Robinhood will extend its trading hours as it works toward its goal of 24/7 investing
Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD) is gathering plenty of attention today from the investing world, after the trading platform announced that it will extend its hours as it works towards its goal of 24/7 investing. Robinhood will increase pre-market trading to 7 a.m. from 9 a.m. and after-hours to 8 p.m. EST. The stock is soaring in response, up 24.7% to trade at $15.98 at last check.
This positive price action has HOOD breaking past pressure at its 60-day moving average, which has kept a lid on gains since mid March. Year-to-date, however, the equity is still down 10.2%.
Short interest has been on the rise, and the 59.27 million shares sold short account for 8.2% of the stock's available float. In other words, it would take nearly three days to buy back these bearish bets, at Robinhood stock's average pace of trading.
Options traders are targeting HOOD with fervor after the news, particularly options bulls, with overall options volume pacing for the top percentile of its annual range. So far, 437,000 calls have crossed the tape, in comparison to 82,000 puts. The weekly 4/1 16-strike call is the most popular, followed by the 15-strike call in the same weekly series, with new positions being bought to open at both.