Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD), a digital trading platform based in Menlo Park, California, gained immense popularity among millennials and Gen Z investors in recent years. Statista shows that the platform had approximately 22.9 million users by the second quarter of 2022, with a median age of 31.

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinhood Markets saw an influx of attention, as its commission-free platform allowed traders to seamlessly and inexpensively buy stocks and options in highly popular names. A surge in the buying and selling of so-called "meme stocks" resulted, with many experts citing the rise of retail investors via platforms like Robinhood as one of the determining factors behind a number of high-profile short squeezes seen last year. 

The vast majority of "Robinhood stocks" that made serious moves tied to the meme trade in 2021 have troubled balance sheets. These companies, which many retail investors focused on as short squeeze opportunities, were necessarily heavily shorted. Generally speaking, when the majority of investors are on one side of the boat, there's a reason for such positioning.

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Source Fool.com