Best Brokers for Intraday Trading in India

What is Intraday trading in Indian Stock Market NSE/BSE?

An Intraday Trading is when you buy and sell stocks on the same day. An Intraday trading is not for investment. It is to earn profit by harnessing the movement of stock/indices.

While doing Intraday trading, you need to specify the orders as Intraday. You need to close your position before market close, else the orders will square off by RMS team.

Intra-day traders capitalize on small moves in the value of the stocks by using "leverage" or "margin", which basically means borrowing money. Day trading/intra-day trading is at the top of the risk spectrum.

The Buy and Sell of the stock should be done on the same exchange of the same trading day.

Things to know before choosing a broker for Intraday trading?

Brokerage or Cost per trade

This is a very important point for day traders. As the Intraday trader play in volume as well as number of trades, so the best scenario for Intraday trader are with fix brokerage or flat fee brokers who charges fixed amount per transaction. In such case if you trade for 5 Lac or 1 Crore, no need to worry about the brokerage.

If a day trader knows that doing trading is your full time job and if each day you do min 20+ trades, then finding a discount broker with a fixed monthly plan is the second best choice.

We tried to put on name of few brokers that are best for day traders on cost point of view:

• ProStocks: Rs 899 Per Month in Equity Cash and Equity Derivative. If you know you are a day trader and your daily average transaction, using monthly plan will give you a worry free trading experience. Pay Rs 899 per month and do unlimited trading. With this you are locking your monthly expense on brokerage fee + service tax (taken only on 899 Rs).

  Second Plan is Rs 15 Per Trade, this option is also good if your number of trades are bit lower. You know your max brokerage is Rs 30 + Service Tax for both side i.e. Buy and sell.

  Other Key Cost components with ProStocks are:

  • Exchange Transaction Charges – Rs 325 Per Cr for NSE, Rs 275 Per Cr for BSE
  • Securities Transaction Tax (STT) – Rs 2,500 per Crore (on Sell trade)
  • SEBI Charges – Rs 15 Per Crore
  • GST - 18% on Brokerage + Exchange Transaction Charges
  • Stamp Duty - Rs 50 Per Cr Non Maharashtra Clients and Rs 200 Per Cr for Maharashtra Clients
  • >> Join ProStocks
• Zerodha: Rs 20 Per Trade Plan, with this you know your max brokerage is Rs 40 + GST for both side i.e. Buy and sell.

  Other Key Cost components with Zerodha are:

  • Exchange Transaction Charges – Rs 325 Per Cr for NSE, Rs 275 Per Cr for BSE
  • Securities Transaction Tax (STT) – Rs 2,500 per Crore (on Sell trade)
  • SEBI Charges – Rs 15 Per Crore
  • GST - 18% on Brokerage + Exchange Transaction Charges
  • Stamp Duty - By State of Residency
  • >> Join Zerodha
• Upstox (RKSV): Upstox and Zerodha both are same in terms of pricing plan and service. Upstox Rs 20 Per trade plan, with this you know your max brokerage is Rs 40 + GST for both side i.e. Buy and sell.

  Other Key Cost components with Upstox are:

  • Exchange Transaction Charges – Rs 325 Per Cr for NSE, Rs 275 Per Cr for BSE
  • Securities Transaction Tax (STT) – Rs 2,500 Per Cr (on Sell trade)
  • SEBI Charges – Rs 15 Per Cr
  • GST - 18% on Brokerage + Exchange Transaction Charges
  • Stamp Duty - By State of Residency
  • >> Join Upstox
• SAS Onine: They offer Rs 999 Per Month in Equity Cash and Equity Delivery. Pay Rs 999 PM and do unlimited trading. With this you are locking your monthly expense on brokerage fee + GST (taken only on 999 Rs).

  Second Plan is Rs 9 Per Trade, this option is also good  if your number of trades are bit lower. You know your max brokerage is Rs 18 + GST for both side i.e. Buy and sell.

  Other Key Cost components with SAS Online are:

  • Exchange Transaction Charges – Rs 325 Per Cr for NSE, Rs 275 Per Cr for BSE
  • Securities Transaction Tax (STT) – Rs 2,500 per Crore (on Sell trade)
  • SEBI Charges – Rs 15 Per Crore
  • GST - 18% on Brokerage + Exchange Transaction Charges
  • Stamp Duty - By State of Residency
  • >> Join SAS Online
• Sharekhan: Sharekhan is % base trader and gives you many more features for investment and also provide research reports. Intraday trading brokerage cost with Sharekhan is 0.1%, which is very high compare to discount brokers.

  Other key cost components with Sharekhan are:

  • Exchange Transaction Charges – Rs 325 Per Cr for NSE, Rs 275 Per Cr for BSE
  • Securities Transaction Tax (STT) – Rs 2,500 per Crore (on Sell trade)
  • SEBI Charges – Rs 15 Per Crore
  • GST - 18% on Brokerage + Exchange Transaction Charges
  • Stamp Duty - By State of Residency
  • >> Join Sharekhan
• Kotak Security: Kotak Security Free Intraday Trading plan is best fit for Intraday traders, Unlimited Trading in Equity Cash and Equity Derivatives @ 999 PA and also access of advance research reports. Intraday trading brokerage cost with Kotak Securities is almost zero with FIT plan, which is best in Industry.

  Other key cost components with Kotak Securities are:

  • Exchange Transaction Charges – Rs 325 Per Cr for NSE, Rs 275 Per Cr for BSE
  • Securities Transaction Tax (STT) – Rs 2,500 per Crore (on Sell trade)
  • SEBI Charges – Rs 15 Per Crore
  • GST - 18% on Brokerage + Exchange Transaction Charges
  • Stamp Duty - By State of Residency
  • >> Join Kotak Securities

Let's take one simple example how this cost model for Intraday trading will work with different brokers

	ProStocks	Zerodha/Upstox	SASOnline	Sharekhan	ICICI Direct	Axis Direct	Angel Broking	Kotak Securities
Buy Price	990	990	990	990	990	990	990	990
Sell Price	1010	1010	1010	1010	1010	1010	1010	1010
Quantity	5000	5000	5000	5000	5000	5000	5000	5000
Turnover	10,000,000	10,000,000	10,000,000	10,000,000	10,000,000	10,000,000	10,000,000	10,000,000
Brokerage Plan	Rs 15 Per Trade	Rs 20 Per Trade	Rs 9 Per Trade	Per Basic - .1%	Per Basic - .07%	Per Basic - .05%	Per Basic - .04%	Free-Rs 999 PA
Brokerage	30	40	18	10000	7000	5000	4000	0.1
STT	1262.5	1262.5	1262.5	1262.5	1262.5	1262.5	1262.5	1262.5
SEBI Turnover Fee	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
ETC	325	325	325	325	325	325	325	325
PCM Fee	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
GST	63.90	65.70	61.74	1858.50	1318.50	958.50	778.50	58.70
Total Brokerage + Tax	1696.40	1708.20	1682.24	13461.00	9921.00	7561.00	6381.00	1661.28
Stamp Duty	50 to 200 Rs	By State	By State	By State	By State	By State	By State	By State

Exposure/limit for Day Traders

As we know by virtue of margins, you can take positions much bigger than the capital available; this is called “Leverage”.  Different brokers offer different leverage may be 4 times (4X) to 8 times (8X). With Cover Orders (CO) some brokers give 20 times (20X) exposure on selected scripts. All broking companies have set of rules regarding giving Intraday exposure to day traders. A reputed NSE/BSE stock broker or share trading company gives 4 times to 20 times exposure.

Intraday Exposure is beneficial for both stock broking companies as well as day traders. Stock broking companies get more brokerage and day traders can use a much lesser amount to enter into a relatively large transaction. 

Intraday traders should not forget that they have to close all open positions before some time to market close. This exact timing will be decided by the broking company. It could be 03.00 pm i.e 30 minutes prior to market close @ 03:30. Some broking companies also stretch to 03:15 pm.

As you are getting extra exposure only for day trading, you can’t forward your positions for the next trading session. Intraday traders should square off their position before the decided time by your stock broker. Stock broking companies will close your position at market rate without taking any permission from Day Traders after square off timing. The exposure given by different Stock Brokers for Intraday trading

• ProStocks:7X on MIS Orders and 10X on CO Orders.
• Zerodha:Upto 3X to 14X depend on the script on MIS order.
• Upstox(RKSV):Upto 20x for stocks listed in F&O, up to 2x for stocks with 20% circuit breaker, no additional margins for all else.
• SAS Online:CO - Upto 20 times on F&O stocks as per exchange VAR+ELM, MIS Orders -5-9 times on F&O stocks as per exchange VAR+ELM
• Sharekhan:Upto 1x and 4x depend on the script on MIS orders as well as special product as 5-Day Auto Square Off.
• Kotak Securities:Upto 1x and 4x depend on the script on MIS orders.

Trading Platform

When doing day trading, choose a broker with reliable trading platform. You should have multiple options to execute your trade, should not depend on one trading platform. You should have access to trading terminal, web portal and mobile app as well as call & trade service. In case you have issue with one trading platform you can quickly switch to another trading platform.

Intraday Margin Calculator

Guidelines for Intra-day Traders

• Avoid being an Investor – taking delivery of the day trading stocks and waiting for it go up is not recommended. Investment and day trading should not be mixed up.
• Invest what you can afford to lose - Intra-day trading carries more risk than investing in stocks and an unexpected movement can wipe out your entire investment in a few minutes. To begin with, only use 2-3% of your trading capital.
• Choose highly liquid shares - Intra-day traders must square their positions at the end of the trading session, so choose the highly liquid share so that you can easily exit.
• Fix entry price and target levels - One should have clear vision on when to enter and exit in script.
• Use stop losses to contain impact - This helps the trader limit losses in case the share belies expectations and moves down.
• Book profits when targets are met - Greed and fear are the two biggest hurdles for the intra-day trader. It is important for investors to not only cut their losses, but also to book their profits once the target price is reached.
• Don't fight the market trend - Even the most sophisticated analysis cannot predict which way the market will move. If the market moves against your expectations, it is important to exit your position to avoid huge losses.
• Trade only in small numbers of scripts - It’s easy to follow the pattern if you trade in small numbers of scripts.
• Remember small is beautiful - While stock investments can yield stupendous returns, be content with small gains from intra-day trading.