Introducing the Presidential Election Market

Robinhood will begin rolling out presidential election event contracts on October 28 through Robinhood Derivatives

Two weeks ago, we hosted hundreds of Robinhood customers in Miami at our inaugural HOOD Summit. There, we announced Robinhood Legend, and that index options and futures would be coming soon, offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC (RHD). Now RHD is following up on this announcement with the launch of presidential election event contracts, ahead of the November 5 general election.

Event contracts allow customers to trade on the outcome of specific events, such as whether a candidate will win an election. Robinhood’s presidential election event contracts will begin rolling out to a limited number of customers today. Customers must apply and meet certain criteria to be approved for an RHD account, including being a U.S. citizen and more. Once approved, customers will be able to trade based on their prediction for “who will win the 2024 presidential election.” There will be two contracts to choose from–one for Kamala Harris and one for Donald Trump.

We’ve heard from our customers that having access to the market in real time is essential – it’s why, for example, we launched 24/5 trading and recently announced our plans to launch futures trading in the coming months. We believe event contracts give people a tool to engage in real-time decision-making, unlocking a new asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold. 

To learn more about presidential election markets visit go.robinhood.com/election and our Help Center.

Disclosures:

Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Commodity interest trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Please carefully consider if it’s appropriate for you in light of your personal financial circumstances.

Presidential election event contracts on Robinhood will be tradeable Monday, October 28 and Tuesday, October 29 from 8 a.m. ET –  8 p.m. ET; on Wednesday, October 30 and Thursday, October 31 from 8 a.m. ET – 1 a.m. ET; on November 1st,  8 a.m. ET – 10:30 p.m. ET. There will be virtually 24 hour trading the week of the election, starting Sunday, November 3 at 3 a.m. ET to Friday, November 8 at 5 p.m. ET. There will be no trading from 5 p.m. ET – 5:15 p.m. ET each day, and contracts will not be tradeable on Saturdays. The price of the contract will be between $0.02 – $0.99, and as the election nears conclusion, one contract will get close to (or at) 100% and will pay out $1, while the other will get close to (or at) 0% and will pay out $0.

To be eligible, customers must apply and be approved for a Robinhood Derivatives account. They must also sign an attestation confirming they are not any of the following: (i) Non-US Residents, (ii) Candidates and paid staff on campaigns for US President, (iii) Candidates for any other elected federal or statewide public office, (iv) The existing US President, including a president not running for re-election, and paid White House Staff, Existing Members of Congress and their paid staff, (v) Paid employees of national party organizations, including the Republican National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, (vi) Paid employees of Political Action Committees and “Super PACs,” (vii) Paid employees of major polling organizations, (viii) Immediate family members, parents, and other household members of any of the above, and (ix) Any of the above listed institutions themselves.

This event contract is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC through ForecastEx, LLC. Robinhood Derivatives, LLC is a registered futures commission merchant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Member of National Futures Association (NFA) (NFA ID 0424278).

To learn more about ForecastEx, visit: https://forecastex.com/markets/.

Read the Forecast Contract Risk Disclosure for more information about the risks associated with forecast event contracts.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This blog post contains forward-looking statements, including with respect to the launch of election contracts by RHD, a wholly owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, “we,” “our,” “Robinhood,” or the “Company”), and our strategic and operational plans, including (among others) statements regarding upcoming products; that Robinhood will begin rolling out presidential election event contracts on October 28 through RHD; that futures and index options are comingsoon;  that RHD is launching presidential election event contracts ahead of the November 5 general election;  that Robinhood’s presidential election event contracts will begin rolling out to a limited number of customers today; and that once approved, customers will be able to trade based on their prediction for “who will win the 2024 presidential election.”. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “believe,” “may,” “will” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “scheduled,” “contemplate,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. Our forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause our actual future results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied in this blog post. Factors that contribute to the uncertain nature of our forward-looking statements include, among others: the significant uncertain and evolving federal and state regulatory environment with respect to election event contracts, including potential adverse litigation and regulatory actions against companies like us who are offering presidential election event contracts; presidential election event contracts being the first event contracts and commodity interest product offered by Robinhood; the need to have adequate capacity and infrastructure on our platform with respect to the rollout, offering, and settlement of presidential election event contracts; the impact of potential negative publicity, including with respect to offering presidential election event contracts, on our brand and reputation; the need to hold capital and make deposits with respect to event contracts including presidential election event contracts; our limited operating experience at our current scale; the difficulty of managing our business effectively, including the size of our workforce; the risk that changes in business, economic, or political conditions that impact the global financial markets, or a systemic market event, might harm our business; the difficulty of complying with an extensive, complex, and changing regulatory environment, including with respect to election event contracts and futures, and the need to adjust our business model in response to new or modified laws and regulations; the effects of competition; our need to innovate and invest in new products, services, technologies, and geographies in order to attract and retain customers and deepen their engagement with us in order to maintain growth; our reliance on third parties, including ForecastEx with respect to event contracts, to perform some key functions and the risk that processing, operational or technological failures could impair the availability or stability of our platforms; and our need as a regulated financial services company to develop and maintain effective compliance and risk management infrastructures and controls, including with respect to event contracts and futures. Because some of these risks and uncertainties cannot be predicted or quantified and some are beyond our control, you should not rely on our forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. More information about potential risks and uncertainties that could affect our business and financial results can be found in Part II, Item 1A of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, as well as in our other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment; new risks and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, particularly with respect to this first event contracts and Commodity Interest product offered by Robinhood, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks nor identify all uncertainties. The events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements might not be achieved and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise noted, all forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this blog post, October 28, 2024 and are based on information and estimates available to us at this time. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, performance, or achievements. Except as required by law, Robinhood assumes no obligation to update any of the statements in this blog post whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances, or otherwise. You should read this blog post with the understanding that our actual future results, performance, events, and circumstances might be materially different from what we expect.

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