Understanding your customers isn’t coming through in the user experience.
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I’m a user.
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I sign into https://app.alpaca.markets/
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I clicked on Plans & Features
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I click on Trading Plans
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I see the new Elite Smart Router.
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I wonder, is that the same as Alpaca Elite? Hmm, what are the commissions? After all, algorithmic trading is a major use-case for this platform and those fees are REALLY important to me and the success of my algo.
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I notice the commissions aren’t listed. Seems odd, given they want me to sign up right here.
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I click on “Learn More”.
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I land here. I have to scroll twice, where I see a slightly dimmed link that says “See More”.
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I click that link and it shows me what I’ve already seen before. Except…wait…this table has a link!
Even when I click that link and find the commission structure, guess what? That still isn’t telling me everything I need to know. It just says, “regulatory fees”. So now I have to go and find out what those are. I can’t search all communication avenues all at once, so it looks like I have to hunt that information down too. I find them after searching support. I never would’ve guessed that’s where they would be.
Who is this being marketing to that wouldn’t find and fees and commissions to be a major deciding factor? What’s the hope here? That people sign up without knowing the commission structure. That works fine for many things. But NEVER for algorithmic trading. Make it make sense, please.