A young trader on the millennial-focussed trading platform Robinhood committed suicide last week after his account showed a staggering $730,165 negative cash balance.

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Alexander E. Kearns, 20, rather tragically noted, “How was a 20 year old with no income able to get assigned almost a million dollars worth of leverage?” It was Kearns’ last message left on his computer. He was a resident of Naperville, Illinois, US.

Silicon Valley-based Robinhood has gained immense popularity during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, primarily due to features like commission-free trading, easy-to-use mobile app and free stocks it gives to new users.

However, the gamified approach and a lack of experience in nuances of trading may have cost Kearns his life.

“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 was quoted as saying by Forbes.

Although Robinhood didn’t release details of Kearns trading, the Forbes report says that the youngster could have been trading “bull put spread”, a form of options trading where traders use two put options to form a range.

However, Kearns likely hadn’t racked up the losses he thought he did as the cash balance on his account was temporary and would have corrected after underlying stocks were credited to his account. In his anger-filled note Kearns wrote that he had “no clue” what he was doing.

Robinhood added 3 million users on its platform during the first quarter of 2020. And a popular narrative has built that the flood of new investors on the platform is driving the market's rebound from lows.

Also read: Who are Robinhood investors and are they powering the recent Wall Street rally?