Option trading on ICICIdirect - margin calculation

[madhusar]

Would like guidance from people who have traded options on ICICIdirect ...

How is the margin calculated for selling CA options ? The margin calculation is not quiet clear.

 

[AW10]

Have you checked their online help section. They have explained it with example.

I heard, they are charging exorbitantly high margin off-late from last 1 month due to high volatility (I might be wrong)

 

[madhusar]

Within ICICIdirect in F&O, there is an option / hyperlink called "Know Your Margin".
Can this be used to calculate margins ?

 

[gunsho]

I use "Know your margin" to calculate it. But as AW10 said, it changes a lot after the transactions. There will be an email "Margin Details XYZ" daily from ICICI before 11AM. This has the latest Margin req for our portfolio.

For example, it was around 80K in "Know your margin", but when it comes to email, it was around 110K.

Off Topic:
Planning to shift to someone else, as brokerage appears to be high with ICICI direct. Together with tax et all, it comes to 110 Rs per slot per trade. Which means, we will end up spending 220 Rs when we close the position. Say we trade with some option around 50 Rs... brokerage is close to 10% .

Same if one has to write covered call. The share buying will cost another ~2% brokerage.

Going through other threads, looks like Reliance money is good. Yet to explore.

 

[madhusar]

I am assuming that the mail ""Margin Details XYZ" comes only to people who have F&O positions. Is this correct or does this come for all people ?

Well, you are right about margin calculation. I used "Know your margin" to calculate the margin, allocated the margin amount and tried to do an F&O trade. Got an error message saying "Insufficient margin". Not clear as to what that link is used for, if it does not give out the correct margin amount - specially in your case the difference almost 30K (80K calculated and 110K actually charged). Sounds like a rip-off ...

Anyway, good luck with Reliance Money though !

 

[gunsho]

Yes. As I mentioned, the mail has the latest Margin req for our portfolio.

Definitely ICICIdirect is costly in all ways.