As a Robinhood user with a finance degree, I have never experienced any issues with order execution or misrepresented prices that are passed on to the investor. In fact, I use the TD Ameritrade Think or Swim app for charts and research and I regularly compare the spreads between Robinhood and Ameritrade. Robinhood regularly has lower spreads that are actually executable. Quite honestly, I feel like the old school brokers are padding their spreads so that they can offer “free trades” like Robinhood.
This article feels like a smear to me. As a knowledgeable investor, I can say that however Robinhood makes their money, hasn’t had any significant impact on the performance of my investments. Quite the opposite. By not incurring fees per trade and by allowing fractional shares, I was able to start with a much smaller amount of capital.