Over the weekend, social trading broker eToro unveiled its new stats pages for users. As traders at eToro are basically "copyable" by other users, stats are an important feature when researching who to follow. Therefore, the broker took a design page from the traditional finance industry world when restyling their performance pages. Being updating are what eToro calls "cards," of which there are five: performance, risk, copiers, trading and additional info.
Among the cards, two of the more descriptive ones are performance and trading. The performance card basically looks at each investor as an individual fund, with the stats interface appearing like a monthly or yearly table for any mutual fund would. Explaining the design, eToro stated in their blog, “We went with a completely different approach here, viewing each user and potential copy as an investment fund.”
Also being updated is the trading card. In it, a trader’s portfolio by investment type is listed. More importantly, trade performance statistics are available per individual security, providing an in-depth look for users who only want to copy specific assets of a trader and not their overall account.
Overall, the changes reveal the combination of a style and usability change for the stats page. While perhaps not of the "earth shattering" announcements from the broker, the update is worth noting as it follows the image that eToro has been aiming to brand itself as. Rather than portraying itself as an online broker, eToro has been pivoting its brand to be viewed as a financial innovator. This includes bringing a new concept to trading which includes social investing and the power of the crowd, as well as Marketing a simpler approach to investing. Whether such a move will ultimately pay off in the long run, they are proving to, at least, do a solid job of distinguishing themselves from other online brokers in the eyes of mainstream media.
