Robinhood’s IPO Brings Broker That Wooed the Masses Full Circle

Not so long ago, before the pandemic took hold in the U.S., it seemed like standalone retail trading firms were a thing of the past. E*Trade, the brokerage that gained notoriety in the dot-com boom, sold itself off to Morgan Stanley. Charles Schwab Corp. and TD Ameritrade, two of the largest brokers, inked a deal to combine in November 2019, forming a single supermarket for everything from financial planning to exchange-traded funds.

But a new brokerage boom was just about to begin. Robinhood Markets Inc., the company that championed commission-free trading, is set to make its stock ...