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.
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.
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.
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.
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.