Request for Long-Term Investing Features (DRIP, Research Tools, UI Improvements)

[Stanner]

Hi Trading 212 Team,

First of all, I appreciate Trading 212’s commission-free model and user-friendly interface. It has made investing more accessible for many people, including myself.

However, as a long-term investor, I find that the platform’s design encourages short-term trading, making it harder to hold stocks for years and let compounding work. While Trading 212 is great for traders, I believe it could improve significantly for serious long-term investors.

1. The Gamified UI Encourages Trading Over Investing

One of the biggest challenges I face with Trading 212 is that the interface is designed in a way that makes frequent trading feel more natural than long-term investing.

• The Buy & Sell buttons are too prominent, making it easy to sell impulsively instead of holding great businesses for years.
• The real-time portfolio updates and frequent price notifications keep drawing attention to short-term volatility.
• The app makes me feel more like a trader than an investor, even though my goal is long-term wealth building.

As a disciplined investor, I resist the temptation to trade because I understand the logic behind investing. But many investors struggle with this. The current UI makes it harder to stay focused on the long term.

Solution: Introduce an optional “Long-Term Investing Mode” where:

• Daily price fluctuations can be hidden so investors can focus on long-term business performance.
• Portfolio performance is displayed quarterly or yearly instead of daily changes.
• The Buy/Sell buttons are less prominent to prevent impulse trading.

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2. Automatic Dividend Reinvestment (DRIP)

Currently, dividend payments are received as cash, but there’s no option to automatically reinvest them. Many long-term investors rely on compounding dividends for portfolio growth.

Solution: Add a DRIP feature so investors can automatically reinvest dividends into the same stock or ETF, rather than having to manually reinvest them.

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3. Improved Fundamental Analysis & Research Tools

Right now, Trading 212 provides only basic stock data, meaning long-term investors have to rely on external sources for analysis.

Solution: Add key financial metrics such as:

• Revenue Growth Rates
• Gross Margins, Operating Margins
• P/S, P/E, Free Cash Flow
• Debt Levels & Balance Sheet Strength

This would allow investors to make better long-term decisions without leaving the app.

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4. SIPPs for UK Investors

Trading 212 offers an ISA, which is great, but many long-term investors also want to invest for retirement in a tax-efficient way.

Solution: Introduce a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) option, like what competitors such as Interactive Brokers and Freetrade offer. This would make Trading 212 even more attractive for UK investors who want to hold stocks for decades.

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Why This Matters:

These improvements would make Trading 212 the best platform for both traders and long-term investors.
They align with how serious investors build wealth, encouraging larger deposits and long-term account growth.
Other platforms (e.g., Interactive Brokers, Vanguard, and Freetrade) already offer these features, and adding them would give Trading 212 a competitive edge.

I believe many users would appreciate these improvements, and they could bring more serious long-term investors to Trading 212. If others in the community support these ideas, please upvote or comment so the team can consider them.

Thank you for your time! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[KrisG]

Thanks for your thoughtful feedback!

I totally get where you’re coming from as a long-term investor, and actually, I think that Pies & AutoInvest ticks a lot of the boxes you mentioned.

1. Pies are specifically designed to make long-term investing effortless.

• You can set up recurring deposits so you’re investing consistently, removing the temptation to time the market.
• The AutoInvest feature helps you stick to your long-term plan, investing automatically without the need to make constant buy/sell decisions.
• Rebalancing tools allow you to maintain your target allocations over time, reinforcing a disciplined investing strategy.

This setup removes a lot of the emotional decision-making that often leads to short-term trading. Rather than encouraging frequent trades, Pies actually make it easier to “set and forget” your investments, helping you stay focused on the long-term.

2. Your pies can automatically reinvest the dividend income they receive. The ‘Auto reinvest’ option is enabled by default, and if disabled, all future dividends will be added outside the pie in your account’s free funds.

3. I hear you on the temptation to trade frequently, and that’s really useful feedback. That said, while we do provide real-time price updates and an easy-to-use interface, these features exist for transparency and convenience rather than to encourage short-term trading.

• Pies & AutoInvest are front and center, making it clear that the platform is built for both passive and active investors.
• No commission fees mean you can buy and hold without worrying about trading costs eating into your returns - encouraging a long-term mindset.

That said, I understand that a “long-term mode” with fewer short-term distractions could be valuable, and it’s something we’ll keep in mind as we continue improving the platform.

4. SIPPs are on our radar, but we don’t have a timeline for them just yet. As for deeper fundamental data, that’s something we’re always looking to expand - so stay tuned!

[valalex]

I second all of the above as I’ve suggested to the amazing 212 team to make the platform a bit more accommodating for long-term investors. It would be great if we had some more analytical features within the app such as ETFs’ holdings, portfolio insights (underlying holdings%, asset class, regions, sectors), transactions filtering (purchases, sales, dividends per ETF for a specific period etc.) Thanks, T212 team!