Kearns, a University of Nebraska student who was home on break, left a heartbreaking suicide note, part of which was published online by his cousin-in-law Bill Brewster. Although the details of Kearns' trades have not been made public, there is reason to believe that his negative account balance was merely a temporary glitch, and he was not in fact $730,000 in debt as he believed. Kearns left this screenshot of his Robinhood account, showing a negative cash balance of $730,165.62. It's likely that the negative balance appeared in Kearns' account only temporarily, as one half of the trade settled before the other did. Unlike trading stock, in which it is impossible to lose more money than you initially invest, in certain situations options trading can expose the trader to losing a theoretically infinite amount of money.

Source: Daily Mail June 17, 2020 20:13 UTC