What is BTST order in ICICIDirect?

BTST in ICICIDirect is an abbreviation for Buy Today Sell Tomorrow. It is a facility that allows you to sell shares without having to wait for it to get credited in your demat account.

It takes T+2 day (T being the day of trading) for the shares you bought to get credited in the demat account. In a normal trading process, you cannot sell shares that are not available in your demat account. Even if you sell shares (called shorting), you have to buy the shares on the same trading day.

Now, what if you buy shares and due to an event the stock price increases in the short term. You won't be able to benefit from it as you have to wait for the shares to be delivered before selling it. The same situation arises if the stock prices move downwards.

BTST order facility helps you to profit from such short term price movements by allowing you to sell shares before they are credited in your demat account. It also helps you prevent losses when the stock price is decreasing.

Let us take an example. Suppose that you buy shares of a company today at 2 pm. The next day, the price of this scrip increases by Rs 10. With BTST, you can sell the shares and book profits.

Note:

• Only limited stocks are available for the BTST facility. You can check the list through the 'Stock List'.
• No extra brokerage is charged on BTST orders. Normal cash brokerage is charged.
• Shares under BTST orders can be sold on T+1 or T+2 days before the delivery of the shares on the demat account.