[shipnil]

Hi All,

Starting a new thread to know BHPians opinion on the online brokerages that one uses while trading in India.

@Mods: Searched this on the forum but couldn't get any results. If there is any existing thread, please move this post there. Thanks!

I use Indiabulls for online trading/investing. It is good especially with the charges as it does not have any annual maintenance charges. And the comission is also low. Officially it is 0.5% but can be brought down with to .25% or .3% with bargaining.

The trading portal is also okay.

The problems.
It doesn't have a very good way to show holdings. It shows only the current value but not the price at which one has purchased. You have to maintain it yourself somewhere. Creates problems while calculating profits and losses while filing the annual tax returns.

Requires password change every 14 days and it should not have been used in last 4/5 times. Password strength also needs to be high. It troubles me so much that I have to maintain an excel sheet for this only. And if you forget password, it takes ages to get new issued.

Trade orders. They can be placed only for that day and only when the market is open for trading. I thought it is the norm. But now came to know that there are other brokerages that allow order placing even when market is closed and also the order can be there as long as one wants. This should have been there as it is helpful feature as one cannot enter same order every day, managing his day job, if it was not executed yesterday. This is applicable to those stocks where you invest hoping you'd exit if it give x% returns in some time span.

Address change. One has to physically go to one of the branch to change the mailing address. Creates problem if you frequently change residenses.

This was my review on Indiabulls. Hope to see opinions on other brokerages.

[alter.e.go]

I use Angel.

You can check out the Traderji forum for more details

Originally Posted by shipnil

Requires password change every 14 days and it should not have been used in last 4/5 times.

I have an online trading/demat account with Kotak Securities Ltd. since 2006.

They have given a security key that generates a 6-digit number at random which needs to be used in addition to the password. So, there is no need to change the password at frequent intervals.

The portfolio section automatically reflects any buy/sell including net profit/loss for the investment.

As per the recent SEBI directive, they have refunded the excess deposit over and above Rs 1000.

I am fully satisifed with Kotak Securities Ltd.

[Newpunter]

I have used ICICI Direct ( not too much ), HDFC Securities ( reasonably well ) and Sharekhan ( still using ).

I find the HDFC Securities site to be very user friendly and their stock recommendations are usually pretty good. This is a good site for newbies. However, the brokerage is higher compared to the others.
Sharekhan is more for advanced users and they have lots of options that can be confusing to new users. The site takes some time to get used to and to locate the relevant information. They even have a trading software that can be installed on your computer and you can trade using that software without the need of a browser. This is really good and gives you information in the form of tickers and you can track your selected stocks and options continuously. However, the stock recommendations are not particularly good, especially for someone who is interested in short term trades. Their recommendations are more geared towards the longer term.

All three of these sites require me to change my password every 15 days. However, while HDFC securities doesn't allow me to use the previous 5 passwords, sharekhan doesn't have this restriction, so i keep changing between 2 passwords every 15 days.

[vasanthjn]

Hi Shipnil,

I use ICICIDirect.com from the time they started the service. Will give you a detailed review of their service and other facilities off-late extended by them. I feel that they have come a long distance from where they started. I shall post a detailed thread in the later part of the day since I need to leave for office.

[vasanthjn]

Hi Shipnil,

Sorry for the late reply. Was held up in my work for the last two days.

Till date I have used the services of 3 online brokerages

1. I am currently using IDirect and continue using the services for the past 7 years.
2. Have used Reliance Money for around 18 months and closed the account an year back.
3. Used Sharekhan (my cousin's account) for a brief period of around 4 months.

In the early years I used to do around 40/50 trades in the equity and around 30 trades in the F&O segment. But now I dont trade that regularly, but do atleast 20 trades per month. I cant say myself as a heavy trader.

ICICIDirect
1. In the early years the site was not dependable and scalable. Have encountered a lot of issues while placing orders during the opening time and closing time. For the last 2 years this has improved a lot and haven't faced this issue.
2. The functionalities were very basic and limited when it was started. Now from my experience I can say that the functionalities provided by ICICIDirect is one of the best in the industry.
3. Lot of new features / functionalities were introduced after getting the feedback of the regular trading customers.
4. They even went to an extent of introducing Charts facility in their website.
5. When they started the service, their brokerage was one of the highest. I used to regularly complain to them and they also received many feedbacks on this issue. From the last year it has very much manageable. Now the total cost of a trade for a small trader works out to around 0.6%. This may look little bit on the higher side, but I feel that its definitely worth it. The reason being compared to other brokerages this is the one where the money gets credited to your account on the pay-out day itself. Like other brokerages you dont need to request for withdrawal and wait for the same. Here it is just transfer and its instantaneous.
5. Regarding the validity of orders, IIRC, I think the open order gets cancelled at EOD automatically. In one way I think its a good practise, because we never know how that stock will perform the next day.
6. Regarding the holdings view, they provide a portfolio view, including the purchase price, the date of purchase and Unrealized / realized gain or loss. It also provides a total return you have made in that stock. This is one place I am not happy. I have requested them many times to change the way they calculate the returns. As an informed investor, I would always like to see annualised return and not the net return.
7. Regarding the password issue you have mentioned, it is mandated by SEBI that it should be changed every 14 days. but here ICICIDirect allows to keep changing between 2 passwords.
8. In addition to Equity trading they also offer trading facilities in F&O, Currency, Commodities and Mutual Funds. And off-late they have also allowed their investors to use the ASBA process for IPOs, which I really find it useful.

I shall post my opinion on RMoney and Sharekhan later.

Thanks

[shipnil]

Thanks all for your replies! Vasnthjn, appreciate you detailed review.

Originally Posted by alter.e.go

You can check out the Traderji forum for more details

I checked traderji, but mostly it is SMS language, one liners and most important, I don't know how authentic the views are. Whereas a BHPians opinion carries certain weight. I know from the quality of views and reviews I have read not only on cars but also on other subjects.

Originally Posted by vasanthjn

Now the total cost of a trade for a small trader works out to around 0.6%.
5. Regarding the validity of orders, IIRC, I think the open order gets cancelled at EOD automatically.
8. allowed their investors to use the ASBA process for IPOs, which I really find it useful.

Vasanthjn, your review on ICICIDirect was really helpful! Till now I only know that they charge 0.85% brokerage, they don't have portal kind of application where you can see quotes changing near real time.

But you are saying now the brokerage stands at 0.60%. Is it only for an old customer like you or for everyone? Also, I would like know if they have good till executed kind of order type. Validity as long as I don't cancel. I see your review says it is not there but I read somewhere that they offer this kind of facility.

Also, what is this ASBA process for IPOs?

[vjoy3]

Have been using icicidirect for past 7-8 yrs. Since am not a day trader, the (differences in the) charges look ignorable as compared to the gains over months/years.

Once in a while down time I see during non-trading hours and inability to buy (and rarely sell) during the final 10 mins of the market are the minor complaints I have.

Vijay