moving from US

Hi All,

it was great to come across this community of investors.

i use etrade and fidelity for investing here in the US. I was looking at all the available options for online trading in india, icici, indiabulls, geojit, angel, sharekhan but I was so disappointed to see the difference we have.

Why are the websites and the trading platforms like PIB and others, so old school? Why dont we have websites and trading platforms like etrade market trader, or scottrader ??

Welcome Back to India Anurag. As in many other fields, you will have to manage your expectation in trading as well when deciding to return home. Accepted that our trading platfrom do not meet international statndards but they serve the purpose. And many people use them effectively in daytrading / swing trading / long term investing.

If you have traded or bought shares in 90s (during Harshad Mehta's time), then you would know the distance that we have travelled so far. But, yes, you are right.. there is long way to go.. Hope we get there sooner then later.

Main reasons, IMO
1) Needs of Active investor/trader market size
2) competition in the industry
3) Maturity of NSE/BSE exchanges (they provide hardly 4 or 5 order types so u can't expect brokers to provide 30+ order type )
4) Demand from big players like FII/ DII /Insurance houses etc
..
Hope global brokerage houses enter india and provide competion and offer we active trader taste of good platform. Then our brokerage houses will also raise to the challange. Till that time - chalta hai tho chalne do nah, yaah..

If you post your requirements from trading platform ike - reports, charts, after mkt hrs or not, brokerage etc then people here may help u with their experience.
IMO, You will be better off going for some exe based platform rather then web based platforms. This will make your transition easier.

Happy Trading

That's only the operational part you are talking about , wait until you find out what the difference in market depth is comparatively.

Thanks for you responses.

Do other people have an opinion on why the technology space in this industry still nascent...

Recently i have installed another set of computer work station apart from my old home stuff .Naturally the new ones are the available best ,starting from chip/processor/RAM/monitor ,everything are the available best.When doing my own trading ,sitting at my new work stations found it to be a Gr8 feeling,the Metastock chart's LOOK has changed,the identification of which stock to Long/Short in Intraday done by exploration in Metastock is very fast than earlier Home one.All is fine.
My 'Codes' are same my concept of 'How to catch an early Trend' is same,which entry to take & which one to leave (weighing the probability/risk ) is same.
In last 2 week the frequency of Stop Loss Hit & Stop Profit Hit is same.
The comfort & ease to work ; this qoutient has ONLY increased.
If one is accostommed with Power Steering driving facility & then when he/she is driving an old fashioned car without power steering it is obviously uncomfortable.
Buddy the Driving acumen is same.

You are right Adheer. I agree with your opinion on eTrade and IB.
Probably, because eTrade does more advertising then IB, many retail investors end up with them. IB is used by Professionals and Investment banks and they have features to support the requirement of Professionals.

Technolgoy supports the business needs. If there is no business needs, then technolgoy is of no use.
I am sure, our IT professionals sitting in Infy/ TCS/ Wipro/Satyam are managing some of these Trading platform.. so its not that they can't do it for Indian broking houses.
Its just that Indian broking house don't see the strong enough business case behind it.

AW 10 and Adheer,

great responses and i agree than IB is better. etrade and scottrade are just more commercial, thats why i mentioned.

i understand that online trading was not a very cared for sector because of low adoption, which i beleive is changing fast. At the same time, as business drives needs, finding untapped waters and creating new market space is what drives growth. if everyone is going to go for the same pie, how will our country's financial markets mature, which they need to if we want to be a economic superpower in the coming decades.

but i still scratch my head thinking why with wipro/infy/satyam etc, the sharekhan's and indiabulls still not upto international standards.

since the business model of "investmant banks" is virtually gone now, this industry space will be redesigning itself completely.

After getting beating during this credit crisis, Investment banks and brokage houses have lost so much that they are thinking of surviving first. New development work, new features etc are atleast few years away, IMO.

Retail investor / traders come to market only in wave 5 of the bull market. Thats when IB and brokerage houses make money.

So we got to wait a long time. Hope something else change before that.

I think your enquiries to all the brokers was from the USA while being an NRI. Since NRIs are only permitted to invest under portfolio investment scheme, brokers offer only web based platforms for trading which is not as efficient for active trader as exe based platforms.