Building a Margin Trading feature
on the 'Exchange for Everything'

In an effort to build an "Exchange for Everything", which includes trading crypto, public securities, and lending crypto, we wanted to build a feature to help refine the trading crypto aspect.

This is where we decided to build out a Margin Trading feature

Role & Impact

Product Manager: Subject matter expert and tech lead
Myself, Principal Product Designer: UX Designer (research, wireframes, flows), UI Designer
Senior Product Designer: UI Designer
Impact: Executive stakeholders were very pleased with the implementation and experience of Margin trading

The Problem

We believe there are a certain subset of users who want the ability to trade on Margin (borrow money to trade) with the goal of amplifying their returns. This also necessarily means that their losses would be amplified. We want to create an experience that enables them to start trading on Margin, but it’s crucial to be clear to users of the potential risks & rewards.

Trade Simulator

One feature we wanted to make sure we nailed was the trading simulator. Essentially, we wanted to give users a real-time preview of how a given trade would impact their balances and the amount of leverage they use, before they place the order.
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I thought this real-time and dynamic feedback would be critical for users to be aware of, and we’ve gotten good feedback from internal stakeholders that this was an effective interaction.

Trading: The Happy Path

Understanding how the data changes was crucial to making useful mockups for the development team.

I've showcased a few steps of what the happy with looks like when conducting a Margin trade.  This was crucial in order to minimize any confusion from the dev team when they went to implement it.

Crucial Error and Notice States

Due to the nature of margin trading, we had to make sure we covered important error/notice states for users. Trading itself can be a stressful experience, especially when borrowing money to trade. We had to be very clear on when there is an error, so that a user can quickly modify their inputs.

When trading at high scale, a user needs to be swift with their decision making. Losing even 20 seconds can mean a significant difference in their potential profit.