COLUMBUS, Ohio ― A new app is exploding in popularity, boasting a zero-commission business model that allows first-time investors― namely millenials― to play the stock market.

According to the company, Robinhood gained a staggering 3 million users as of May 4. They estimate about half of those are first-time investors.

Financial software developer and former Robinhood user Cole Brown says the platform's success came during a perfect storm.

“First, the unprecedented action taken by the Federal Reserve, which has convinced a lot of people nothing bad can happen,” said Brown.

He says the COVID-19 shutdown meant people had more time on their hands and the stock market was a way to virtually gamble when casinos were closed.

"It is a giant, always-on casino,” said Brown.

But Robinhood hasn’t always been so lucky.

On June 12, a 20-year-old student committed suicide after a glitch in the app mistakenly said he was more than $700,000 in debt.

The founders of Robinhood released a statement saying, "We learned that Alex Kearns, a Robinhood customer, died by suicide and left a note citing confusion with our product. We quickly reached out to Alex’s family to share our condolences and offer to speak. We are personally devastated by this tragedy." 

The root of the problem, Brown says, comes from developers eager to get their product to market and a user base that’s unfamiliar with the world of finance.

"Basically, what I experienced with their platform, I've since moved to another broker that I'm a lot happier with, but in the sort of downside case where you’re going to lose money on this trade, Robinhood just completely failed to understand the trade that it allowed you to set up. It sounds like this person correctly anticipated a very small risk, then saw this huge number,” he said.

Brown says this type of mixup is extremely distressing, but it isn’t uncommon. In fact, it’s happened to him.

“I've experienced this exactly with Robinhood. Basically, they shut down my account for a day, they said that I owed some absurd amount of money, even though the total liability to my account was only $2,000. It took them 24 to 48 hours to sort it out, then the loss was sustained.”

He says when delving into any sort of financial risk, it’s important to trust who’s handling your money and educate yourself on all possible outcomes. And just like a casino, “don’t play with assets you’re not willing to completely lose.”