The Effectiveness of Online Trading Incentives in Stock Apps

This study examines when online trading incentives in stock trading applications become effective by focusing on psychological distance, anticipated regret, and message framing. Drawing on Construal Level Theory, it argues that investor responses to commission discount promotions depend not only on economic benefits but also on how the investment decision is mentally construed.<br/> Across three experiments, the results show that trading incentives increase trading intention only when investment decisions are psychologically close. When psychological distance increases, promotions become less effective and may even heighten trading reluctance through anticipated regret. In addition, the effectiveness of promotional messages depends on overlapping social distance and message framing: loss framing is more persuasive in psychologically close contexts, whereas gain framing is more effective when psychological distance is high.<br/> Overall, the findings suggest that the effectiveness of online trading incentives depends on the psychological fit between decision context and message framing, offering implications for behavioral finance and digital brokerage platform design.