Young trader dies by suicide after...

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Young trader dies by suicide after thinking he racked up big losses on Robinhood

A 20-year-old trader who said he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on the free trading app took his own life, according to his family.

In a note, Alex Kearns blamed Robinhood for allowing him to take on the risk.

But Alex may have misunderstood the Robinhood financial statement, according to a relative.

The events underscore the risk that comes with complicated financial instruments like options trading.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/18/you...ing-he-racked-up-big-losses-on-robinhood.html
 
Where's a 20 year old get hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first place?
 
I don't think he was playing with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most likely sold too many options of stocks he didn't already own for collateral. He could have gotten that deep by selling just 3 options of amazon that he was left obligated to buy or sell and didn't have the capital for.
 
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Yeah, you're probably right about the options trades but to buy options on AMZN would still require a good sized margin account. I do agree with the kid, how does a 20 year old get a million dollars in leverage? Better yet, how does a 20 year old even get a margin account? At TD Ameritrade you need to fill out a form that tells about your job and assets, etc. If approved, that only gives you the ability to write calls on shares you already own.

He claimed the puts he bought, and the shares sold “should have cancelled out” but in hindsight, he said he had “no clue” what he was doing.

“How was a 20 year old with no income able to get assigned almost a million dollars worth of leverage?” the note reads. “There was no intention to be assigned this much and take this much risk, and I only thought that I was risking the money that I actually owned.”
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