Robinhood presents a new look and now offers trading in futures and index options

Robinhood's (HOOD) evolution from meme stock trading champion to asset management platform continues.

The company said late Wednesday that it would launch futures and index options trading through its app, a move that has been widely announced for months. Both features will be available in the Robinhood app “soon,” according to Robinhood.

The company also unveiled Robinhood Legend, touted as a sleeker trading platform aimed at more sophisticated investors. Robinhood Legend allows up to eight charts to be opened in a single window and could increase various technical indicators for traders such as Bollinger Bands.

“With Robinhood Legend, futures and index options, we help customers harness the full power of the markets so they can take control of their financial future,” said Vlad Tenev, co-founder and CEO of Robinhood.

The redesign and new product launches follow a series of debuts and new launches in recent months.

Robinhood bought crypto exchange Bitstamp in June and targeted credit providers American Express (AXP) and Visa (V) in March with the launch of a credit card that offers 3% cash back on purchases.

The company finally launched its stock trading app in the UK in November 2023, after introducing 24-hour trading on select stocks and ETFs earlier in the year.

“We don’t just want to serve active traders. We want to increase our customers' wallet share; we want to help them build wealth,” Tenev said in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance.

Investors have taken note of Robinhood's transformation.

Its shares have risen 110% since the start of the year as increased interest rates have boosted lenders' profits and sentiment around its innovation pipeline has improved. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) are up 21% and 22%, respectively, year over year.

The company reported second-quarter revenue rose 40% year-over-year to $682 million. Net income improved significantly to $0.21 per share compared to $0.03 a year ago.

Not everyone on the Street is convinced that the company will maintain its earnings momentum as interest rates fall.

“We continue to see opportunities across the product pipeline in derivatives, gold and cryptocurrencies, but some of these offerings are still in early stages of development and/or launch and their inherent earning power has not yet been proven across all interest rate environments,” JPMorgan analyst warned Ken Worthington in a customer meeting note.

The analyst has given Robinhood an Underweight rating, which translates to a Sell.

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