You've seen this before.
You open your trading app and the home screen shows “Top Gainers” and “Most Traded Stocks” before it shows your own portfolio. There's a notification “Reliance is up 3.2% today!” even though you didn't ask to be told. You try to close a pop-up, but the “No thanks” button is smaller and greyed out while “Enable Alerts” is big and bright.
Or this: you're selling an option trade and the margin required shown doesn't match with what was blocked from the funds.
Or this: you want to close your trading account but there's no option in the app. You have to email support and they ask why and then they offer you a discount. They take three weeks.
These are intentional choices and not accidents or bad design and they have a name.
Dark Patterns
A dark pattern is a design choice in an app or website that tricks you into doing something you didn't intend to do. Buying something you didn't want or sharing data you didn't mean to share or staying subscribed to something you wanted to cancel.
The term was coined in 2010 by Harry Brignull, a UX researcher, to describe interfaces designed to benefit the company at the expense of the user. The key word is designed. These are often intentional design choices rather than accidental UX outcomes: features that work as intended, just not in your interest.
“Any practices or deceptive design pattern using user interface or user experience interactions on any platform that is designed to mislead or trick users to do something they originally did not intend or want to do, by subverting or impairing the consumer autonomy, decision making or choice.”
— CCPA, Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023
The important phrase there is “subverting or impairing consumer autonomy.” Every time an app nudges you toward a decision that benefits the platform more than it benefits you and does so through design rather than through better service, that's a dark pattern at work.
Why this matters for traders
Dark patterns aren't just annoying. In trading, they cost you real money.
Barber & Odean, 2000
(IOSCO, 2025)
Behavioural finance has documented the biases that make this work: the disposition effect (selling winners too early, holding losers too long), loss aversion, and FOMO-driven overtrading. These are not flaws in how you think. They are predictable patterns in how everyone makes decisions when the outcome is uncertain. Trading apps can be structured in ways that exploit exactly these tendencies.
Then there are the charges you do not see upfront. The ones that never appear on a pricing page but show up in your contract note or ledger.
A 2024 study by the Advertising Standards Council of India found that 52 of India's 53 most popular apps used at least one deceptive design pattern. Fintech apps were among the worst, averaging 5.3 per app.
What the law says
India's regulatory framework around dark patterns has been tightening steadily. Here's where things stand.
13 specific dark patterns defined. Applies to all consumer-facing digital platforms in India, including trading apps.
Consent must be free, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Prohibits pre-checked boxes, bundled consent, and deceptive flows.
First explicit prohibition of dark patterns in banking apps. Takes effect July 2026 if finalised. Signals direction for SEBI.
All insurers on digital platforms must comply with CCPA guidelines. Self-assessment within 15 days.
Two financial regulators have adopted the framework. SEBI hasn't yet, but the direction is clear.
Enforcement so far
The guidelines don't independently create penalties. But the CCPA has already acted where dark patterns amount to unfair trade practices under consumer protection law.
These are consumer-facing companies, not brokers. But the framework is identical. When the CCPA or SEBI turns to trading apps, the patterns listed on this page are exactly what they'll audit.
CCPA's 13 dark patterns — relevance to trading apps
False urgency
"Trending stocks," "most traded today" create social proof pressure
Forced action
Bundling DND/DNC waivers into mandatory sign-up checkboxes
The full list: dark patterns in Indian trading apps
Below is a comprehensive list based on observed flows from live Indian broking apps. Not every app uses all of these. The point isn't to name platforms; it's to help you recognise the patterns so you can make informed choices about the tools you use.
Ask yourself these five questions
What does the home screen show first: your portfolio or their suggestions? If you see trending stocks before your own holdings, the app is optimised for discovery (which generates trades), not execution.
Do you know what you're actually paying? Look for DP charges, collateral interest, and platform fees. If any are absent from the main pricing page, ask yourself why.
How many notifications did you get this week that you didn't ask for? If more than half are about stocks you don't own, those are trade triggers, not notifications.
How easy is it to leave? Try to find the account closure option. If it requires an email or routes through a retention team, that tells you about the platform's priorities.
Did you opt in, or were you opted in? Check your notification preferences. If everything is on and you don't remember enabling them, the defaults benefit the platform.
Scorecard
Use our interactive scorecard to check how your trading app measures up.
Check the patterns you've observed
What happens next
The regulatory picture in India is moving in one direction. The CCPA has the guidelines. The RBI is bringing them to banking. IRDAI has adopted them for insurance. The DPDP Act covers consent-related dark patterns across all digital platforms. The question for broking isn't whether regulation will arrive; it's when.
Some platforms will wait for the circular. Some will comply only when audited.
We wrote this because we think traders deserve to know what's being designed around them, whether or not the regulator has gotten to it yet.
Curious what a platform looks like without any of this?
We built 021 Trade to put clarity over noise, speed over scale, and transparency over tricks.
See what makes us different →Spotted a dark pattern we haven't listed?
Write to us at [email protected] with what you saw, which platform, and a screenshot if you have one.
We'll add verified examples to this page (anonymised) and credit you if you'd like.
Sources and further reading
- CCPA Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 — PIB
- CCPA Advisory to E-Commerce Platforms, June 2025 — PIB
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 — MeitY
- RBI Draft Responsible Business Conduct Amendment Directions, Feb 2026 — Medianama
- IRDAI Dark Patterns Compliance Directive, Apr 2026 — Medianama
- SEBI Study: Individual Traders in Equity F&O, FY2025 — Business Standard
- Barber, B.M. & Odean, T. (2000), "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth." The Journal of Finance
- Brignull, H. — deceptive.design
This page is part of 021 Trade's commitment to transparency. We update it regularly. Last updated: May 2026.