IG Markets CFD - Driving mass adoption of an advanced trading product

IG Markets CFD - Driving mass adoption of an advanced trading product

Contribution

Contribution

Product design

Product design

User testing

User testing

Strategy

Strategy

Team

Team

Shibashis S (PM)

Shibashis S (PM)

Michal K (Dev)

Michal K (Dev)

Gavin C (Business)

Gavin C (Business)

Regions benefitted

Regions

benefitted

APAC & ME

APAC & ME

TL;DR

I designed IG Markets' CFD experience from zero to one, adding leveraged trading to an investing app without disrupting share dealing. Since launch it's driven £70 million in notional across 15.4K monthly active customers. 77% of applicants get activated and 71% of funded clients go on to trade which is a strong pass-through for a product that legally requires a knowledge assessment before anyone can start.

Context

What is IG Markets and why integrate CFD into it?

IG Markets is IG’s new all-in-one platform, designed to make investing and trading accessible. We began with share dealing, and now, integrating CFDs allows users to broaden their strategies and access new opportunities within the same seamless ecosystem. CFD offers following to the users:

Ability to trade on markets beyond just equities, thus allowing users to diversify their portfolio.

Trade with leverage - Allowing them to hold bigger positions with smaller upfront funds.

Go short on markets - to benefit from trading against the market.

Declining active client numbers in IG’s legacy product - IG Trading indicate that the current strategy is not future-proof

Since CFD is a niche product, there is a huge barrier to entry. This creates a need to nurture an active funnel of investors to become traders via IG Markets.

Declining active client numbers in IG’s legacy product - IG Trading indicate that the current strategy is not future-proof

Since CFD is a niche product, there is a huge barrier to entry. This creates a need to nurture an active funnel of investors to become traders via IG Markets.

User archetype

Understanding the target audience

The ideal TG for CFD within an investor predominant app will have two main archetypes.

The ideal TG for CFD within an investor predominant app will have two main archetypes.

Archetypes

Archetypes

Non-leverage investors

Non-leverage investors

Investors who don’t have leverage trading experience but are interested in exploring it.

Investors who don’t have leverage trading experience but are interested in exploring it.

Leverage-experienced investors

Leverage-experienced investors

Investors who have some experience dabbling around leverage products like CFD/Options etc.

Investors who have some experience dabbling around leverage products like CFD/Options etc.

Common Traits

Common Traits

High risk tolerance and financial standing

High risk tolerance and financial standing

Active research-driven trading approach

Active research-driven trading approach

Frequent short-term buy /sell transactions

Frequent short-term buy /sell transactions

Have exposure to advanced products like Options/Leveraged ETFs

Have exposure to advanced products like Options/Leveraged ETFs

Planning & strategy

Go-to-market Approach

Since IG has the backend infrastructure for CFD trading as part of the legacy platform, we wanted to make use of that infrastructure as a launchpad for MVP release and to focus only on the frontend in-terms of simplifying and enhancing the CFD trading UX without disrupting the core share dealing UX of IG Markets.

Since IG has the backend infrastructure for CFD trading as part of the legacy platform, we wanted to make use of that infrastructure as a launchpad for MVP release and to focus only on the frontend in-terms of simplifying and enhancing the CFD trading UX without disrupting the core share dealing UX of IG Markets.

1

1

Design the most critical trading journeys - discover, trade, monitor.

2

Conduct usability testing on critical flows while refining non-critical flows in parallel.

3

Align stakeholders to finalize Information architecture and UX for core flows.

4

Finalize production-ready critical flows, including edge cases, and hand off to tech.

5

Build the frontend on current backend infrastructure while parallel design work continues.

6

Conduct internal QA and external beta testing prior to the public launch.

Solution

CFD onboarding flow

Singapore regulation requires a knowledge assessment before anyone can trade CFDs. Two quick questions on trading experience and savings route each client: those who qualify go straight through, while others accept the terms and then complete an external learning module, each on its own screen. They can leave mid-way, keep using share dealing, and resume from a home-page banner, and 77% of completed applications go on to activation.

Benefits before sign-up

Guided learning module

Approved, prompt to fund

Home page

Discover page

Home & Discover page flow

The main purpose of homepage is to provide users an integrated summary of all different products and let users monitor their multi-product watchlist. Discover page for CFD is built with equal focus on educating the users about CFD and providing them market recommendations.

Home page

Discover page

Home page

Discover page

Deal ticket flow

Once they land on the asset details page of any instrument, they get to see market sentiment and other indicators that would help them to finalise their decision and to place a trade. Once they tap on Buy/Sell, deal ticket screen with added risk management opens up and lets users place a trade in a seamless way.

Once they land on the asset details page of any instrument, they get to see market sentiment and other indicators that would help them to finalise their decision and to place a trade. Once they tap on Buy/Sell, deal ticket screen with added risk management opens up and lets users place a trade in a seamless way.

Asset details

Deal ticket flow

Post-trade flow

This flow show users can monitor their positions, edit risk management and close positions. Users have a granular view on their past performances and balances section with helper text. They also have visibility to all of their current positions and open orders.

This flow show users can monitor their positions, edit risk management and close positions. Users have a granular view on their past performances and balances section with helper text. They also have visibility to all of their current positions and open orders.

Portfolio & Monitor

Edit & Close position

Design considerations

Design considerations

Integration without disruption

Integration without disruption

We preserved the primary share dealing experience while enabling access to CFDs when relevant.

We preserved the primary share dealing experience while enabling access to CFDs when relevant.

Prioritized education & hand-holding

Prioritized education & hand-holding

Users wanted video and confused margin with trade value, so explainers sit right where the questions arise.

Users wanted video and confused margin with trade value, so explainers sit right where the questions arise.

Use share dealing familiarity as a bridge

Use share dealing familiarity as a bridge

We maintained consistency with Share dealing experience as much as possible for familiarity.

We maintained consistency with Share dealing experience as much as possible for familiarity.

Layman language use to tackle product complexity

Layman language use to tackle product complexity

Usability testing helped us create clear, context-rich copy that stays easy to understand.

Usability testing helped us create clear, context-rich copy that stays easy to understand.

Validating our designs through usability testing

Validating our designs through usability testing

Usability testing V1

Usability testing V1

First round of user testing focussed on core journeys like how do they discover a trading idea and how do they execute it?

Insights

Users showed a clear preference for video-first learning, clicking explainer content first.

Users preferred Learn and Discover together, making it easier to connect education with actionable instrument ideas.

Participants frequently confused total trade value with margin required, believing they needed to pay the full notional amount upfront.

It’s quite straightforward, I can see everything I need. Just that I don’t fully understand some terms yet.

Usability testing V2

Usability testing V2

Second round of user testing focussed on core trading journeys like deal ticket flow and post-trade monitoring flow.

Insights

Extra confirmation of costs or pop-ups feel like roadblocks between analysis and execution

The use of “Buy” and “Sell” on open positions caused confusion, as users interpreted them as actions rather than past trades.

The terms ‘Leverage’, ‘Margin’, ‘Available cash’ need to be re-adjusted for natural journey of reading. 

It’s in between (Tiger, Moomoo) and IBKR — Tiger and Moomoo are good for beginners, IBKR is too complicated. IG is a good balance

Handoff & Implementation

Since this project has a lot of moving parts, we (product team) wanted to hand off designs to the tech team in a strategic manner that doesn’t overload or confuse them. Wherever needed, we simplified a flow into multiple stages so that the tech would handle one complex problem at a time.

Since this project has a lot of moving parts, we (product team) wanted to hand off designs to the tech team in a strategic manner that doesn’t overload or confuse them. Wherever needed, we simplified a flow into multiple stages so that the tech would handle one complex problem at a time.

Masterflow page for Stakeholder alignment

Page-wise detailed flow for developer handoff

Exception handling flows for almost all major error scenarios

The more context we provide to the tech team, the simpler their work becomes.

Annotate, annotate, annotate...

Key performance indicators

Key performance indicators

£70m

in notional traded through the CFD since April launch

15.4K

monthly active customers, averaging

71%

of funded clients went on to place their first trade

What I learnt


  • I got to learn a lot about how complex financial products actually work in realtime and to know about the product and tech backbones that hold it all together.

  • I learnt how the power of iterative usability testing, use of layman language can make significant improvement to the overall customer journey.


  • I got to learn a lot about how complex financial products actually work in realtime and to know about the product and tech backbones that hold it all together.

  • I learnt how the power of iterative usability testing, use of layman language can make significant improvement to the overall customer journey.

Other works

IG Rewards center

Loyalty program for driving engagement & user retention

Design system refresh

Rebuilding IG Trading with a scalable mobile design system

Naveen

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