Cartoon by Pat Byrnes
By that spring, Alex Kearns, a twenty-year-old student at the University of Nebraska, had been using Robinhood for about two years. The app had permitted him to trade options just months after he opened his account. Kearns grew up in Naperville, Illinois, with his sister and his parents. His father is an I.T. professional at a financial-services firm. The family was close. Kearns was known as an anxious but positive young man who played trombone in the high-school band, received a school-spirit award, and joined the R.O.T.C. at Nebraska, where he majored in business management. Kearnsâs cousin-in-law Bill Brewster, a professional investor, told me that heâd spoken with Kearns that March. âHe was happier than Iâve ever seen him,â Brewster said.