Ryan Knudson

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.

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.

And this is a really tough moment.

It thrusts 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.

As he gets in front of Congress and says, look...

Actually, the majority of our customers are buying and holding stocks for the long term.

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 on to 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.

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—