RobinHood is essentially lending unlimited money to the teenagers in question. Assume, as an oversimplification, half of them will win big, and half of them will lose it all.
For the wins, the teenagers will keep it all, and for the losses, RobinHood will have to pay for it, because the teenagers don't have the money and will declare bankruptcy if RobinHood tries to recover it. This is a net wealth transfer from RobinHood to the teenagers.
The net wealth transfer looks like this:
teenagers: +lots of money
traders on the other side of the transactions: approximately +0 (wins and losses cancel out)
RobinHood: -lots of money
You can play games with which money comes from where, but you can't deny the way the money is flowing on net.
RobinHood is essentially lending unlimited money to the teenagers in question. Assume, as an oversimplification, half of them will win big, and half of them will lose it all.
For the wins, the teenagers will keep it all, and for the losses, RobinHood will have to pay for it, because the teenagers don't have the money and will declare bankruptcy if RobinHood tries to recover it. This is a net wealth transfer from RobinHood to the teenagers.
The net wealth transfer looks like this:
teenagers: +lots of money
traders on the other side of the transactions: approximately +0 (wins and losses cancel out)
RobinHood: -lots of money
You can play games with which money comes from where, but you can't deny the way the money is flowing on net.