Stocktwits: Trade Competition
Ary Mega
Financial Analyst
User Researcher
Product Designer
Figma
Jira
Slack
Stocktwits
We wanted to boost engagement and attract active traders, but lacked a gamified way to motivate users. The absence of competition features left engagement stagnant, with daily active users increasing by only 5% over six months.
It was like hosting a sports event without a scoreboard—nobody knew what to aim for or how to celebrate wins.
Our goal
Create a gamified trading leaderboard with real-time updates, prize tiers, and progress tracking, all integrated into Stocktwits' web and mobile platforms.
Sort of like a SoulCycle leaderboard for traders—motivating you to beat your peers while tracking your progress in real-time.
Stocktwits' KYC flow for brokerage account
Stocktwits' trading competition leaderboard on web
The initial results
The good 😀
Around 60% increase in daily active users during competition periods
About 38% rise in user-generated posts about trading strategies and performance
Just shy of 30% growth in sign-ups attributed to competition promotions.
The bad 😔
Some users found the rules unclear, leading to an average of 11% drop-off rate in competition participation.
How we did it
I designed an engaging trading competition leaderboard to gamify trading, increase user participation, and foster community interaction through our platform and social media.
Our Product Managers defined the competition rules and scope
Our Data Engineer built real-time tracking for trade performance metrics
Our Frontend Engineer developed the leaderboard and competition UI
Our Marketing Team promoted the competition to new and existing users on our platform, on social media, and through our newsletters
Stocktwit's marketing page for our trading competition
What we learned
Gamification drives sustained engagement
Adding leaderboards and prizes encouraged participation and community interaction. It's wild to see how competitive a lot of our traders are. This taught us that "friendly" competition can be a powerful motivator (especially for clout).
Clarity is critical
If the rules aren't clearly stated, especially in a simple terms, it led to frustration for some participants. This showed us how important clear instructions and FAQs are for new features.
Stocktwits' how-it-works for our trading competition
What's next?
Plan to refine the competition experience by:
Introducing tiered competitions for different skill levels
Simplifying rules and adding tutorials (onboarding experience) for first-time participants
Creating a post-competition recap feature to celebrate winners and encourage future participation
