He Thought He Lost $730,000 On Robinhood And Killed Himself. Now His Parents Are Suing.

Alex Kearns was still in high school when he began using the stock-trading app Robinhood to make investments. He started buying and selling stocks with his own savings from birthday gifts and his summer job – a total of about $5,000, his father told CBS News.

His parents, Dan and Dorothy, said they spoke to Alex about responsible investing, believing he had “limited exposure” to the risks of stock-market trading. Robinhood, however, makes it incredibly easy for users to buy and sell options, a riskier investment. CBS determined that all a user has to do to be approved by Robinhood to buy and sell options is to check that they at least have “not much” experience in trading. That’s it.