Robinhood'sretail customers have pulled back from the frenzied trading activity thatpeaked in late October, according to the platform's Chief Investment Officer(CIO), signaling a potential shift in retail sentiment heading into 2026.Robinhood Sees RetailTrading Cool After October Peak as 2026 Growth SlowsStephanieGuild told CNBC that while customer participation remains elevated, "netbuying has trailed off a bit from our customer base from that sort of peakOctober 29th period."Thecomments came as Guild outlined the company's market outlook for 2026,projecting S&P 500 returns of roughly 8.7 percent compared to thedouble-digit gains retail traders enjoyed throughout 2025.The coolingactivity follows a record-breaking third quarter when Robinhood processed 26.8million funded accounts andposted transaction revenue of $730 million, up 129 percent year-over-year.Cryptocurrency trading revenue alone surged over 300 percent to $268 million duringthe period, while options revenue climbed 50 percent to $304 million.Tech Valuations DrawScrutinyGuildexpressed skepticism about the sustainability of technology sector gains,noting that Wall Street expects tech earnings to grow 27 percent in 2026compared to a historical average of 12 percent since 2011. She suggested theartificial intelligence boom is becoming commoditized, with new large languagemodels "named after fruits and vegetables" failing to demonstrateclear revenue impact."Ireally think that's going to start to be a commodity," Guild said of AImodels from OpenAI, Meta, and Google. "It will start to be like, where isthe rubber meets the road and where is it actually improving efficiencies,cutting costs and creating actual revenue."Thecomments reflect growing concern that froth has built up in AI-related stocks,even as Robinhood'sprediction markets are scaling fast, turning sports-linked contracts into amaterial revenue stream. The platform traded over 9billion prediction market contracts since launching the product in March,attracting more than 1 million users.Geographic Bets FavorChina TechWhiletempering expectations for U.S. tech stocks, Guild highlighted China as anattractive opportunity for 2026. She pointed to "pretty inexpensive"valuations in Chinese technology companies and noted that open-source AI modelsdeveloped in China "will probably start to be attractive for companies whocan't necessarily afford some of the other ones that are out there."The bullishChina call contrasts with Guild's more cautious stance on European markets,where she noted that roughly half of 2025 returns came from euro appreciationagainst the dollar rather than underlying business performance. She suggestedthat currency tailwind has largely played out.Platform Expansion OffsetsTrading SlowdownRobinhoodhas moved aggressively to diversify revenue beyond traditional equity andoptions trading. The company acquiredMIAXdx to gain independence from Kalshi in prediction markets, with aCFTC-licensed launch targeted for 2026. The platform also extendedprediction market access to 24/7 trading, following Kalshi's lead.CEO VladTenev has called tokenization "the biggest innovation in capitalmarkets" in over a decade, as the company pursues plans to letusers pledge Apple shares as crypto loan collateral through a three-phase roadmap towardfully permissionless equity trading.Robinhoodshares surged over 200 percent in 2025, making it one of the top-performingS&P 500 stocks. Morgan Stanley raised its Q4 2025 earnings estimates forthe company by 5 percent in late December, citing strong transaction activityacross brokers and exchanges during the quarter.Platformassets reached $333 billion in Q3 2025, up 119 percent year-over-year, drivenby net deposits of $20.4 billion during the quarter. Robinhood Goldsubscriptions nearly doubled to 3.9 million, contributing to record cash sweepbalances of $35.4 billion and margin lending of $13.9 billion.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.