# 20-year-old Robinhood trader commits suicide after app shows $730,000 negative balance



## Neko GF (Jun 19, 2020)

*20-year-old Robinhood trader commits suicide after app shows $730,000 negative balance*
*In a note found by the family, Alexander Kearns had expressed anger towards Robinhood.*


A 20-year-old customer of retail investment platform Robinhood died by suicide on June 12 after seeing a negative balance of $730,165.

Alexander Kearns, a student at the University of Nebraska in the US, was living with his parents in Naperville, Illinois when he passed away, Forbes reported.

In a note found by the family, Kearns wondered how he had been allowed to get such a huge leverage.


“How was a 20-year-old with no income able to get assigned almost a million dollars worth of leverage?” the note said.


Kearns also said he had not enabled the margin investing option on the app.

"When he saw that $730,000 number as a negative, he thought that he had blown up his entire future," Bill Brewster, Kearns' cousin-in-law and a research analyst at Sullimar Capital Group told Forbes.

"All of us at Robinhood are deeply saddened to hear this terrible news and we reached out to share our condolences with the family over the weekend," Robinhood said, as quoted by Forbes.

Robinhood has not shared Kearns' account details due to privacy concerns.

A tweet by Brewster on Twitter confirms that the company reached out. The tweet included a screenshot of the Robinhood app from Kearns' phone, which showed the massive negative balance

Robinhood is a commission-free trading app which is gaining popularity among millennial investors. Robinhood added three million new accounts to its platform in the first quarter of 2020.

(Article) (Archive)


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## Hollywood Hitler (Jun 19, 2020)

I'm confused as to how he went that deep in the red, doesn't Robinhood invest cents at a time?


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## Francis York Morgan (Jun 19, 2020)

SojuDrnkr said:


> I'm confused as to how he went that deep in the red, doesn't Robinhood invest cents at a time?


From my limited understanding, lots of people end up losing significant money even playing the penny stocks on Robinhood.


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## The Last Stand (Jun 19, 2020)

His life was worth $730,000. That's an expensive suicide.  RIP.


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## Immortal Technique (Jun 19, 2020)

> In a note found by the family, Kearns wondered how he had been allowed to get such a huge leverage



But Kearns had no problem utilizing it when he thought it would benefit him. "Why oh why did you force me to do this thing that I wanted to do."


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## Kaede Did Nothing Wrong (Jun 19, 2020)

bro just walk away from your debt.


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## Male Idiot (Jun 19, 2020)

Imagine if this was just a bug that caused such an imbalance.


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## reptile baht spaniard rid (Jun 19, 2020)

SojuDrnkr said:


> I'm confused as to how he went that deep in the red, doesn't Robinhood invest cents at a time?


You can sell a “spread” on Robinhood (like Buy and sell two calls on the stock at different prices) and because Robinhood is absolute shit-tier Web 3.0 code in the case where they execute one without first executing the other you can have temporary huge negative balance. Which has happened before especially if done on SPY. It settles over the weekend and goes back to whatever.


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## Hollywood Hitler (Jun 19, 2020)

This is why i don't fuck around with apps like this. Anyone who thinks using Robinhood is a great way to diversify your portfolio is retarded.


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## NOT Sword Fighter Super (Jun 19, 2020)

Suicide: It solves _everything_.


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## CIA Nigger (Jun 19, 2020)

SojuDrnkr said:


> I'm confused as to how he went that deep in the red, doesn't Robinhood invest cents at a time?


Robinhood is a broken app with lots of money glitches. It only takes a few seconds to go from investing to "guh".


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## Glad I couldn't help (Jun 19, 2020)

The late Mr. Alexander Kearns RIP



Spoiler: Artist's sketch of Mr. Kearns, moments before his death


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## TowinKarz (Jun 19, 2020)

If you think a phone is the ideal way to play the stock market, you get what you deserve.


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## Save Goober (Jun 19, 2020)

He should have uninstalled the app


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## Stoneheart (Jun 19, 2020)

why isnt the government looking into Robin hood=? giving a boy without income so much money is just insane and the banks behind it are realy playing with fire...


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## The Mass Shooter Ron Soye (Jun 19, 2020)

He could have went on a crime spree, or try to survive in the woods, or go homeless and dump poo on people, so many better options. Sad.


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## The Last Stand (Jun 19, 2020)

Male Idiot said:


> Imagine if this was just a bug that caused such an imbalance.


THIS game is GLITCHED! And now I'm dead!


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## Save Goober (Jun 19, 2020)

The Last Stand said:


> THIS game is GLITCHED! And now I'm dead!


DSP should try using Robinhood. With his luck, he'll be a millionaire in a month and have no idea how.


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## CatharticShitHead (Jun 19, 2020)

See this is why I don't fuck with apps like this. Because I don't know how stocks actually work but I do know even when people do the stock market legit (meaning not using Robinhood or Acorns) they still lose hundreds of thousands.

Fuck that.


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## SiccDicc (Jun 19, 2020)

Stoneheart said:


> why isnt the government looking into Robin hood=? giving a boy without income so much money is just insane and the banks behind it are realy playing with fire...


Danielle DiMartino Booth probably has a talk somewhere that explains why. I think she covered it in this interview, but it's been a two months since I watched and I'm old and senile now. Plus the video is over an hour long covering pretty much everything she can about the the Covid Economic Crisis.


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## Celebrate Nite (Jun 19, 2020)

Glad I couldn't help said:


> View attachment 1389845
> 
> The late Mr. Alexander Kearns RIP
> 
> ...



>That fucking haircut
>Those big fucking glasses
Being in the negative was just ONE of his problems


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## Bland Crumbs (Jun 19, 2020)

Glad I couldn't help said:


> View attachment 1389845
> 
> The late Mr. Alexander Kearns RIP
> 
> ...



Poor guy in his 20's he looks like Gilbert Gottfried in his 100's.


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## Ruin (Jun 19, 2020)

Based on how he looked I think Robinhood is the fall guy. He most likely killed himself because he was fugly.


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## inception_state (Jun 19, 2020)

Kaede Did Nothing Wrong said:


> bro just walk away from your debt.
> View attachment 1389830



That's the tragic part of all this. Even if he really did owe $730,000, he doesn't have a problem - RobinHood has a problem. He'd just use Chapter 7 to walk away with shit credit for the next few years, while RH would be on the hook for the vast majority of the liability.


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## kcbbq (Jun 19, 2020)

Glad I couldn't help said:


> View attachment 1389845
> 
> The late Mr. Alexander Kearns RIP
> 
> ...


Looks kinda like @Cowlick if his parents had loved him enough to slap braces on those teef.


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## DumbDude42 (Jun 19, 2020)

doesnt make sense to me

could have gone through bankruptcy proceedings and got rid of the debt within just a few years. he was just 20 years old too, more than enough time to start over. at worst, he'd have a shitty credit rating for the future, but that still seems a lot better than being fucking dead.


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## Ruin (Jun 19, 2020)

he was ugly as fuck and a redditor so he was probably already on edge. Being broke was the final straw.


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## Niggernerd (Jun 19, 2020)

NOT Sword Fighter Super said:


> Suicide: It solves _everything_.


Zoomer becomes doomer in a few seconds. Click here to find out how!


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## nohull (Jun 19, 2020)

The morons of r/WallStreetBets have done it again!


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## Tim Buckley (Jun 19, 2020)

If I was in his place I would've just deleted my identity and started a new life in a random shithole country and whilst iniciating an extremely illegal lifestyle, at least would've some dangerous fun before offing himself.


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## Zero Day Defense (Jun 19, 2020)

TowinKarz said:


> If you think a phone is the ideal way to play the stock market, you get what you deserve.



Yeah, you need to be a crowded office floor with profanities being shouted like they're going out of style two minutes ago.

And lots of cocaine.


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## NIGGO KILLA (Jun 19, 2020)

"He bought? DUMP IT"


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## Anonymus Fluhre (Jun 19, 2020)

We truly live in backwards times. Roblinhood is now stealing from the poor and killing them.

By the way, isn't debt transferred to the family in the States?


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## D.Va (Jun 19, 2020)

If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem.
If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.


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## Irrelevant (Jun 19, 2020)

Spread betting is generally considered (meaning taxed as) gambling not investing.


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## Gar For Archer (Jun 19, 2020)

Male Idiot said:


> Imagine if this was just a bug that caused such an imbalance.


When I saw this a few days ago it WAS reported that it was just a visual glitch and his account actually had +16k in it.


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## reptile baht spaniard rid (Jun 19, 2020)

Stoneheart said:


> why isnt the government looking into Robin hood=? giving a boy without income so much money is just insane and the banks behind it are realy playing with fire...


They will, and end up fucking small investors even harder, somehow.

Last time they instituted the "pattern day trader" rule which means you can't buy and sell the same thing the same day more than 3x a week if you have less than 25k, which means once you hit that you can be stuck with your dogshit until the next day. Blows lots of people up.


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## Flexo (Jun 19, 2020)

Male Idiot said:


> Imagine if this was just a bug that caused such an imbalance.


Suddenly my Terminator remake idea of Skynet passively-aggressively eliminating all humans by messing with their information doesn't sound so far-fetched does it?


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## Irrelevant (Jun 19, 2020)

reptile baht spaniard rid said:


> They will, and end up fucking small investors even harder, somehow.
> 
> Last time they instituted the "pattern day trader" rule which means you can't buy and sell the same thing the same day more than 3x a week if you have less than 25k, which means once you hit that you can be stuck with your dogshit until the next day. Blows lots of people up.


CFDs are banned in the US  because they're too dangerous for the little people apparently. But with CFDs even at 100:1 leverage you can only lose what's deposited in your account and there's no 25k requirement so you don't even need all your money exposed at the broker.

It's pretty clear the rules in the US are setup to keep the middle class out of trading.


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## Hans (Jun 19, 2020)

Methinks the kid had more problems than just the debt.


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## Toshiba (Jun 19, 2020)

Gar For Archer said:


> When I saw this a few days ago it WAS reported that it was just a visual glitch and his account actually had +16k in it.



Yep









						Student, 20, commits suicide after seeing -$730K Robinhood balance
					

Alexander E. Kearns, 20, died on Friday after apparently hurling himself in front of an oncoming freight train in his home town of Naperville, Illinois.




					www.dailymail.co.uk
				




lol what a retard. Maybe try calling them up first?

Also he wrote his suicide note on fucking notepad in the style of a whiny woman. His life may have been brief but his shame will outlive us all.


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## Harbinger of Kali Yuga (Jun 19, 2020)

Anonymus Fluhre said:


> By the way, isn't debt transferred to the family in the States?



Not at all.


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## The Mass Shooter Ron Soye (Jun 19, 2020)

https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-changes-to-app-after-young-customer-dies-by-suicide-2020-6
		

http://archive.md/AsIvt
It took a death for them to fix their app lol.


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## reptile baht spaniard rid (Jun 19, 2020)

Harbinger of Kali Yuga said:


> Not at all.


Debts are applied to the ESTATE but the worst that happens is heirs inherit nothing. And certain things can’t even be touched by that iirc - and some states allow a dead person to go bankrupt (to protect surviving spouse etc).


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## Fork Cartel (Jun 20, 2020)

Toshiba said:


> Yep
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I already had little sympathy, but this seals the deal. What a total imbecile to just see big negative number and panic, only to lose out on a potential gain -- fairy-tale style.


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## JoyQ (Jun 20, 2020)

Most likely had depression before and this was the last straw.

amazing how you guys can go on and on calling him ugly for 3 pages then complain like incels about women putting looks first. He looked fine. It’s a stressful time for a lot of people.


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## inception_state (Jun 20, 2020)

Irrelevant said:


> CFDs are banned in the US  because they're too dangerous for the little people apparently. But with CFDs even at 100:1 leverage you can only lose what's deposited in your account and there's no 25k requirement so you don't even need all your money exposed at the broker.
> 
> It's pretty clear the rules in the US are setup to keep the middle class out of trading.



I agree that it's a dumb rule, but honestly if you don't have 25k, you're not middle class and probably shouldn't be gambling with money you need to pay rent.

Also, the PDT rule only comes into effect if you make four or more day trades in a week in a margin account, which is pretty unusual behavior for a retail investor.


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## HumanHive (Jun 20, 2020)

Kaede Did Nothing Wrong said:


> bro just walk away from your debt.
> View attachment 1389830


Oink oink
Skitter skitter


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## Agent Abe Caprine (Jun 20, 2020)

The Last Stand said:


> THIS game is GLITCHED! And now I'm dead!


You're falling into the bottomless void. Hope the simulation doesn't crash.

Remember hearing about Robinhood having some security issues.
Here's one where they exposed passwords on accident.
Archive
Mmmm. Cleartext passwords.
Archive


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## Hot Dog (Jul 1, 2020)

But seriously, you owe us $730,000.


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## MirnaMinkoff (Jul 1, 2020)

CatharticShitHead said:


> Because I don't know how stocks actually work


This has never stopped anyone on RH from trading. 

They should just stick to online poker or fantasy leagues, at least then they will only lose money they actually have.


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