Stock Brokers in India (Best Broker Comparison)

• Understand basics of Online Stock Market Trading in India.
• Provide detail about Top Stock Trading Companies in India.
• Compare and discuss about stock broker websites, product offerings, services, fees, brokerage and reviews.

Introduction to Online Stock Trading

1. Stock Exchange

   Stocks (Shares, equity) are traded in stock exchange. India has two big stock exchanges (Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE and National Stock Exchange - NSE) and few small exchanges like Jaipur Stock Exchange etc.

   Investor can trade stocks in any of the stock exchange in India.

2. Stock Broker

   Investor requires a Stock Broker to buy and sell shares in stock exchanges (BSE, NSE etc.). Stock Broker are registered member of stock exchange.

   Only stock brokers can directly buy and sell shares in Stock Market. An investor must contact a stock broker to trade stocks on behalf of him. Broker charge commissions (brokerages) for their service. Brokerage is usually a percent of total amount of trade and varies from broker to broker. In recent days the idea of flat fee share broker is picking up. In flat fee stock trading, a fixed amount is charged (i.e. Rs 20 per trade) irrespective to the size of the order.

3. Online Stock Trading

   Traditionally stock trading is done through stock brokers, personally or through telephones. As number of people trading in stock market increase enormously in last few years, some issues like location constrains, busy phone lines, miss communication etc start growing in stock broker offices. Information technology (Stock Market Software) helps stock brokers in solving these problems with Online Stock Trading.

   Online Stock Market Trading is an internet based stock trading facility. Investor can trade shares through a website without any manual intervention from Stock Broker.

   In this case these Online Stock Trading companies are stock broker for the investor. They are registered with one or more Stock Exchanges. Mostly Online Trading Websites in India trades in BSE and NSE.

   There are two different type of trading platforms available for online equity trading.

   1. Installable software based Stock Trading Terminals
      

      These trading environment requires software to be installed on investors computer. These software are provided by the stock broker. These softwares require high speed internet connection. This kind of trading terminals are used by high volume intra day equity traders.

      Advantages:

      • Orders directly send to stock exchanges rather then stock broker. This makes order execution very fast.
      • It provides almost each and every information which is required to a trader on a single screen including stock market charts, live data, alerts, stock market news etc.

      Disadvantages:

      • Location constrain - You cannot trade if you are not on the computer where you have installed trading terminal software.
      • It requires high speed internet connection.
      • These trading terminals are not easily available for low volumn share traders.
   2. Web (Internet) based trading application
      

      These kind of trading environment doesn't require any additional software installation. They are like other internet websites which investor can access from around the world through normal internet connection.

      Below are few advantages and disadvantages of Online Stock Market Trading :-

      Advantages of Online Stock Trading (Website based):

      • Real time stock trading without calling or visiting broker's office.
      • Display real time market watch, historical datas, graphs etc.
      • Investment in IPOs, Mutual Funds and Bonds.
      • Check the trading history; demat account balance and bank account balance at any time.
      • Provide online tools like market watch, graphs and recommendations to do analysis of stocks.
      • Place offline orders for buying or selling stocks.
      • Set alert to inform you certain activity on the stock through email or sms.
      • Customer service through Email or Chat.
      • Secure transactions.

      Disadvantages of Online Stock Trading (Website based):

      • Website performance - sometime the website is too slow or not enough user friendly.
      • Little long learning curve especially for people who doesn't know much about computer and internet.
      • Brokerages are little high.

Type of Brokers (by services they provide)

Brokers in India can be categories by the type of services they provide. There are two popular types of broker; full-service broker and discount broker. Both of them have their own pros and cons.

1. Full-service broker (Full Service Brokerage)

   Full-service (Full-price) brokers are the traditional broker's who offers almost kind of investment options and advisory to its customers.

   This includes trading in stock (equity), Future & Options, commodities and currency derivatives, Investment in Mutual Funds, IPO's, Fixed Deposits and Bonds, Life Insurance and General Insurance. They also provide Wealth Management and Investment Planning services to individual as well as corporate customers.

   Full Service Brokers have their own research teams which helps the customer in their financial planning. They regularly publish newsletters like market watch where they provide research reports, stock tips and recommendations to their customers.

   The service they offer comes at a cost. There services charges, fees and brokerages are higher from discount brokers. They charges brokerage based on a certain % of the trade value.

   Most of the stock brokers in India are full-service brokers. Some popular names are ICICI Securities Pvt Ltd, HDFC Securities Ltd, Kotak Securities Ltd, HSBC Invest Direct Ltd and SBICAP Securities Ltd.

2. Discount Broker (Discount Brokerage)

   An increasing popular discount broker's provides less number of services but at a much cheaper price. They offer no-frill services and specialized into few investment options. Discount brokers are good for 'do-it-yourself' kind of investors.

   While the services offered by them varies from broker to broker, many of the discount stock brokers do not provide services like stock research, investment in IPO's, Mutual Funds, FD's, Bonds and NCD's. They generally do not have their own research teams and thus do not provide wealth management related services.

   Discount brokers in India offers mainly two type of pricing plans:

   1. Per Trade Flat Rate Pricing

      Most discount brokers charge 'fixed price brokerage per trade' irrespective to the size of the trade. i.e.

      • ProStocks charges Rs 15 per executed order.
      • Zerodha charges Rs 20 per executed order.
      • Upstox charges 0.01% or Rs 20 per executed order (Whichever is lower).

   2. Unlimited Monthly / Yearly Trading Plan

      Many discount brokers offer fixed rate unlimited trading monthly or yearly plan. There brokers offers unlimited trading in selected segments and exchanges for a flat monthly rate. There is no brokerage charged in this kind of plans. Here are two unlimited trading plans offered by ProStocks.

      • ProStocks - Rs 899 per Month Unlimited Equity & Equity Derivatives Trading
      • ProStocks - Rs 499 per Month Unlimited Currency Derivatives Trading

Full Service Brokers Vs Discount Brokers (major difference)

Read detailed article about Comparison of Full Service Brokers and Discount Brokers in India

1. Full service broker charges brokerage in % of total trade value. Discount broker brokerage charges are fixed irrespective to the size of the trade.
2. Full service brokerage charges are always much higher than discount broker.
3. Full service broker charges Annual maintenance Fees (AMC) for trading account which is free with the most of the discount brokers.
4. Full service brokers have branches in almost all major cities while discount brokers have limited branches mainly located in metro cities.
5. Full service brokers provide training programs, research reports and many other add on services to its customers, which are helpful for beginners.
6. Most full service brokers provide 3-in-1 account which includes trading account, demat account and bank account. This makes it very easy for customers as all the transactions between these accounts are seamless.
7. Most discount brokers do not provide 24 hours phone support while most of the full-service brokers provide 24 hours phone support.

List of Share Brokers in India

There are 100's of stocks broker in India member of BSE and NSE. Most of them offers retail broking. Every year we do detail review analysis of Top Share Brokers in India. Some of the stock brokers we reviewed are listed below. Click on the broker's name to get more detail about them.