A robust multi-portfolio trading tool is crucial for portfolio managers who need to place the same trade across multiple accounts (often called “block trading”). Previously, our platform only supported single-portfolio orders, forcing repetitive data entry. We introduced a new feature that enables simultaneous multi-portfolio trades, eliminating the need to re-enter identical details.
Our existing trade execution workflow worked fine for single-client, single-portfolio orders. It wasn’t built to handle multi-portfolio orders efficiently. This forced portfolio managers to submit each order separately, increasing both time and risk of manual errors.
Existing workflow for single-client, single-portfolio orders
In workshops with client teams and trading SMEs, we examined the full lifecycle of a trade - from deciding which asset to buy or sell, executing the order, and finally reviewing it. Two core issues emerged:
- Duplicate data entry: managers had to re-key the same trade details (ticker, quantity, price) for each portfolio.
- Market price variance: staggered order submission often led to different execution prices for each account - a fairness and compliance concern.
USE CASE EXAMPLE
If you have 10 clients all holding AAPL, you might want to reduce each position by 5%, creating one bulk order across all 10. Without block trading, you’d manually repeat that process 10 times.
Mapping the user journey to understand traders’ mental models
Documenting key activities for order planning and trade execution to better empathise with our users
During research we discovered that our solution needed to align with UAE-specific business rules and regulatory requirements for portfolio trading, particularly:
- By policy, portfolio managers can only submit one security per trade for 1 client portolfio.
- Trade violations (such as exceeding a 10% position limit) often block orders. However, senior portfolio managers can override certain flags with proper justification. So our design needed a clear way to display these alerts, allow overrides, and capture audit details.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
We discovered that managing multiple orders boils down to 2 main stages: staging and review:
- In staging, portfolio managers get everything ready, such as: input all the trade details (client, portfolio, account, security, etc.), review and track order status.
- In review step, they confirm and execute orders, ensuring correct allocations and pricing.
Rough sketches to visualise the concept
Using insights from discovery, we moved into ideation - figuring out how to make the bulk trade process intuitive despite its complexity. We considered a few key UI approaches:
- Step-by-step wizard
- Single-page table (“blotter”)
1. Step-by-step wizard
A guided workflow broken into sequential steps starting from selecting the security to trade, clients, portfolios, input trade quantities for each, review and confirm.This wizard approach would simplify the task by breaking it down and showing only a subset of information at each step, reducing cognitive load.
Our wizard option undergone several iterations:
1. 1 Wizard with Sidebar: this version was similar to our existing single order entry UX. However, we quickly ran into problems. With many clients and portfolios, the sidebar became clunky and required excessive scrolling. It also made it difficult for traders to quickly scan all the entered data or see at a glance how many clients had been selected.
1.1 Wizard with sidebar concept
1.2 Wizard with side panel and split view: this iteration showed more promise. Users selected clients on the left, and other details (portfolios, order information, etc.) appeared on the right, making it easier to scan the information. We also added a "duplicate order" feature, inspired by Adobe Lightroom's preset copying, to streamline the process.
While the wizard felt approachable for new users, it introduced extra clicks and transitions that slowed down experienced traders.
1.2 Wizard with side panel and split view
2. Single-page table (“Blotter”)
A spreadsheet-like format displaying all information in one place. The manager selected a product and portfolios, then entered trade amounts directly in a table.
This approach offered maximum control and an at-a-glance overview, making it easy to compare allocations side by side and ensure consistency. The trade-off, however, was potential clutter. Fitting all the necessary information (portfolio names, holdings, cash available, input fields, warnings, etc.) required careful layout to avoid overwhelming the user.
2. Single-page table (“Blotter”) concept for creating multiple orders
TESTING INSIGHTS
We created interactive prototypes of both the wizard and table approaches and tested them with portfolio managers.
- Wizard feedback: clear for small sets of portfolios but “too many clicks” for big blocks.
- Single-page table (“blotter”): more popular. Users liked the overview and quick data entry, stating it “feels like Excel, but integrated into the system.” They worried about horizontal scrolling if the table got too wide.
Based on this feedback, we decided to focus on the table view and address its shortcomings. Here's how we improved it:
- Frozen action column: keeping critical actions (e.g., duplicate, compliance overrides) in a fixed column to minimize scrolling.
- Compliance warnings: originally, compliance violations were flagged at the review step. Users preferred seeing them earlier during order creation. We improved this experience by using explicit warning icons and tooltips, with a dedicated sidebar for resolving each issue. This made the process much clearer and allowed users to address compliance issues directly during order creation. We also froze the "Violation" column for constant visibility.
- Improved visual clarity: to improve readability, we highlighted editable rows when a user added an order.
- Smarter Filters: beyond asset type filters (e.g., equity, fixed income), we introduced “With Violations,” “No Violations” filters with counts to help users navigate large sets of portfolios.
Refined blotter table with compliance warnings
Always looking for better solutions, we explored a hybrid approach: a table with a side drawer for adding new orders. Our thinking was that this might provide a more spacious layout. However, testing revealed that the drawer added extra steps and slowed down the process, especially when duplicating orders.
Experimenting with hybrid approach: a table with a side drawer for adding new orders
Evaluating all design options by weighing their pros and cons
Ensuring all design specs are covered before development begins
In the staging step, users can focus on setting up and previewing all orders
The review step ensures portfolio managers can validate allocations, pricing, and compliance before execution
We built a bulk trading feature that became a key tool for portfolio managers, allowing them to place trades across multiple accounts in just a few steps. Instant compliance checks and controlled overrides improved efficiency, reducing friction in their workflow. As a result, our customers saw higher trade volumes and stronger regulatory compliance, driving better business outcomes.
