Robinhood’s Flock: A Few Good Stocks, Mostly Noise

People buy stock now. Younger people, even. It used to be your grandfather, maybe. Now it’s the barista. JPMorgan Chase says 37% of folks 25 and under are shuffling money into investments. Back in 2015? A measly 6%. So it goes.

They’re not necessarily smarter, these investors. Just…more. More money, more hands in the pot. And they like a place called Robinhood. It’s an app, mostly. Commission-free trading. Sounds democratic, doesn’t it? Like giving everyone a little shovel to dig for gold. Most find dirt, naturally.

Robinhood keeps a list of the most popular stocks. The ones everyone’s piling into. Here’s the top ten. Don’t read too much into it. Popularity isn’t the same as wisdom. It’s rarely the same as anything good, actually.

The Usual Suspects

It’s mostly the big companies. The S&P 500 crowd. The ones everyone already knows. Artificial intelligence is the current obsession, of course. AI will solve everything, they say. Or destroy everything. It’s one or the other. The news is full of it. Makes a good story, anyway.

  1. Nvidia
  2. Apple
  3. Tesla
  4. Amazon
  5. Microsoft
  6. AMC Entertainment
  7. Ford Motor Company
  8. Meta Platforms
  9. Alphabet (Class A)
  10. Netflix

The “Magnificent Seven,” they call some of them. Prices have gone up. A lot. AMC is the odd one out. A movie theater. People still go to those, sometimes. It’s a strange thing, wanting to sit in the dark with strangers. Ford, too. Making cars is hard. Electric cars are even harder. They offer a dividend. People like that. A little something for nothing. So it goes.

Two That Might Not Be Terrible

A few of these stocks aren’t complete disasters. Amazon and Microsoft. They’re not perfect, of course. Nothing is. But they’re less likely to vanish overnight. That’s a low bar, admittedly.

Amazon had a rough year, mostly tariffs. Everything comes from somewhere. And tariffs make everything more expensive. They’ve built a supply chain, though. A very big supply chain. They can get things to your door in a few days. It’s unsettling, really. This ability to deliver anything, anytime. They also sell groceries, stream videos, and dabble in healthcare. A little bit of everything. And they’re playing with robots. That seems important. So it goes.

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Microsoft is…diversified. Cloud services, software, video games, LinkedIn. They’re everywhere. They’re also expected to benefit from AI. Helping companies use it, integrating it into their products. They’re one of only two companies with a better credit rating than the U.S. government. That’s…something.

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The thing about Amazon and Microsoft is they’re not all-in on AI. If AI fails, they won’t collapse. They have other businesses. Mature businesses. They can survive. Most companies can’t say that. They’ll adapt, or they won’t. It doesn’t really matter, in the grand scheme of things. The universe won’t notice. So it goes.

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2026-02-02 20:03