In the first 3 months of 2020, Robinhood users traded nine times as many shares...

…And according to legal filings, as well as interviews with current and former employees, they say that the app was built on what appears to be a Silicon Valley playbook of behavioral nudges and push notifications to draw investors towards risky trading, which happens to make Robinhood a lot of money. As proof of this, in the first 3 months of 2020, Robinhood users traded nine times as many shares as E*TRADE customers and 40 times as many shares as Charles Schwab customers. They also bought and sold 88 times as many options contracts relative to the average account size. Now, in Robinhood's defense, they were the first brokerage out there to make investing fun. They got a lot of people interested in investing who otherwise wouldn't have cared, and they were able to reduce the trading fees down to zero. But you also have to admit, Robinhood is in the business of making money. And when they directly benefit by getti…