New options for active traders as Robinhood Advanced opens futures access

Edited by ad hoc news Flagship & Bestseller Desk. Reviewed before publication on 06/15/2026 at 12:30 PM ET. Details in the imprint.

Robinhood Markets is pushing further into the territory of active traders with its Robinhood Advanced experience, which adds access to futures trading, higher buying-power controls and more granular risk settings for qualifying users. The upgrade is built inside the existing Robinhood app but is clearly aimed at customers who trade frequently and want tools that go beyond basic stock and option orders.

What Robinhood Advanced is designed to do

Robinhood describes Advanced as an experience for customers who meet suitability requirements and want to trade CME-listed futures contracts alongside stocks, options and crypto within a single interface. According to the company’s own materials, users who are approved for futures gain the ability to trade products such as equity index futures with extended trading hours, cash-settled contracts and leverage that is significantly higher than standard margin on equities. The official futures trading support page sets out eligibility criteria, including account type, experience and financial profile.

To reduce the complexity that typically comes with futures, Robinhood Advanced integrates buying-power displays, maintenance margin indicators and risk warnings directly into the order ticket and position view. The broker highlights that futures trading at Robinhood is cash-settled, with no physical delivery of underlying assets, so positions are always closed financially at expiration or before. Margin requirements are set at or above exchange minimums and are monitored in real time, with automatic liquidations if equity falls below required levels, a structure broadly consistent with how larger futures brokers operate.

Advanced users still operate under Robinhood’s broader risk framework: pattern day trading rules apply to margin accounts, and the broker emphasizes that futures are intended only for experienced traders capable of handling large notional exposure and rapid price moves. Educational content around contract specifications, tick values and overnight risk is built into the app, attempting to address long-standing criticism that retail traders are often pushed into complex products without enough context.

Key features for active and multi-asset traders

Beyond the headline of futures access, Robinhood Advanced is pitched as a way to bring more professional-style tools into a mass-market app. Order types go beyond simple market and limit orders to include bracketed exits and stop orders tailored to futures, while watchlists can be customized to surface futures, stocks, options and crypto side by side. The company says that active traders can use a single cash and margin pool for different asset classes, subject to regulatory and risk limits, which can simplify capital allocation compared with running separate futures and equity accounts at different firms.

On pricing, Robinhood charges per-contract fees on futures trades in addition to exchange and regulatory costs, moving away from its commission-free equity and options model for this particular product set. While fee schedules can change, current public disclosures show a flat per-contract charge plus pass-through exchange and regulatory fees for each side of a futures trade. A recent overview of Robinhood’s broader product direction by MarketBeat notes that the broker has been expanding higher-value services, including 24-hour trading and now futures, as it looks to deepen engagement with more active segments of its base. MarketBeat’s Robinhood coverage highlights the strategic importance of pushing into more sophisticated trading products.

Risk controls are a core part of the Advanced pitch. Robinhood caps position sizes and leverage based on experience and financial suitability, runs stress tests on customer accounts, and can raise requirements during volatile markets. Overnight margin may be higher than intraday for certain contracts, and some products can be restricted entirely during events such as major economic releases. In-app alerts notify users when margin usage approaches critical thresholds, and the firm stresses that futures losses can exceed initial capital if markets move sharply against open positions, a risk factor that is repeatedly flagged in disclosures and onboarding flows.

How Robinhood Advanced fits into the company’s roadmap

Robinhood has been steadily moving uphill from its early reputation as a simple stock-trading app toward a multi-product brokerage with cash management, retirement accounts, credit cards and now a dedicated futures experience for advanced users. In earlier commentary on its strategy, the company framed futures as a natural extension of its derivatives and 24-hour trading offerings, intended to keep more active customers on-platform instead of losing them to specialized futures brokers. Coverage from financial media has noted that Robinhood is also seeking a larger role in primary markets and institutional-style services, reinforcing a broader shift from a single-product app toward a diversified financial platform. A TradingView summary of Robinhood’s push into IPOs underscores how the firm is targeting more sophisticated use cases.

For Robinhood Markets, the Advanced experience and futures access sit at the high-engagement end of its product spectrum, complementing everyday offerings such as cash accounts and fractional shares. The company does not break out futures-only revenue in detail, but derivatives and other trading-based income have historically been a major driver of its top line. Shares of Robinhood Markets (ISIN US7707031024) trade on NASDAQ under the ticker HOOD; the stock has been volatile as investors weigh the company’s expansion into higher-value yet more cyclical trading businesses.

This article was a.i.-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without warranty; prices and availability may change at short notice. Not investment advice and not a buy or sell recommendation. Trading involves risk up to and including the total loss of invested capital.