US 20s Stock Market Beginner Mistakes 'Minus 800 Million' Leading to Extreme Choice

A man in his 20s in the United States used a stock trading app to invest in stocks, but when his stock account showed "-800 million," he mistakenly believed he had lost real money and took his own life. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hana Na] A man in his 20s in the United States, who invested in stocks using an online stock trading app, mistakenly believed he had incurred a massive debt after seeing '-800 million' on his stock account and took his own life.

According to major foreign media on the 8th (local time), the parents of Alex Kouns filed a lawsuit against the online stock trading application (app) 'Robinhood.' The parents claimed damages, stating, "The tragedy occurred due to Robinhood's aggressive tactics to attract young customers and negligence in their duty of care."

According to the complaint filed by the bereaved family, Kouns discovered a stock account balance of 'minus $730,000' (approximately 820 million KRW) on Robinhood's app on June 11 last year.

This was a loss amount temporarily recorded in the books due to the time lag occurring during the conversion between futures and spot trading, which would have been erased if he had exercised the 'put option,' a right to sell a specific asset at a predetermined price at a specific time.

However, unaware of this fact, Kouns mistakenly believed he had lost a huge amount in investment and even had to repay a massive debt.

At the time, Kouns sent three emails to Robinhood's customer center but received no response. Unable to get in touch with the staff continuously, Kouns made an extreme choice.

The bereaved family argued that the situation would have been different if Robinhood had properly provided phone consultation services to Kouns.

The family's lawyer said, "It was a situation where it looked like he owed $730,000 even though he owed nothing," adding, "Anyone could fall into a panic state." Dorothy Kouns, his mother, lamented, "Words cannot express how painful it is."

Robinhood stated, "We were deeply shocked by his death," and improved the options trading system by adding detailed option trading guides and raising the qualifications for users allowed to trade options. In December last year, they announced the implementation of voice consultation services for some options traders.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.