20-Year-Old Robinhood Customer Dies By Suicide After Seeing A $730,000 Negative

[Becky666]

Understanding any system should be one of the key to  traders to actually avert this kind of situations. Ignorance is actually a big disease that need to be fight against because it was the problem of Robinhood. How I wish he was able to understand that the figures were tempora, he shouldn't have taken his own life. Though, this should be a lesson to all traders either old or young, what you don't understand you are to stay away or research into it before approach is made.

[Wexnident]

It's a pity how a misunderstanding could take a life so simply. This is why those, especially at the age bracket of 18-25, should always study and learn what they are doing truthfully while investing slowly. Whether it be a "game" like investment opportunity, investment is still an investment. Also going bankrupt is still a lot better than losing your life tbh, and I don't understand why they refuse to do something instead of just being shocked to the point of committing suicide. If they instead, contacted customer support, understood what actually happened to his balance ( cause as far as I understood, the balance just went up to negatives after him doing something when it shouldn't have done that cause there was an exit point to reduce losses). He misunderstood, and that was it, instead of questioning it, he just accepted it.

[sheenshane]

Ain't sure if this kid at a young age (20 years old) can't manage himself from bad consequences in any form of risk activity like trading or even sort of gambling. It's sad to know that there are people like this, just only money you've supposedly been lost not your life. There are certain ways to find a solution to overcome lose money than your life. I didn't where the money comes from why he was so affected after seeing losses.

Feel sorry to him and his loss, this might a big lesson to everyone that only invest of what you can afford to lose. If you are trading in crypto, you should understand first how it works and how to conquer those consequences in trading either bad or good.

[plvbob0070]

We don't know what is the story behind how he got that huge amount of money in that age, but one thing for sure is, killing yourself is not a way to escape reality. But I also understand that it shocked him seeing such loss and that he cannot control his emotions. We also don't know if he's facing other problems aside from this loss that's why we can't blame him if he aggressively invests all that money, but it's a lesson for us especially for those who are still learning and exploring about trading that it requires knowledge not only about on how to trade, as well as on how to deal with unexpected losses.

If you are still new, or even trading for quite some time now but can't handle such situations, always be mindful of the possibilities you might encounter because trading involves risk. I still feel bad for this young boy and his family.

[Spaffin]

We don't know what is the story behind how he got that huge amount of money in that age, but one thing for sure is, killing yourself is not a way to escape reality. But I also understand that it shocked him seeing such loss and that he cannot control his emotions. We also don't know if he's facing other problems aside from this loss that's why we can't blame him if he aggressively invests all that money, but it's a lesson for us especially for those who are still learning and exploring about trading that it requires knowledge not only about on how to trade, as well as on how to deal with unexpected losses.

If you are still new, or even trading for quite some time now but can't handle such situations, always be mindful of the possibilities you might encounter because trading involves risk. I still feel bad for this young boy and his family.

Of course this is a great grief for the family. but nevertheless, adulthood comes at the age of 18 and everyone should really evaluate their actions and opportunities before starting any activity, especially in the cryptocurrency market. it’s better not to get involved in any kind of credit business, not only in real life, but in cryptocurrency trading. It seems to me that each trader with certain indicators can have a leverage of such volumes, and the age of an adult has nothing to do with it.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

This is unfortunately a tragic example of how ignorance can kill a person, because it is actually something they have called an "interface issue". Kearns's trading required knowledge of the system and how it actually showed the data, and what he saw was actually only temporary and the negative balance wasn't really negative in the literal sense of the word.

And that's the crazy part of this story, IMO.  I generally don't get all sad when I read stories like this on the internet, but this one is indeed tragic.  Poor kid probably felt like losing that amount of money was the end of the world for him--and even if he had lost that much, it's still only money.  He was young enough that he could easily have had time to start over again.  Many traders have made and lost fortunes before--this reminds me a little of the story of Jesse Livermore who was one of the first TA traders back in the early 1900s.  He blew his brains out later in life, though I can't remember if it was specifically because of losses he suffered.

Ah well, RIP trader dude.  

killing yourself is not a way to escape reality.

Uh....yeah, I'd say it's the ultimate way to do it.

[minairia3]

Is this for real? How come the assrt could incurred a negative value when you dont have much balance on your margin account? I understand if he did some loan that been set to margin trading like Binance. But when I read the article its not like that. Its the fault of the robinhood platform. How come their system could inflict such figures like that? I dont understand. Can someone explaine it to me? Im using Binance future which is not different from this case but hell this would happen to me.

[timmmers]

This is the result of aggressive marketing that shows how it easy is to earn money by trading, but they don´t tell that only 10% of all traders are in profit.  Every one has an experience with cold calls from brokers, that they have a special offer for you, 500USD deposit bonus, and so on, so it is pretty easy to get into and lose money without any knowledge. 

[Dart18]

At first I thought it was Cobinhood. There is an exchange named like that if I am not mistaken.

This is tragic.
I guess it was not his money since he is too young to be holding such a huge amount.
To avoid being blamed or having a huge sum of debt to be paid afterwards he just finished it with his life.
This should not happen at all.

[exstasie]

Don't get me wrong, this is tragic and everything. But how did he not dig into his transactions at all and realize the option expiration and stock settlement don't occur at the same time?

How do you just look at a cash balance on your screen and decide to kill yourself?

Maybe call support first and ask why you're account is down $730K (when the max risk of that structure was probably $1-2K).....

We can only speculate, we don't know what the kid is thinking. You have to factor in that he is still very young, he could be trading thousands of dollars one time, but would you react at 20 years of age to see that you debt?

I would hope by age 20 I'd be smart enough to talk to Robinhood and a lawyer before jumping to any rash conclusions.

He was young enough that he could easily have had time to start over again.

Even if it were possible he was really down $730K (and I don't see how it was possible based on the amounts he was trading) that debt would probably not be collectable. He could have at least declared bankruptcy and got a clean start.

I don't understand how people jump to these sorts of conclusions. It's just tragic, no other word for it really.

[SlimShadyMmp]

I think is better before you get yourself into anytime learn it first and have some kind of decent experience that will warrant you to do what you do (trade) and also dont panic too much Learn some patience

[TimeTeller]

At first I thought it was Cobinhood. There is an exchange named like that if I am not mistaken.

This is tragic.
I guess it was not his money since he is too young to be holding such a huge amount.
To avoid being blamed or having a huge sum of debt to be paid afterwards he just finished it with his life.
This should not happen at all.

This is the sad reality of life.
We don't know the reasoning behind why he took his life.
But clearly, he couldn't handle this situation so he thought ending his life was the only way to get out of the situation.
If he will be much older, maybe the action will be different. It is only money, so one can replace no matter how long it will take.
But life, we have only one life. Truly a sad news to hear.

[RapTarX]

Kearns is very young and I guess he had little knowledge on trading. If he was enough aged, I guess he would consider it as a bug since he had no possible ways to get a negative balance. Either way, it's a lesson for the young traders, they must have enough of knowledge before starting trading.
I don't see Robinhood guilty here though.

[pixie85]

Sure it will cripple your whole economy and you would be living probably in poverty for majority of your life just to be able to pay it back

Go bankrupt. That's the point of it. It'll screw with aspects of your life for quite a long time but it's far from the end of the world. Millions of people do it around the world. If you're looking at a debt that'll take more than 3-5 years to pay off that's the recommended option.

https://www.debt.org/bankruptcy/

Fortunately none of us have to spend the rest of our lives paying back debts. If it was so people like Mark Karpeles would be splitting rocks or plowing fields for a few lifetimes

Most debts expire after a few years. I think in most EU countries it's between 3 and 5.

The worst thing they can do to you is seize whatever money you have in the bank and the property that's yours alone. They can't even take property you share with someone else like a spouse.

[carlfebz2]

Can Robinhood though has some liability here? It seems that the victim saw negative balance but the article it is just temporary but this could have triggered everything. If Robinhood display it real-time, this could have been avoided?

Don't get me wrong, this is tragic and everything. But how did he not dig into his transactions at all and realize the option expiration and stock settlement don't occur at the same time?

How do you just look at a cash balance on your screen and decide to kill yourself?

Maybe call support first and ask why you're account is down $730K (when the max risk of that structure was probably $1-2K).....

We can only speculate, we don't know what the kid is thinking. You have to factor in that he is still very young, he could be trading thousands of dollars one time, but would you react at 20 years of age to see that you debt? Maybe he didn't think clearly at that time and that's why he didn't call support and ask for details, maybe for him this is everything and he put the blame on himself, triggering emotional stress and the eventual collapse psychologically.

When stress and emotion do sets in then its really hard to be stopped when you are a kind of person that doesnt really handle problems to well and end up into those kind of conclusions.

There are lots of possibilities that do happen but if there we no technical glitch do involved on here then its really hard for a 20 year old to have that kind of debt.
Someone would really have those suicide thoughts.

I wont say that its easy when you are in the actual situation.

[EdenHazard]

It's a pity how a misunderstanding could take a life so simply. This is why those, especially at the age bracket of 18-25, should always study and learn what they are doing truthfully while investing slowly. Whether it be a "game" like investment opportunity, investment is still an investment. Also going bankrupt is still a lot better than losing your life tbh, and I don't understand why they refuse to do something instead of just being shocked to the point of committing suicide. If they instead, contacted customer support, understood what actually happened to his balance ( cause as far as I understood, the balance just went up to negatives after him doing something when it shouldn't have done that cause there was an exit point to reduce losses). He misunderstood, and that was it, instead of questioning it, he just accepted it.

That was a real huge problem caused by a tiny mistake .

Can never imagined to felt like a lost ball in the high weeds like that. Poor kid.
Financial problems always become something scary, don't play with it if you can't really get your emotions redeemed.
I was and currently in that kind financial problem..
And guess how desperate i am? Yes I'm thinking to go for suicide if only I'm not tqlking to anybody.
Fortunately yeah there's someone pushing me through this situation and a bit makes my mind clearer than before.

The key is to talk!
This is indeed a crazy story that would blow everyone's mind and makes the financial market slightly had a bad side for a while as the news itself become trending everywhere.

[crwth]

I don't think the customer is dumb enough about trading that he gets assigned that type of account? Maybe something happened behind the scenes that were not published in any news article out there. Think about it, how would someone, a big corporation or a trading firm, trust a 20-year-old with that kind of money? For sure, he has some other issues that might affect his reasoning and thinking that it's the only way out.

That's what people should learn is to be calm with what happens, thinking clearly would've been better. If he wasn't that reliable on the app itself, he might notice that there's something wrong with the interface, but it seems that layer and layer of problems may have clouded his judgment overall.

What I could see with this is that Robinhood is going to improve more based on this and would not let it happen again within their platform or something. Disclaimers are for sure there, but it still lacks in terms of awareness with the risk, maybe.

[cheezcarls]

We are not the only ones who are suffering huge financial losses like this kid right here. For two years since I began cryptocurrency trading, I made some bad decisions in my life. Not just in trading, but spending money as well from my gains. As a result, I have lost a lot of money.

There come a time that I didn't pay attention to a specific coin because I was busy with some other stuff. I made a bad decision to buy during that time, and the price fell by 800% or more and struggled to go back to the price where I bought them. I had so many regrets and financial losses that time, and I was on the brink of giving up.

Good thing that my crypto friends keep telling me that the funds I've lost can be recovered anytime as long I believe and keep my options open on other opportunities. And you know what? They're damn right! Because I've been on the brink many times in my life, but I keep getting back up rather than staying down for good.

If I am in his shoes to lose that kind of amount, it would be very hard to accept and may suffer potential mental breakdown or so. However, it also reminds us that when life throws a curve ball at us, we have to swing it to the fences every single time. It's better for us to be trained emotionally if we are in a similar situation like this young guy who committed suicide.

Condolence to his family.

[FanEagle]

First I was thinking how you should stay alive no matter what but now I am thinking more about how at my early marriage years I was feeling too much pressure about paying for everything and when I quit my job to become a freelancer the income wasn't too big so I wasn't making too much profit and it was insanely difficult to pay even the bills and I remember clearly thinking about committing suicide to get out of all the trouble and I kind of gave him some empathy.

I didn't do it thankfully because now I am earning quite enough for me, I am in no ways rich but at least I can pay for bills and food and at the end of the month it is a tiny bit difficult for last few days and that's it, so that is alright life if you ask me considering people are starving at the same world. So, if he lived I am sure he would see a better life in the future, but I can't say I don't emphasize with him neither.

[Ryker1]

[snip]

killing yourself is not a way to escape reality.

Uh....yeah, I'd say it's the ultimate way to do it.

Well, yeah, simple words that has a lot of meaning.
Killing your self and escape from your entire losses cant help you in that way. Just like you have been stabbed with a double-edged sword, --losing your money and your life as well. But I don't know the whole story yet perhaps the money that the kid used in trading that has been lost perhaps the money used in trading was not his own, --sort of borrowed money. Indeed, what a dumb mind of a poor kid, mercy him.