Information regarding Indian Brokers

TradeOptions

Well-Known Member
#1
Active client base of Indian brokers

by brokrji · Published June 8, 2016 · Updated June 8, 2016

The following table lists the number of active clients per broker. This data is of May 2016 as per the NSE.

An active client is one who has made at-least one transaction per year. Use this data as a point of consideration while choosing your broker. Go to our reviews section to find more in-depth profiles of op Indian brokers.

http://brokrji.com/the-street/active-client-base-of-indian-brokers/
 

TradeOptions

Well-Known Member
#2
How to choose the wrong broker ?

How to choose the wrong broker ?

by brokrji · Published June 18, 2016 · Updated June 18, 2016
Every broker’s review site on the internet has a guide or an article on how to choose a right broker, so we though let us take a different view and tell you how to choose a wrong broker perfectly.

  1. Focus only on the brokerage and nothing else: A sure shot way of choosing a wrong broker is to focus on the brokerage and nothing else. If the broker is giving the cheapest brokerage or go ahead and open an account with them. After all the saying goes “Cheaper the better”
  2. If a broker is charging high brokerage that is also better because they must be really fantastic.
  3. If you have not heard of a broker, you cannot trust them: If you have not heard of a broker, don’t trust them, go ahead and choose a broker you are familiar with even if they charge high brokerage. After all, it doesn’t matter if you are losing most your profits, as long as some of your profits are safe. If you haven’t heard about them, they sure are hell are not trustworthy.
  4. Open an account only if the broker has an office near you: How can you trust a broker who doesn’t have an office near your residence or office. If the broker has a branch far from you, he will definitely steal your money….Guaranteed!
  5. Open an account only if the broker offers IPO: Since you will be applying for all the IPO’s in a year and make tonnes of money open an account only if the broker you have chosen has an IPO option. Applying IPO through demat and online net banking is for suckers.
  6. If the broker has a good brand name, he is trustworthy: Whoever said that you cannot trust anybody or anything these days. If the broker you have chosen has a good brand then he will most definitely be transparent and trustworthy, he won’t levy any hidden charges and won’t have any extra conditions that you don’t know.
  7. Don’t trust a broker if he says they offer better platforms and technology: Whoever made money by using good platforms and technology right ? as long as your platform was not made in 1947 and has buy and sell options it is enough. Don’t give a crap about the advanced platforms, charting, algo trading etc, that stuff is for geeks.
  8. Choose a broker only if he offers research and tips: Choose a broker only if he publishes research reports and offer trading tips. The only way you can become the next Warren Buffet is by following the advice of your broker. After all, if your manager is a working for a broker, he must definitely be a qualified and certified research analyst!


Sarcasm Is Like Electricity, Half Of India Doesn’t Get it! Hope You Got It! :p

http://brokrji.com/guides/how-to-choose-the-wrong-broker/
 

TradeOptions

Well-Known Member
#3
How to choose the right broker

by brokrji · Published June 7, 2016 · Updated July 22, 2016

Choosing the right broker is much unlike picking a girlfriend, you would be lucky to pick the right one if not then well enjoy whatever life you have left.

In this guide, we will describe the things you should consider while choosing your broker. While choosing the right broker is a lesser priority in the grand scheme of things while trading/investing we at Brokerji believe that it is nonetheless important to get your choice of a broker right. Afterall brokers enable your trading and investing.

Step 1: Understand the distinction between a Traditional And Discount Broker.

A full service or a traditional broker provides other services along with core broking such as banking, research, advisory, relationship managers etc. But in our experience, most of this is just on paper and most often than not useless. And of course, you will be charged for this uselessness.
Discount brokers operate a lean model with the core focus on offering extremely low brokerage rates. They don’t offer other services such as relationship managers, research, advice PMS etc. They focus mainly on brokerage and tech.

Step 2: Brokerage is just one part of the equation, keep an eye on other charges such as transaction and turnover costs. We will be rolling out a feature to list out all the charges of a broker, but not all brokers charge these fee uniformly. Some brokers reduce the brokerage but hike these other charges. Go to the sites of the brokers whom you have shortlisted and compare their other charges.

Case in Point:

Discount brokers generally charge Rs.20 for call and trade and they mention this charge upfront. But we have noticed that full-service brokers deceive customers by saying they offer it free, but in truth, most of the brokers offer only the first 20 calls for free and the subsequent calls are a charged. Ex- Kotak Securities. As the saying goes the devil is in the details.

Step 3: While researching a broker online reading the reviews can be a good thing but many of the review sites have stacked the decks with useless and deceptive reviews, so you would be wise to talk to customers who are or have used the services of a broker in the past. Chances are you will find many such people amongst your own circle. Nothing beats personal validation.

Step 4: The background of the broker matters. Verify the brokers certifications and offers carefully. All that glitters inst gold. There have been several instances of brokers going bust in the recent past. They set up a honey trap by luring customers in the guise of offering deceptively cheap costs, but in reality, these charges don’t make any economic and operational sense.

Step 5: You can learn a lot about a broker based on the number of complaints it has received over a period of time. SEBI regularly discloses the number of complaints and in the upcoming days, we will create a list on Brokerji to track the number of complaints in the upcoming days.

Step 6: Customer support is one of the most important parameters of while choosing a broker. Check with your brokers about how responsive they are (They will most likely lie out of their teeth), verify among people who have used that particular broker’s services, pretend to be a customer and drop them an email or better yet call their support during market hours to gauge the level of support.

Step 6: Keep an eye on any conditions like minimum balances, turnover commitments etc. While most brokers definitely have such conditions, not many disclose them upfront so make sure you question them thoroughly before opening an account. We would not advise you to choose a broker who places such conditions and restrictions.

Step 7: The common tendency among beginners is to choose a broker based solely on the pricing without verifying their product offerings. Ensure that the brokers have memberships for all major segments including mutual funds etc. While traditional brokers have IPO offering, discount brokers don’t but it is not a deal breaker because you can apply for an IPO from your internet banking portal or through your Demat by filling a form at the nearest brokers office.

Step 8: Don’t fall for freebies: Recently some brokers have started offering brokerage credits (Brokerage reversals) but in the long run, you will end up paying more because their brokerage would still be high.

Step 9: Don’t choose a broker for benefits you don’t need, We have seen many investors and traders choose brokers for reasons such as 3-in-1 accounts, GTC orders etc. Although important these are not the only features that should decide your choice of a broker. You can link any major bank to make instant fund transfers, GTC order has many risks. So we do not see the point in these features being the deciding factor.

If you are a regular trader always choose a discount broker as there is not point in choosing a traditional broker. You will end up losing your profits as charges and brokerage.

Step 10: Technology, tools, and platforms: One of the most important thing that people ignore while choosing a broker is failing to verify their technology and platforms. One simple example would be most traditional brokers offer only up to 30 days of intraday charts while Zerodha offers 365 days of intraday data.

Even if you won’t be using a broker’s charting or other advanced tools, why not choose a broker who is offering a better option at a much lower cost structure. Generally, a large majority of traditional brokers do not offer a platform that satisfies the hardcore trader community, hence, there is no point in choosing them and then discovering the shortfalls.

A select few discount brokers have launched some amazing tools which are available along with some of the lowest brokerage structures.

http://brokrji.com/guides/how-to-choose-the-right-broker/
 

TradeOptions

Well-Known Member
#4
The following table lists the number of active clients per broker. This data is of May 2016 as per the NSE.

An active client is one who has made at-least one transaction per year. Use this data as a point of consideration while choosing your broker. Go to our reviews section to find more in-depth profiles of op Indian brokers.

http://brokrji.com/the-street/active-client-base-of-indian-brokers/

ICICI SECURITIES LIMITED is the topper with 559513 clients.
Most are from the Bank Field, in the Top 10 category.

zerodha got around 70,000 active clients :eek:, I was expecting a much larger figure, as the definition of Active Client is very loose, means many of these so called active clients would have done just a few trades during the whole year.
 

TradeOptions

Well-Known Member
#5
This article has got some Shocking Info regarding the lack of participation in the Indian Markets.


The SEBI chief is worried about poor retail participation. The regulator and the exchanges are alone responsible for this. Will anything change?

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has finally woken up to the fact that it has fallen short in its key role to develop the capital market and increase the base of investors. Today, SEBI chief UK Sinha admitted as much, saying that the market regulator would take steps to get retail investors back into the market. While the new SEBI chief's policy changes are well-intentioned, the measures to be taken would make sense only if they are grounded in reality. We will be keenly watching what SEBI does, for Moneylife alone has been highlighting how investors have been pushed out of the capital market system by a combination of factors.

In India, the retail participation in the stock market has declined from 20 million in the 1990s to 12 million in 1999, and just around 8 million in 2009, according to official data, this despite the fact that the Sensex has grown by 20 times during this period. As a percentage of the total population, the retail investor participation is just 1.3%, whereas in the US and China it is 27.7% and 10.5% respectively, according to the Bimal Jalan Committee report. The SEBI chief has targeted an optimistic figure of 8% for retail participation in India.

As has been pointed out by Moneylife repeatedly in the past, the decline in investor participation is due to many complex issues for which the regulator and the stock exchanges are squarely responsible. This cannot be resolved by making just one or two policy changes. The market is riddled with problems ranging from the difficulties for investors in opening a demat account to price manipulation, poor grievance redressal and the lack of proper guidance. Retail investors face a tough time, and to add to this they are taken for a ride by greedy investment advisors.

In August last year, Union minister of state for finance, Namo Narain Meena, revealed in Parliament the reality of the Indian 'equity cult'. He said around 50% of the cash market transactions on the National Stock Exchange (during April-June 2010) came from a shockingly low 451 investors, of whom 156 were proprietary traders, while 50% of the trading in NSE's derivatives segment came from just 106 investors of whom 58 were proprietary traders. Only 6% of client accounts contributed to 90% of the trading in the cash segment. 80% of turnover came from just 41,654 investors. In other words, 1,50,546 investors (78%) accounted for just 10% of trading turnover.

Moneylife magazine and Moneylife Foundation have on a regular basis highlighted these issues through articles and seminars. In the month of February, Moneylife Foundation released a position paper on the issues faced by retail investors, alarmed by the decline in retail participation. This paper was sent to the finance minister, the finance secretary, the joint secretary, Capital Markets, and Yashwant Sinha, head of the Standing Committee on Finance. Investors face multiple issues as identified by Moneylife Foundation. Some of these are listed below:

To open a demat account an investor has to go thorough cumbersome KYC procedures. Along with this, the customer has to sign on numerous forms, many of which they sign without asking too many questions. The charges involved in opening and maintaining a demat account are not in favour of the retail investor either. Investors have to cough up nearly Rs550-Rs3,500 just open an account and then there are account maintenance and transaction charges. Brokers usually ignore those with small investments and look for investors with bigger pockets, as they earn higher commissions on the later.

The power of attorney (POA), which gives brokers the power to operate their clients account for conducting trades, is often misused by the brokers. In August 2009, an individual from the brokerage firm India Infoline was arrested for conducting unauthorised trades in an investors' account that led to a loss of Rs13 lakh for the investor (Read, Harassed Investors.) This is taking place in spite of the lengthy and complicated procedure of creating a demat account and is a de-motivation for the investor.

Portfolio management services (PMS) are no better in servicing clients. There are several cases where investors have been duped by fanciful presentations of the brokerage firms. The major problem is that this area is not yet regulated. Investment norms are not clear and there is no restriction to churning and trading. They have been cases where investors have lost a major portion of their fund value due to excessive churning. (Read, Will Portfolio Managers Be Accountable?)

The issues related to demat accounts, mis-selling, and PMS can be tackled to some extent with proper investor education. But, issues like price manipulation, corrupt accounting practices and over-pricing and incorrect grading of IPOs, are issues which cannot be controlled by the investor. It is the job of the regulator to take stern action against such malpractices. But, SEBI has not seriously pursued investor protection.

Investor protection is one of the primary objectives of SEBI. But, its grievance redressal system is not up to the mark. In May 2009, the chief information commissioner (CIC) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act had severely criticised the regulator's handling of investor grievances. The CIC said that SEBI was not providing the right support to information-seekers and rejected requests even when it had the power to obtain details from stock exchanges.

"The response of the regulators in India has been knee-jerk and panicky. Instead of trying to punish wrongdoers after in-depth investigation and sensitivity to market practices, the regulators have only succeeded in eroding investors' confidence in the market by high-profile arrests and media hype," says Deena Mehta managing director, Asit C Mehta Investment Interrmediates, and one of the three trading member-directors on the board of the Bombay Stock Exchange.

http://www.moneylife.in/article/inc...or-base-sebi-has-a-tough-job-ahead/16977.html
 

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