Bitpanda

Bitpanda wanted people to trade real stocks, ETFs and ETCs with leverage: borrow against the value of their portfolio, open a bigger position and still own the underlying security, not a CFD. Internally the project was called MT4RS, margin trading for real securities.

Leverage multiplies gains and losses, so the product had to be honest about risk at every step. Before trading, users had to pass an appropriateness test, then understand what they were borrowing, what a liquidation price is, why markets closing overnight or at the weekend matters and what happens if a position ends in debt. All of it had to fit the existing Bitpanda app and web app, in light and dark mode.

I was one of the product designers on MT4RS, working across the mobile app and the web app. My work included:

• Designing the intro and the appropriateness test: three intro screens and a short quiz on stocks, ETFs, ETCs and margin trading risks, with pass and fail outcomes.
• Designing the trading flows: open and add to a position, close or reduce it, take-profit and stop-loss orders, direct repayment and debt repayment.
• Defining how leverage is chosen: a slider when there are five or more leverage steps, chips when there are four or fewer, and a fixed value when there is only one.
• Designing how risk is shown: a position risk bar (low, medium and high risk), the estimated liquidation price and short explainers for borrowing, collateral and fees.
• Bringing margin trading into discovery and the portfolio, with a Leverage tab, position detail pages and market-hours states.
• Documenting every flow for development with happy paths, conditionals, edge cases, loading and dark mode, and preparing the stakeholder walkthroughs.
• Turning the new patterns into reusable components and compositions, and helping improve the design system.

Margin trading lives inside the Bitpanda experience people already know, on mobile and on the web.

• Discover: a Leverage tab in Stocks shows which assets can be traded with leverage and up to how much, and the portfolio groups leveraged positions with their risk level.
• Leverage buy: enter an amount, pick the leverage and see straight away what you are borrowing, your total position, the liquidation price and the risk, then review the leverage terms, price guarantee, fees and cost transparency before opening the position.
• Position detail: performance, liquidation price and risk at a glance, with quick actions to add, decrease, set take-profit and stop-loss, close or repay. When the market is closed and the risk is high, the position suggests repaying part of the loan.
• Take-profit and stop-loss: margin limit orders with a target price and amount, shown as lines on the price chart on the web.
• Debt repayment: if a price gap closes a position with a loss bigger than the collateral, a short intro explains why there is debt, how to repay it and what happens if you don’t, followed by a clear repayment flow.
• Web app: the same flows adapted to the desktop layout, from the portfolio’s Leverage tab to the position page and the checkout panel, with responsive behaviour defined.

Bitpanda launched margin trading on real stocks, ETFs and ETCs on 8 July 2026, with up to 20x leverage (Bitpanda blog).

• A complex, regulated product broken down into steps people can follow: learn, check, choose, review and manage.
• Risk made visible everywhere: leverage, liquidation price and risk level appear on the ticket, the position and the portfolio.
• Consistent flows on mobile and web, in light and dark mode, documented for development down to the edge cases.
• New reusable pieces, like the leverage selector and the position risk bar, ready for the next leveraged products.