Educational only, not financial advice. Broker features, options-approval requirements, 0DTE availability, and fees change and vary by account — verify current details on the broker’s own site. NoVo is independent and not affiliated with the brokers named.
Robinhood is where a lot of traders buy their first option, and its whole design goal is to make that feel unremarkable — a phone screen, a couple of taps, no jargon. That cuts both ways for a 0DTE (same-day expiration) SPY scalp: nothing gets in your way, including the things that probably should.
Approval: Level 2, requested in the app
Long calls and puts need options Level 2 on Robinhood (Level 3 is spreads). The application is a short in-app questionnaire about experience and income, and the answer usually comes back fast. Once approved, confirm same-day expirations actually show for you — see does my broker offer 0DTE SPY.
The chain: simplified on purpose
Search SPY, tap Trade → Trade Options, and choose today’s date (SPY lists a 0DTE every weekday). Robinhood’s chain hides most of the raw data by default — expand a contract to see the bid/ask and volume, and read the quote before you touch it. Then pick a strike: a responsive near-the-money strike moves with SPY; a far-OTM lottery ticket mostly just decays.
The order, and the exit Robinhood won’t hold for you
Place the order with a limit, sized at one contract. Know that Robinhood pushes market orders and collar-style defaults at you on options; slow down and price it. Then set your stop immediately — on 0DTE decay is fast, and the app’s cheerful confetti-era simplicity will not stop you if you drift into the close. A hard stop beats a mental one.
Robinhood makes entering effortless. Nothing about it makes you disciplined — that part ships with you or it doesn’t.
The part no broker gives you
The app can fill you in two taps, but it cannot tell you where in the day’s structure those taps land. That’s where NoVo fits: it maps the dealer levels on SPY, QQQ and IWM and keeps a scored record of what that structure has tended to mean. It does not connect to Robinhood or any other broker — you place every trade yourself. Either way: start small, and remember levels are structure, not signals.