But they couldn't be more dissimilar. One co-owns a billion dollar company he and his buddy from college spent years creating and fine-tuning. They employ lots of people. They are financially educated. Their website provides educational resources to both customers and and non-customers on the stock market and trading.

The other photo belongs to a nobody working until recently from his mother's basement. Because he was unemployed, he got to be a stay at home dad to his young daughter. For some idiosyncratic reason, he began buying Gamestop shares in 2019 and like an itch he just had to scratch, couldn't stop buying them and refused to sell them. He created a You Tube channel (free for anyone who wants one) got a microphone and a headband, and started talking about investing in stocks.

For whatever reason, he picked up a following. (The headband? the gypsy look? Nostalgia for the Occupy Wall Street days? Who knows? He's certainly not my idea of a Pied Piper.) More importantly, he started posting on Reddit, a social media forum with visuals reminiscent of a bulletin board from 1998. Apparently, he became a "hit."

Now people are dumpling on Robinhood. Why? Because in order for them to finalize their customer's trades, they need the services of "clearing houses" and the ones they use have appropriate licenses and are found, guess where? On Wall Street. Which according to the critics, makes them hypocrites or liars.

I don't see it that way. And I'll admit up front that I don't know anything about investing in the stock market other than what I've learned defending people charged with financial fraud crimes. But how different is buying a stock from buying a house? If you've ever bought or sold a house you know there's someone else involved in the transaction besides the buyer, the seller, the realtor, the appraiser and the mortgage company. Who is it? The title company.

Without the title company working in the background to render its opinion that the seller's title is valid (and not encumbered by judgments or easements or other stumbling blocks), the sale can't go through.

Companies that facilitate stock trades like Robinhood or Charles Schwab or Ameritrade use clearing houses to say yea or nay to the stock transaction. The trading companies are like bookies -- they get the juice, not a piece of the pie. And if they aren't charging their customers to make trades, they have to get it somewhere else. I don't recall any of the trading companies claiming to be "non-profits".

So I don't get all the anger at Robinhood. I checked out their website for the first time the other night, in preparation for this post and was was impressed enough to open a free account. I'm not sure what I'll do with it since I don't own any stocks and they certainly seem more geared to Gen Z than baby boomers close to retirement age, but I think I could be persuaded to dip a toe in once or twice. How different is it than buying 10 lottery tickets when the jackpot is high? What could the return be on a $20 investment in a piece of a bitcoin or a 1/20 share of Apple? Come to think of it, the lottery odds are probably better.

As to short sales and options: As far as I'm concerned, anyone who doesn't take a few classes or educate themselves but instead takes advice from strangers on a social media forum deserves to lose their money. I think Robinhood is doing a good service by giving out free lessons.

My final thought: If every one would remember what they were told the first time they went to Las Vegas -- "only bet what you can afford to lose", the investment world would be a safer place. Las Vegas is not the place for someone hoping to make the money for their mother's cancer operation -- and neither is the stock market or options trading.