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Comment by loeg | Hacker News Reader

This is pretty tone-deaf.

Exactly the kind of comment I expected to see at the top when I clicked on these comments, really. HN loves to assume that everyone is a perfectly rational person who has infinite time to read and comprehend all minutae before doing anything, and anyone who fails to do this clearly had whatever happens to them coming.

A person who goes on to operate a large table saw, very rational or not, should read a manual, and become acutely aware that cutting off their limbs is a very real danger.

Anyone who sells access to such a tool should make sure of that happening. That's my point.

An app is not a table saw.

And your comment here is at odds with the tone you used above.

Considering he managed to lose his life over the app, I'd say the comparison is fair.

Please notice how highways are full of warning signs and barriers that prevent you from accidentally running across them. Same with construction sites, or heavy industrial plants.

Maybe other risky places should have more warning signs, so that an optimistic 20-yo would have to stop and think before acting.

So if there are warning signs you're okay with allowing someone with no income to leverage to the tune of $700K?

I think this is the basis for the accusation of tone-deafness.

Please note that I did not even say anything about taking the leverage, only a about signing up.

Power tools have safety feature; the leverage tool should, too. AFAIK Robinhood won't allow you to make a naked call, you have to show that you have enough to pay. Either their safety feature failed (very bad, needs fixing and constant checking), or the poor trader used something else as a collateral, and that could be an important part of the tragic outcome.

Noted. Thanks for clarifying.

> no income to leverage to the tune of $700K?

if robinhood is willing to take on the risk of a counterparty bankruptcy, i don't see why not. Robinhood is on the hook for lending the margin, not the boy.

What’s heartbreaking is that he didn’t trade any leverage at all. He executed an options spread that was worth about $700k on each leg. Due to the nature of buying and selling options, the app showed his position as short $700k because the long leg hadn’t settled yet. All he needed to do was wait and he would have seen the balance go back to what he expected.

To give a bit perspective: in many countries there are mostly no warning signs and barriers on highways. Sometimes a few trees, the occasional speed limit sign and warning of steep slopes. Only on places where accidents are so common they add barriers to prevent cars going into oncoming lanes, but that doesn’t prevent accidents from happening.

It’s tragic that the 20yo died, many sites warn that trading is risky. What they shouldn’t allow is to trade with more money than you can prove to possess.

How exactly? Even that whole tweet thread is placing blame on Robinhood who offers worse and less margin/leverage than normal brokers?

If there is energy to direct, it has more to do with people that don't have a self preservation instinct and deciding whether we actually want to add one back to them. Very different than misattributing disdain towards the action they ascribed to their suicide.

It is pretty tone deaf to get this mixed up.

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