I spent this week at a thinkorswim reunion, except it was a Robinhood event.
I’m in Houston for Robinhood’s HOOD Summit, and it’s like somebody put the band back together, everybody’s just 20 to 25 years older.
A lot of the people I worked with at thinkorswim and TD Ameritrade now run Robinhood, including Steve Quirk, its chief brokerage officer.
Back then, I was the youngest guy by about 15 years. I had to break it to them that I’m 50 now.
But the part that surprised me was the clients. About 1,200 of them are here, invitation-only, and they were not what I expected.
The average age was probably in the early 40s.
They asked sharp questions, and almost everybody I talked to was deep into technology. It’s the same kind of trader we had on thinkorswim back in the day, maybe a little younger.
Robinhood’s presentation Tuesday night was cheesy as hell, and the stock was still up around 5% the after hours. I couldn’t believe it.
Talking with those traders took me right back to the thinkorswim days, and to one guy who was part of that crew with me.
Brandon Chapman spent 13 years inside thinkorswim and TD Ameritrade, on the team that taught millions of retail traders how to trade.
Now he’s built one screen he checks before the open, and it takes him about 6 minutes.
On Thursday at 2pm Eastern, I’m bringing him on live to open up that screen, and I’m giving $2,000 in cash to one person who shows up.
To your success,
Don Kaufman
