When my colleague Hannah Levintova mentioned she was reporting on the suicide of Alex Kearns, a young Robinhood trader, I instantly took note. It’s a tragic case, where a trade involving a complex financial instrument that had been translated into a slick phone interface went bad. The trading app with a self-described mission to “democratize finance for all” notified him that he was $730,000 in the red. Robinhood didn’t respond to his panicked emails. There was no obvious live chat or customer service phone number. He took his own life, leaving a note explaining he hoped it would save his family from crushing debt. But Robinhood’s notification—and that negative cash balance—was all a grave misunderstanding, as Hannah wrote this April:

Source: Trade More. Think Less. How Robinhood’s Design Gets Inside Your Brain. – Mother Jones