What's it all about, Alfie?

Sometime today, Robinhood updated their iOS client, it's really an iPhone client, as it doesn't use the iPad's screen effectively at all, and they went with a different look and feel to the lists and charts. I have to say, I like it.

Historically, the cryptocurrency graphs had a far more futuristic feel, that I thought was a little overdone - but hey... it's market data, so I can look past the scrolling background. The equities were always a little more traditional, and that makes some sense, I guess - but I liked those a lot more. Personal taste.

What pleased me was that the cryptocurrency charts looked a lot more like the equity charts, and that wasn't nearly as distracting to me. Again... just a preference.

There as also a font change, and the reease notes promise more changes to come... so that sounds like fun. I've been fortunate to see what little trading I do on Robinhood bounce back very quicky from the corona-crash of a couple of months ago. Strange times...

UPDATE: there was another update later in the day, and the cryptocurrency graphs are back to having the scrolling background. Oh well... 🙂

This morning, I noticed that, once again, Daring Fireball had an add for Morning Brew - a market data daily email, that is no doubt selling subscriber name and information, but I decided to give it a try, and see what it was all about. I noticed on the sign-up page that it was seemingly meant for a phone form-factor, and that got my interest up even more, so I subscribed for the email account on my iPhone, and we'll see how it works out.

With the fun little investing I'm doing with Robinhood, it seems like something that might be a nice diversion in the morning to have something to read that's compact, easy to read, and got some useful information that I might have missed in my Apple News+ feed this morning.

We will see how it works out. Maybe nothing, maybe something really nice. 🙂

I was in a meeting, but when I got out, I was greeted by the news from Robinhood that Bitcoin has hit $12,000 - which was the limit price I set on the sell order for my initial buy of Bitcoin. I bought it at about $9,000, and then up it went, and it looked to me to be topping out at about $12,000 - so that's where I put the sell order.

I think I'll wait and see it fall back below $10,000, and then buy it again. It's not like I'm buying a lot of this - just a couple of hundred dollars... not real money at all. But it's fun to chat with an old friend about investing... and this has been really fun to watch - no matter how it turned out.

For now, my plans are pretty simple - just pay enough attention to things to have fun, but don't let it get out of hand. Balance. 🙂

This morning I finally downloaded the Robinhood app, and funded my account, and put in an order for AAPL, and a little Bitcoin. What brought this all out is a couple of things:

1. I interviewed with Robinhood - it was a few years ago, and it was with one of the Google's Founders brothers, which I thought was interesting, but it is a sound business model for retail trading, and I really liked the guys I talked to. It would have required relocation, and that was a problem for me at the time.
2. I have wanted to own AAPL stock for a while - and while I was in Finance, that wasn't possible, and then the divorce, etc. and it really hasn't been reasonable to get into the market until very recently. Sure, I've been doing ETFs and the like for my retirement, and that has gone very well indeed, but not straight-up retail trades.
3. I have wanted to have a little Bitcoin - I don't think this is anything more than a fancy, but I like the idea of a digital currency that's traded based on some idea of value... but I'm not really sure that Bitcoin or Facebook's Libra is going to really replace dollars.

What I found was a beautiful UI for the Robinhood app. And the ability to use 2FA and/or Face ID, I think it's just fantastic. I don't mind 2FA, but I prefer to be able to use the better (less friction) Face ID, and I think the new "Sign in with Apple" should go a long way to making this a preferred way to get the job done in more places.

Also, making it possible on a MacBook Pro wouldn't hurt. 🙂

So now, I can have a little fun with investing. Nothing I can't afford to loose, that's for sure... but it's not about the win/loss, it's about the participation in the Markets. For so long, I was working in them, and I'd like to again, but then I couldn't do this... so it's a trade-off, and if I can't work in them, at least I can participate in them. 🙂