How to Get a Free Share of Stock from Robinhood (2018)

Robinhood is a popular stock trading app that charges absolutely no commissions. You can read our full review of Robinhood to get a better idea of what they do.

I have an account with them and have zero complaints.

They recently raised $110 million at a $1.3 billion valuation and are looking to blowing the doors off their promotional efforts.

They've started rolling out different promotions for referring new accounts and I'll try to include them all here.

The most exciting of which is a free share of stock for new accounts. (once you have an account, then you can refer your friends!)

Open Account, Get Free Stock

The most exciting of the referral promotions is the free stock promotion. When you refer a friend, they get a chance of getting a share of stock valued between $3 and $150 – the average is $10. The stock is awarded when they fund their account.

When you refer a friend, you also get a share of stock too – valued between $3 and $150. You won't necessarily get the same stock but you could.

The stock is not automatically deposited into your account. You will get a notification (or look in your history/past invites screen) and you have 60 days to claim the reward.

You can sell the stock after 2 trading days but you have to keep the cash value of the stock in your account for 30 days. That value will be reported on a 1099-MISC.

Get Your Free Stock from Robinhood

What Robinhood sent me about their free stock promotion!

According to Robinhood, here are the probabilities (based on when they acquired the shares, the market fluctuates so award could be different):

• ~80% chance the stock has a value of $3-$10;
• ~18% chance the stock has a value of $10-$50;
• ~2% chance the stock has a value of $50-$150.

Once they open an account and transfer, you'll see a notification on your phone. Click through to the person and claim your prize:

(if you look carefully, the list of invites will tell you the stock ticker of what you won – I realized this on the second referral, which you see above)

Then you get to a screen where you “pick” three stocks:

Oooohhh the suspense!

There's some intermediate “scratcher” screen but then you see this:

Yipee!!!

Fun! Now I can sell in 2 business days (how long it probably takes to settle).

Here are a few high watermarks I've seen:

Open Account, Get Cash

The other promotions for referring friends are either $10 or $5 for new accounts. This promotion is available to a select group of users for a limited time too.

The 30-day rule still applies, you can't withdraw the bonus amount for 30 days and it will be reported on a 1099-MISC.

It looks like the free stock the ongoing promotion currently, if one is offered on your account.

How Robinhood Promotions Work

The best part about Robinhood promotions is that your referral link never changes. It's the same invite link you've always been using.

The only difference is the incentive you get, the incentive your friend gets, and the rules regarding withdrawals. So what you will see above is a listing of all the different promotions they're actively running. As a startup, they mix it up all the time so what you see will vary based on your account.

Free trades, free money, this is what disruption looks like — if you get a free share of stock through this, let us know what you got! 🙂