Mumbai, Aug 4: 021 Trade, a SEBI-registered stockbroker, announced the launch of three new product features such as Buffett Mode, Anchor and Co-Captain. These are designed to aim at making trading easier for people to avoid pushed decision and focus on long-term investment. The goal is to cut down on distractions, let investors pause and reset, and keep them from burning out. The features are now live on their mobile application.
This is a timely move by 021 Trade where there are concerns around excessive retail trading. According to SEBI’s latest study, nearly 91% of individual traders in the equity derivatives segment incurred losses in FY25, with cumulative net losses amounting to ₹1.06 lakh crore. The regulators are also scrutinising the dark patterns involved of digital design practices that encourage excessive engagement and trading.
Most trading platforms worry about slow trading volumes, hence end up introducing engagement driven features and notifications. Whereas, 021 Trade has adopted a different approach by introducing tools that avoid reduce unnecessary trading activity.
Buffett Mode removes common behavioural triggers by hiding live market prices and unrealised profit-and-loss figures. It allows investors to focus on long-term wealth creation rather than short-term market fluctuations.
The Anchor option enables customers to opt out and lock themselves out of trading for a set period of time with note that reminds them of the decision of opting out. If a customer attempts to trade during the lock period, the note is displayed before the trading is resumed, with a built-in 30-second delay which is designed to stop customers from making impulsive decisions.
Co-Captain allows customers to nominate some trusted individual who can pause the user’s trading access. Customers receive notification when this feature is activated, and also retain the ability to override the restriction whenever they choose.
Eshaan Lazarus, Co-founder and CEO, 021 Trade, said,
“Every trading app is a series of design choices. Most of those choices ramp up engagement and trading because it’s good for the platform. We think tech should help people make better decisions, even if that means they trade less. We’d rather build relationships that last a decade than encourage behaviour that burns people out in six months.”
These features are built on the broader philosophy of eliminating behavioural investment patterns. Earlier, they published a guide called Dark Patterns in Trading Apps to highlight how interface’s influence investor behaviour. Unlike other platforms, they don’t send push alerts about trending stocks or showcase “most traded” lists. 021 Trade also post public quarterly reports disclosing platform outages and customer complaints.
Several dark patterns were found on major digital platforms according to the Central Consumer Protection Authority’s 2023 rules. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 requires consent to be free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India instructed insurers to follow the CCPA framework, as well as the Reserve Bank of India in February 2026 also first suggested a ban on dark patterns in banking applications. Recently, in June 2026, SEBI in a consultation paper published A Common Advertisement Code that specifically forbids the use of dark patterns for all regulated firms, including brokers. 021 Trade has decided to proactively develop its platform around these emergent ideas, even if the framework has not yet been finalized.