 99% of consumers get $5 (as of October 26, 2026). You get it when you’re authorized and hyperlink a checking account or debit card.

Open and Fund Your Robinhood Account, Then Decide Your Reward Inventory

Before you purchase: open and fund your account

You’ll be able to’t purchase something till there’s cash within the account. Right here’s the order of issues:

1. Open a person brokerage account. The present inventory solely applies to your first taxable, self-directed particular person account.
2. Get authorized. Robinhood critiques the applying earlier than you may commerce.
3. Hyperlink a checking account or debit card. That’s what unlocks the present inventory.
4. Deposit cash. Your shopping for energy is what you may spend on the purchase display.

The present inventory comes from an inventory of 26 giant firms Robinhood picks. You’ll be able to promote it 3 buying and selling days after you declare it, however the money worth has to remain in your account for 60 days earlier than you may withdraw it.

purchase shares on Robinhood, step-by-step

These are Robinhood’s personal steps for the app. The online model is similar concept with a Purchase panel on the appropriate.

1. Seek for the inventory and open its element web page.
2. Faucet Commerce, then Purchase. Should you don’t personal any but, you’ll simply see Purchase.
3. Enter an quantity. Robinhood asks for {dollars} by default. Faucet {Dollars} to change to Shares or one other order sort.
4. Evaluation the order. Examine the quantity, the order sort and the estimated amount. Faucet Edit if something’s off.
5. Swipe as much as submit. On the net, you choose Purchase as an alternative.

Right here’s what the Purchase panel seemed like in my account. Order sort was set to a market purchase, Purchase in was set to {Dollars}, and there was an Quantity field and an Estimated amount line above the Evaluation order button. It reveals $0.00 shopping for energy as a result of I haven’t funded this account. Yours will present your deposit.

{Dollars} or shares?

You should purchase by greenback quantity or by variety of shares. Shopping for in {dollars} is the way you get a fraction of a share, which helps when one share prices greater than you wish to put in.

• The minimal for a fractional order is $1
• Robinhood’s personal instance: put $10 right into a inventory that prices $100 a share and also you get 0.1 shares
• Fractional shares work on shares listed on exchanges just like the Nasdaq and NYSE, not on over-the-counter (OTC) shares

Market order or restrict order?

A market order buys on the present market worth. A restrict order solely fills on the worth you set or higher, and it isn’t assured to fill in any respect. Robinhood picks the default for you based mostly on the time of day:

One factor to know: the last-traded worth on the display received’t essentially be the value you pay. Costs transfer between the second you look and the second your order fills. If the precise worth issues to you, use a restrict order.

Learn the inventory web page before you purchase

Every inventory’s element web page has greater than the chart. Scroll down and also you’ll discover key statistics like market cap, price-earnings ratio, dividend yield and the 52-week excessive and low, plus a information feed and associated lists.

None of that tells you what to purchase. It tells you what you’re .

Fund Your Robinhood Account and Place Your First Commerce

Different methods to purchase on Robinhood

As soon as the fundamentals click on, Robinhood has a number of different methods in:

• Robinhood Legend is its desktop buying and selling platform, with charts, indicators and watchlists on one display.
• IPO Entry presents shares in some IPOs on the IPO worth, per Robinhood’s IPO Entry web page.
• Robinhood Methods is its managed portfolio service, run by an SEC-registered funding advisor, in case you’d fairly not choose shares your self.

Dangers to know earlier than your first commerce

• You’ll be able to lose cash. Shares purchased by way of Robinhood aren’t FDIC insured and might lose worth, together with what you set in.
• Prolonged-hours buying and selling is riskier. Robinhood warns of extra worth swings and decrease buying and selling quantity exterior common hours.
• Restrict orders can miss. If the value by no means reaches your restrict, nothing will get purchased.
• Market orders can fill at a special worth than the one in your display.
• The present inventory has strings. You’ll be able to’t withdraw its money worth for 60 days.

What I like, and what to look at

What I like

• The purchase display asks for {dollars} first, which is simpler for a primary commerce
• Fractional shares from $1
• The order sort is chosen for you based mostly on the time of day
• Each inventory web page has key statistics and information in a single place

What to look at

• The default order sort adjustments with the clock, so verify it earlier than you submit
• Fractional shares don’t work on OTC shares
• The present inventory is $5 for about 99% of recent clients

Should you’re able to make your first commerce, open and fund your Robinhood account, then observe the steps above.

Open and Fund a Robinhood Account to Purchase Your First Inventory