Robinhood said at the end of last quarter it had 21.3 million active users, with an average age of 31, and that half of those were first-time investors. The company is also trying to recruit new users on college campuses, offering $15 to start investing and the chance to win $20,000 towards tuition.
Talking to them about market risks tends to "bore them to death," she said, but she wants to ensure brokers give full disclosure around potential conflicts of interest and how they make their revenue, so everyone understands how they work. He recalled how a discussion during a family ski trip with twenty-somethings who had never shown interest in the markets before opened his eyes to "a true generation gap."