Gen-Z Traders Go for Broke In Pursuit of New American Dream

Ish Lukhey was 16 years old and working a part‑time job at a gas station when he opened his first brokerage account under his mom’s name. His interest stuck, and by the time the pandemic shut down in-person classes, he was a freshman in college. Cooped up in his parents’ house in Minnesota, Lukhey continued trading, but now on his own account with Robinhood Markets Inc.

At the height of the Reddit-fueled r/wallstreetbets frenzy in early 2021, when retail traders drove a surge in meme stocks such as GameStop Corp., the conventional wisdom was that someone like Lukhey would eventually grow ...