Robinhood Comes Clean: ‘We Give the Gamblers What They Want

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Robinhood’s CEO, Vlad Tenev, is finally saying out loud what critics have known for years: the platform isn’t about building wealth — it’s about feeding the day-trading casino. Chris breaks down the jaw-dropping Wall Street Journal interview where Tenev openly admits Robinhood caters to risky traders chasing exotic, speculative assets. From F1 stage entrances to Vegas pep rallies, Chris exposes the irony of gamblers cheering on the casino owner — and how Robinhood profits when investors lose their shirts.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Robin Hood comes Clean. I did a to show on
this a couple of weeks ago, and how you investors
are losing their shirts and how they go about losing
their shirts and how the game is played, and I
couldn't believe it. And actually I kind of respect it.
I do. I kind of respect the fact that they're

(00:37):
actually coming clean on exactly who they are, how they
make their money, and what they do. Yeah, Vlad Tenev
again doing an interview and talking about his business in
the Wall Street Journal. Traders are flooding markets with risky bets.
Robin Hood CEO is their cult hero, and they talk

(01:01):
about how they Robin Hood held a some sort of
get together conference out in Las Vegas and Lad comes
out on stage. He's wearing an F one suit and
fancy sneakers and everyone's going crazy and they're cheering for them.
And I'm thinking about it, and I said, do you

(01:22):
think they ever ever see gamblers? And again it's it's fascinating.
You ever see gamblers like cheer on the owner, the
owner of the casino. You look at you know, you
look at you know. It was The Ocean's Eleven movies.

(01:42):
You know, the casino owners portrayed as the bad guys, right,
but you know the reality, reality of situation. You see
people go to casinos and cheering on the owners. But
that's what these people were doing. And he basically telling
them is comparing robin hood to having an F one,

(02:08):
a Formula one race car. That's type of things that
they are doing. And he talks about the fact and
he actually admits, now that we are introducing various different
asset classes and capabilities to people, that's what they want.
Later on the article, we're giving the people what they want.

(02:33):
And I heard that. I've heard that before. I've heard
I've heard drug dealers being interviewed on programs. I'm like,
what are you getting mad at? Before? I'm giving people
what they want. I also heard this from an attorney,
an attorney who was representing some of the boiler room operators.

(02:55):
This is way back in the nineteen nineties. You know,
at a bar and you know, argument with them is like,
you know, basically telling me, who are you to determine
what a good investment is or how do you know
how this thing is going to turn it? You could
be wrong. We are providing people something that they want.

(03:19):
And that's again it's I get thinking about it again.
There's a scene in The Big Short, and you know,
the lady from Goldman Sachs is like, Hey, we're Wall Street. Okay,
We're here to sell stuff. If you want to buy it,
we're gonna sell it to you. And I've never I've
never had that philosophy. I think that. And these guys

(03:42):
are not for new shares. Okay, they're not their casino.
That's basically what they are. We didn't get involved into
any of this. And again approached back in the day
day and I'm like, no, no, this is people are

(04:03):
just going to lose their shirts. They're just going to
do the wrong thing. You know, all of these these
various different tools and things that you're giving them, people
don't know how to use them. Human nature is going
to get in the way, It's what's happening. And they did.
This column was interesting was before the market corrected over

(04:24):
the past couple of weeks and wiped out so many people.
But they freely admit now what I've been telling you.
And again I kind of I guess I kind of
respect the fact that they're being honest now and they're saying, yeah,
we make most of our money. We cater to We
cater to the day traders and the people out there

(04:44):
that want to buy all of these lack of their
praise really funky and highly speculative, and I'm using air
quotes asset classes. They're going to lose and they know that. Again,
I can only present this, you know, one way to people.

(05:09):
It's just not about it's not about build This has
nothing to do with building wealth. This is again looking
for shortcuts, get rich quick, you know again. And Robinhood's
not given out free beer like the casino is giving
out free beer. You know. It's interesting too, And I
didn't even think about it at the time, even think

(05:29):
about it at the time. Robinhood is now in the
s and P five hundred. You want to know what
it replaced in the s and P five hundred Caesars?
I kid you not. Watchdog on Wall Street dot Com