But regulation requires that you do self-certify as (to a certain extent) an expert who understands the more sophisticated product in order to trade it.
I suppose I don't disagree that they're targeting people who in many cases probably shouldn't be passing that screen, but I suppose I think that's the problem, rather than it not being dumbed down enough.
Like I said elsewhere, its horrible this kid killed himself over something as transient as this, and RH's interface is pretty dumb, but if you're selling uncovered put spreads, and covering them with call spreads and you're doing all of this in RH....well you're either much better at RH than I am, or much worse.
Could the UI be better? Probably. My point isn't to absolve them here, it's just to point out that this same issue exists across most of the platforms. That leads me to believe that, while the UI may have contributed, it's not the root cause of the issue.
There is a rather large difference between how you do interfaces for people with training who are experts and the amateurs that Robinhood is targeting. It is the difference between a full cockpit and the interface you put on something like Garmin's autolanding system[1].
So, yeah, I'm blaming the interface people at Robinhood because they are targeting a non-broker segment of the population and need to find a way to put that information a broker would give you into the interface. This information includes things like "you do not own this much money" at a minimum. Facts are amazing things, but eventual truth might of save this person.
If you target a group of people, its your responsibility as a UI designer to make sure your interface is actually safe for that group of people.
1) https://www.garmin.com/en-US/autonomi/