About recurring investments and orders
With recurring investments, you can automatically invest in stocks and ETFs with Sav on your own schedule. You can use this to help make investing a habit and build your portfolio long term. Just remember all investing involves risk, including loss of principal.
FAQ
How do recurring investments work?
For example, let's say you set up a recurring investment to buy $10 of fictional stock YOWL every week on Monday. When Monday rolls around, we’ll automatically purchase $10 worth of YOWL for your investing account.
This means if YOWL is currently trading at $40 per share, you’ll receive 0.25 shares of YOWL. If YOWL is trading at $20 per share the following Monday, you’ll receive an additional 0.5 shares, for a total of 0.75 shares.
Note
We only support dollar-based orders on recurring investments, which typically results in fractional shares or fractions of a coin. You can't set up a recurring investment for an order of whole shares or coins.
How do I create a recurring investment or order?
Go to the Investments page on the app
Under Discover, select explore themes
Use the search bar or the curated themes to locate the stock you wish to trade
Scroll down and select Auto-Invest on your schedule
How do I edit or cancel a recurring investment or order?
App
In Investing, if you have multiple accounts with us, select the account, like switching from individual to IRA
In Recurring investments → View recurring investments, select the recurring investment you want to edit
Select Edit investment, and then:
Select Pause investment to pause it
Select End investment to remove or cancel it
Select the applicable row to change the amount you’re investing, the investment schedule, the payment method, or the backup payment method
How do recurring investments work with instant deposits?
Instant Deposits is money that Sav gives you access to so you can invest while your bank transfers are being processed. Every account has an instant deposit limit. To find yours, go to Account → Investing → Instant Deposits Health.
If you fund your recurring investment with a bank account, some of your instant deposits will be used to place the order while the money from your bank is on the move. For example, a $50 recurring investment funded with a bank account will use up $50 of your instant deposits limit.
However, sometimes you might not have enough instant deposits available for a recurring order—you might have used them to place other orders, for example. When that happens, your recurring order will be placed once the transfer from your bank is added to your investing account, which can take up to 5 business days.
For example, if your $50 recurring order funded through your bank account is scheduled for today but you don’t have any instant deposits, the bank transfer will start and your order will be placed after the transfer is complete.
Recurring investments for stocks and ETFs FAQ
How does the timing of a recurring stock or ETF investment order work?
Recurring investment orders will typically start to be processed between 11 AM ET and market close on the scheduled date. If your recurring investment order falls on a day that the market is closed, like a weekend or holiday, it will be scheduled for the next trading day.
How does pricing for a recurring stock or ETF investment order work?
To fill recurring investment orders, we group them in batch market orders. Typically, we create one batch order for each security but sometimes we need to create multiple batch orders.
Each batch order is converted into one or more share-based orders that are routed to the market for execution. To figure out how many shares you’ll receive for a recurring investment, we divide your investment amount by the weighted average price per share for each batch order. You may end up with fractional shares.
Recurring investment orders are typically filled during regular market hours (9:30 AM to 4 PM ET).
Example
Let’s say you have a weekly investment of $50 for YOWL and the batch order was executed at a weighted average price per share of $5. Then you’ll get 10 shares of YOWL that week.
Why was my stock or ETF recurring investment paused or skipped?
Your recurring investment might get paused automatically for a number of reasons, including:
The bank transfer for your order was reversed—this sometimes happens if the bank account has insufficient funds
The bank account you chose for your primary payment method was unlinked
The stock or ETF at the time the order would’ve been placed had a trade restriction
Your account was set to position-closing only, meaning you weren’t able to place buy orders
A recurring order also might be automatically skipped for these reasons:
You didn’t have enough buying power to place the order at the time
The bank transfer to your account for your order failed
A technical error occurred
Are all securities on Sav eligible for recurring investments?
Generally, securities that have a share price of over $1 and a market cap of $25 million or more are eligible for recurring investments. However, there are some exceptions.
We currently don't support recurring investments for the following types of securities:
Inverse exchange-traded products
Inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and inverse exchange-traded notes (ETNs) are designed to track the inverse of a set of stocks or underlying indexes—the idea being that when those stocks fall in price, the inverse ETF or ETN will rise in price.
Inverse exchange-traded products are designed for short-term trading. Most of them reset daily or within a short time period and, as a result, are meant to be held and sold on a daily basis.
Leveraged exchange-traded products
Leveraged ETFs and ETNs use borrowed funds and other financial products (like options contracts) to try to magnify the returns of the index they track. Because the tools used to create the leveraged ETF or ETN are typically short-term tools (for example, most options contracts have short-term expiration dates), holding one of these products as a long-term investment would have returns that are quite different from the underlying index they track.
Like inverse ETPs, leveraged exchange-traded products are designed to be used as short-term trading vehicles. Most of them reset daily or within a short time period and, as a result, are meant to be held and sold on a daily basis. As a result, Sav doesn't support recurring investments in them.
Volatility exchange-traded products
Volatility ETPs track volatility in the market. Volatility is generally associated with uncertainty or fear because a highly volatile market is often one that is losing value. Many of these products track the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) Volatility Index, also known as VIX or the “fear index.”
Because volatility ETPs reset daily or within a short time period, they’re meant to be held and sold on a daily basis, so Sav doesn't support recurring investments in them.
Pre-IPO instruments
We currently don’t support recurring investments for pre-IPO instruments because investing in a pre-IPO instrument means you’re taking part in the company’s IPO in the primary market (where securities are created) before the instrument trades on the secondary market (where investors trade the security). If you’d like to set up a recurring investment in a newly-listed stock, wait until the first day of trading to do so.
Securities that aren't tradable
Securities might not be tradable for a number of reasons. For example, when a security is in a trading halt because of a corporate action, it might be illiquid (meaning it’s hard to find a buyer or seller), might be delisted (meaning it no longer trades anywhere), or might have a wider spread during extended hours.
Securities that don’t support fractional shares
Recurring investments use dollar-based orders to automatically purchase fractional shares of a stock or ETF. However, fractional trading isn't available for certain securities, so we can’t offer recurring investments in those securities. Fractional trading is also sometimes temporarily unavailable for certain securities because of things like corporate actions, which are events that a company initiates that change its stock somehow. You can track the most recent corporate actions in the Corporate actions tracker.
Position-closing only securities
Securities that are position-closing only can’t be bought on Sav. Securities are set to position-closing only for a number of reasons based on the situation. For example, a security might be set to position-closing only in response to operational changes or government action.
Disclosures
All investments involve risk and loss of principal is possible. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing.
Recurring investments don't ensure a profit or guarantee against loss. Not all securities on Sav are eligible for recurring investments. Recurring investments may result in a purchase of fractional shares or coins. Fractional shares of equities are illiquid outside of Sav and aren't transferable. For a complete explanation of conditions, restrictions and limitations associated with fractional shares, review our Customer Agreement.
Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of any ETF before investing. The prospectus and, if available, the summary prospectus contains this and other information about the ETF and should be read carefully before investing. Customers can visit the relevant ETF’s details page to access a link to the prospectus.
This isn't investment advice or a recommendation of any security or crypto, transaction, account type, or investment strategy involving securities.
Securities trading is offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer, and a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc. (“Robinhood”).