Robinhood soars 26% as the popular investing app announces it will extend trading hours for its users

• Shares of Robinhood surged as much as 26% Tuesday. 
• The company announced in a blog post that it would extend trading hours for users.
• Meanwhile, meme-stocks are staging a new rally this week, with shares of AMC and GameStop surging. 

Shares of Robinhood jumped as much as 26% Tuesday as the company announced it would extend trading hours on the app. 

The stock was trading at $16.16 around 10:45 a.m. ET. 

In a blog post, Robinhood said users will be able to trade from 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET.  Previous trading hours were 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

"Our customers often tell us they're working or preoccupied during regular market hours, limiting their ability to invest on their own schedule or evaluate and react to important market news," Robinhood said in the blog post.

Robinhood said users could benefit from the extended hours of trading in the case of after-hours earnings announcements or activity in foreign markets like Asia or Europe.  

The company noted however that not all securities are available for fractional trading during the pre- or after-market hours. 

Throughout the pandemic, Robinhood was the platform of choice for retail traders, and found itself at the center of meme-stock mania at the beginning of last year. The meme-stock play has been re-emerging this week, with retail traders once again pouring into shares of GameStop and AMC, among others.