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Ryan Knudsen
A few months ago, our colleague Hannah Aaron Lang went to Las Vegas to attend a flashy conference.
Hannah Aaron Lang
The main event of the weekend happened at this place called the Groms Prix Plaza. It's this tourist attraction and venue for Formula one racing. So there's a kind of race car themed the whole event.
Ryan Knudsen
The conference was packed.
Hannah Aaron Lang
Everyone is really excited to be there. Lots of them have traveled from over the country and the whole room is kind of buzzing. Then the lights go dark and these sort of green lights start flashing and the bass starts thrumming.
Ryan Knudsen
The person everyone was so pumped to see was Vlad Tenev, the CEO of the investing app Robinhood.
Hannah Aaron Lang
And Vlad strolls onto the stage and beams at the crowd.
Vlad Tenev
W.
Hannah Aaron Lang
He'S wearing this race car driver's jumpsuit with the Robin Hood logo on the back and these green and black customized Nike sneakers that I later find out have Vlad sort of etched across the tongue.
Vlad Tenev
We've had a good year, haven't we?
Ryan Knudsen
You guys look good.
Vlad Tenev
Everyone's dressed nice. Welcome to the Grand Prix Plaza in beautiful Las Vegas.
Ryan Knudsen
So what was the message that Vlad Tenev was there to deliver?
Hannah Aaron Lang
He basically says, I've often compared trading to playing the violin because you have to practice and you have to put in the reps and sort of learn the markets that way. But actually, I've thought about it and I think trading is a lot more like driving a race car.
Vlad Tenev
But I think racing's actually a better comparison for one simple reason. The car really matters.
Hannah Aaron Lang
And that's what Robinhood is here to do. He essentially says, we are the race car that is going to help you win this race.
Vlad Tenev
Oftentimes, a finely tuned machine can make all the difference. And that's the role that we feel Robinhood plays for our active traders.
Ryan Knudsen
Everyone knows investing carries risks, but Tenev and his company seem to be pressing the pedal to the metal.
Hannah Aaron Lang
Risk taking is kind of back for individual investors and they're getting rewarded for it. And there's not a lot of people doing more to stoke those spirits than Vlad and Robinhood. The company's critics say that Robinhood might be spurring a new generation of investors to view playing the markets as a kind of quick hit game that more closely resembles a casino than, say, a long term pathway to build wealth.
Ryan Knudsen
Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan knudsen. It's Tuesday, December 16th. Coming up on the show, the risk loving traders fueling the rise of Robinhood.
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Ryan Knudsen
Vlad Tenev, the CEO of Robinhood, is on top of the world. Right now his company is raking it in. Not only was it added to the S&P 500 stock index this year, it was also one of the best performing stocks among all 500 companies. But just a few years ago, Tenev and Robinhood were really struggling. Tenev co founded Robinhood more than a decade ago with the goal of democratizing finance. The idea was to make buying and selling stocks easier and more accessible.
Hannah Aaron Lang
And the big way that they initially make waves is that not only do they build this stock trading app for millennials, but they're going to let their customers trade for free. And that was really innovative. At the time, most brokerages charged commissions, you know, a fee that you had to pay every time you trade.
Ryan Knudsen
The app took off and in 2021 it played a big role in the GameStop saga, which is when small time investors banded together to buy GameStop stock and sent it soaring. But as the trading mania peaked, volatility became so extreme that at one point Robinhood restricted trading of meme stocks and left investors with only two hold or sell. But by preventing people from buying, it blunted GameStop's growth and made customers furious. The company said at the time that it had to restrict trades in response to capital requirements from its clearinghouse.
Hannah Aaron Lang
And this is a really tough moment. It thrust Robinhood into the national spotlight in a way it hadn't been before. And it's in the hot seat in a lot of ways. And Vlad is in the hot seat in a lot of ways. Robinhood customers are furious, Wall street is mad, regulators and lawmakers are now involved.
Ryan Knudsen
And Tenev got raked over the Kohl's. Here he is in an interview back then with Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports.
Vlad Tenev
I'm proud of the way the team handled the crisis. By and large, we were able to protect the firm. We were able to prevent customers from having a bigger issue.
Ryan Knudsen
That's the part.
Vlad Tenev
How can you. In that line, you just said, like, proud of how we handled it. How can that be possible?
Ryan Knudsen
Eventually, Tenev testified in front of Congress and tried to distance himself from the risky culture that fueled the Gamestop situation.
Vlad Tenev
Thank you for the invitation to speak about Robinhood and the millions of people we serve as.
Hannah Aaron Lang
He gets in front of Congress and says, look, actually the majority of our customers are buying and holding stocks for the long term.
Vlad Tenev
Contrary to some very misleading and highly uninformed reports, we see evidence that most of our customers are investing for the long term.
Hannah Aaron Lang
You know, there may be what you and I might call, like, playing it safe. You know, I'm going to buy a blue chip stock, hold onto it for a really long time, and collect my gains that way. And he makes a point to tell lawmakers that only about 2% of Robinhood's customers are day traders.
Ryan Knudsen
Why do you think he wanted to emphasize that point, that Robinhood wasn't about risky investing?
Hannah Aaron Lang
Yeah, because I think in this moment, a lot of people are taken aback by what is in many ways like the first real instance of retail traders really flexing their muscles and again, making huge waves on Wall Street. And I think a lot of regulators, lawmakers, professional investors are trying to make sense of this and are maybe a little scared, skeptical of these aggressive investors. And I think, you know, Vlad's instinct is to say that Robinhood is not necessarily synonymous with this group of investors.
Ryan Knudsen
A few months later, things got even worse. Robinhood went public on the stock market and really struggled to get investors to buy in.
Hannah Aaron Lang
And what a shaky trading debut. It was, in fact, the worst trading debut for a US IPO of its size. At one point, Robinhood's market cap is about equal to the cash in its bank account, which is kind of like.
Ryan Knudsen
Basically saying the company is, like, worthless, essentially. Exactly.
Hannah Aaron Lang
Exactly. Yeah. I would say it's kind of like a failing grade from Wall street, like giving your company an F, so to speak.
Ryan Knudsen
What does he decide to do at that point?
Hannah Aaron Lang
So it's a really challenging time for Vlad and for Robinhood. And as he told it to me, he basically decides to take a little bit of time with his family, go on a trip, and try and get some perspective. So he goes on a family trip to Maui, and he gets this call, hey, we're hearing that Sam Bankman Fried, the now infamous crypto founder.
Ryan Knudsen
Mm. Who is serving jail time. But this is before that, right?
Hannah Aaron Lang
This is pre jail. He's looking to buy a piece of Robin Hood and this is basically a sign that Robin Hood looks so weak that it's now a potential takeover target. This is a real low point for Black.
Ryan Knudsen
He was still in Maui, which is very beautiful, right?
Hannah Aaron Lang
Exactly. So I guess it's as low, as low as you can get when in Maui.
Ryan Knudsen
Sam Bankman Fried never ended up taking over Robin Hood, but the moment was a turning point for Tenev.
Hannah Aaron Lang
He essentially decides to take this back to basics. He even thinks to himself, let's say the board fired me tomorrow and they brought in my replacement. Like what would that person do and how can I kind of start from the ground up? One thing he realizes is that the company is essentially not focusing on the right customers.
Ryan Knudsen
Up until that point, Robinhood had been mainly focused on first time investors, many of whom weren't very aggressive. But the customers that made the most money for Robinhood's business were more like the active traders from the Gamestop saga. And they also happened to be some of the most frustrated with the platform.
Hannah Aaron Lang
And their chief brokerage officer was talking to me about it and compared it to an airline whose frequent flyers hate the airline the most. It just didn't really make sense for the business. So Vlad basically decides that he needs to start from square one and rebuild the company with these traders at its core.
Ryan Knudsen
How Tenev transformed the company and what it means for the world of investing is after the break.
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Ryan Knudsen
After nearly hitting rock bottom, Vlad Tenev, the CEO of Robinhood, realized he needed to rethink the company's strategy. He told Hanna that rather than focusing on cautious first time investors, he wanted to lean into the most active users, the ones who are often taking the biggest risks.
Hannah Aaron Lang
He essentially offers them a better trading platform, more products, more ways to trade, and especially most recently in the past year, these access to newer markets that maybe competitors aren't offering yet.
Ryan Knudsen
Robinhood started making it easier than other platforms not just to buy and sell stocks, but also to invest in cryptocurrencies and other high risk financial products like.
Hannah Aaron Lang
Zero day options, zero date to expiration options, which are these ultra risky, fast expiring contracts that require like perfect timing and they come with huge risk but huge reward as well. One trader that I talked to that primarily trades zero date options, you know, told me I can turn 500 or $600 into 50 or $60,000 if I make the perfect trade.
Ryan Knudsen
Sounds nice, right?
Hannah Aaron Lang
Exactly. But of course the converse of that is that you have the potential for huge losses as well. And because of the high risk involved, it requires this kind of perfect timing of the market. And it does open. It is one of the highest risk trades out there to engage in.
Ryan Knudsen
But of all the things Robinhood has leaned into, prediction markets have drawn the most scrutiny.
Vlad Tenev
And we've rolled out a new prediction markets hub which you can see right here on the homepage. This has been really popular.
Hannah Aaron Lang
So these are platforms where traders can buy futures contracts tied to the outcome of events happening in the future.
Ryan Knudsen
I predict that so and so will become the president or whatever. Right?
Hannah Aaron Lang
Exactly, exactly. So elections like the Federal Reserve meeting, you can basically put money down on the outcome of these future events that they pay off if your prediction is accurate. And the type of contract that has made quite a splash is sports. So these prediction markets are available for sports games and entertainment events.
Ryan Knudsen
Robinhood, getting into sports, the popular trading platform, this week added a prediction market hub for just in time for March Madness.
Hannah Aaron Lang
So not only can you bet on or hedge your portfolio against who's going to win the election, for example, but you can also bet on, the winner of, you know, the Monday Night Football.
Ryan Knudsen
Game or whether the Portland Trail Blazers will win the NBA championship.
Hannah Aaron Lang
Right, right.
Ryan Knudsen
In my lifetime. How is this any different from sports betting apps like FanDuel?
Hannah Aaron Lang
That's essentially the question that critics are asking. These things function like futures contracts, but on their face they really resemble just plain sports gambling, which is not legal.
Ryan Knudsen
In every state in America.
Hannah Aaron Lang
Exactly. So Robinhood is not necessarily new to this criticism of blurring the lines between proper investing, quote unquote, and outright gambling. But this really raised eyebrows because it seemed to blur those lines in a newer and bolder way than ever before.
Ryan Knudsen
Earlier this year, Robinhood pulled Super bowl betting contracts from its platform after regulators raised concerns that the products might be illegal. The company said at the time that it believed it was in full compliance with regulations. For Robinhood's most active customers, Tenev is giving them exactly what they want. Hannah spoke to some of them in Vegas.
Robinhood User
This is a platform where I finally feel heard and I finally feel like I'm actually connecting with the group, the community, and they're listening to what we want and they're constantly coming out with new things like Vortex and all these other things to allow us young guys that are just, you know, we're just, we can be our own hedge funds.
Ryan Knudsen
The UI is just so clean, so user friendly.
Sponsor/Announcer
Yeah.
Hannah Aaron Lang
That just anyone can just hop on, make an account, and they just know what to do.
Ryan Knudsen
And in a stark contrast to just a few years ago, Robinhood's users are big fans of Tenev these days.
Robinhood User
I feel like he's like an Elon Musk of the financial arena.
Ryan Knudsen
He's just a really down to earth guy.
Hannah Aaron Lang
Yeah.
Ryan Knudsen
I feel like he actually cares about his customer base, retail base, which is really rare for a CEO.
Robinhood User
He's just cool, awesome guy, and he's just. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to figure it out.
Hannah Aaron Lang
Yeah.
Robinhood User
I like it. I just wish I could go.
Ryan Knudsen
In addition to changing the app, Tenev has changed the entire personality of the company.
Hannah Aaron Lang
So I think it's worth noting that there is a conflating of investing in entertainment that seems to be happening there. That, especially when we're talking about the events in the presentation, is very intentional on Vlad's part. I mean, even the earnings calls are designed based on NBA post game interviews.
Ryan Knudsen
I mean, the icon that prior generations looked up to was like Warren Buffett and who said, buy an index fund and hold it for the rest of your life. And that's pretty much it.
Vlad Tenev
Yeah.
Hannah Aaron Lang
I mean, it's like it couldn't be more different from the way that Vlad talks about investing and finance, which is kind of exciting and futuristic and kind of almost makes you want to be a part of this movement and this club.
Ryan Knudsen
All of this has done wonders to Robinhood's business. The company's stock has increased over 200% this year. And Tenev's net worth has ballooned too. For Robinhood's users, things have been going well. The stock market has been on a tear the past few years and their accounts only seem to move in one direction, up and to the right.
Hannah Aaron Lang
The flip side of that is what happens if, or I should say, when markets go the other way. Individual investors have more choices and ways to take on risk than ever before. And that has compounded their gains in the good times that we've seen recently. And the big question and the concern that I hear from Robinhood's critics is will it compound the pain when markets experience a really prolonged downturn?
Ryan Knudsen
So how has the company or Vlad Tenant responded to all of these concerns?
Hannah Aaron Lang
Their point of view is essentially that they serve the next generation of investors. And their chief brokerage officer told me, we are introducing more asset classes and capabilities to people. That's what they want and that's sort of their point of view and their response to this criticism. And I think it's worth noting that this has really worked for them and their customers are quite pleased at the moment.
Ryan Knudsen
Hannah says that in many ways Tenev is just giving people what they want.
Hannah Aaron Lang
The rise of Robinhood has been really emblematic of a much broader shift going on in the world of financial markets right now, which is the growing power of individual investors. And we talk about individual versus institutional investors, with institutional primarily being Wall street banks, folks that are trading on the behalf of those institutions.
Ryan Knudsen
At the same time, though, by giving people what they want, he's also getting more people to want it.
Hannah Aaron Lang
These really plugged in active traders that are buying and selling stocks, options, cryptocurrencies on a daily basis. Practically. That group has grown so much larger and gained so much power over the past five years and even more so in just the past year. And the success of those folks is in many ways tied to the success of Robinhood. Vlad has been at the forefront of offering more access and capabilities within the world of our markets to his customers.
Ryan Knudsen
Remember how Robinhood got added to the S&P 500 this year? The company it replaced was Caesars Entertainment, the largest casino entertainment company in the US. That's all for today. Tuesday, December 16th the Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting this episode by Alexander OT and Katherine Sayer. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.
This episode delves into how Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev reinvented himself—and the company—after Robinhood’s tumultuous years following the GameStop saga. Through spectacle, product innovation, and strategic focus on active traders, Tenev transformed Robinhood from a struggling fintech into a market-defining platform and positioned himself as a cult hero to a new generation of risk-loving investors. The hosts and correspondent Hannah Aaron Lang examine the company’s highs, lows, ongoing controversies around “gamifying” investing, and what this shift means for the future of financial markets.
This episode outlines Robinhood’s journey from disruptive upstart to Wall Street darling—driven by bold leadership and a willingness to embrace risk and spectacle. While Tenev has won over a legion of fans and the company is riding a bull market, the episode underscores deep questions about whether this new breed of trader-friendly, entertainment-driven investing will hold up—or do harm—when fortunes turn.
Robinhood’s story is ultimately emblematic of the broader democratization (or “gamification”) of finance, for better or worse. As host Ryan Knutson notes in closing, it’s a “stark contrast” that the S&P 500’s newest addition, Robinhood, replaced the nation’s largest casino—hinting at the blurred lines between speculation and investment in this new era.