Nov 14, 2021 02:13 PM
1505 Views
Let me first confess – I have been investing in the stock markets for over 30 years but will still consider myself as an occasional investor. My stock market trades are few and infrequent other than the occasional IPOs and right issue. In addition I have found mutual funds as a good avenue for my investments and hence the share trading activity has become all the more infrequent . However I have been using the online trading portals for over 15 years now .
( see my review on ICICI direct at https://mouthshut.com/review/ICICI-Securities-review-lurnsmrtr way back in 2005) have been using ICICI direct since that time and found no reason to change over to any other trading portal till I wanted to do some fresh investments in shares in June 2021 and that’s when the stark cost difference between an online trading portal and the discount broker came to the fore – the brokerage that I was paying in ICICI direct is a remnant of the physical shares era and certainly had to be trashed .
Opening the Zerodha account online was a breeze and was truly paperless . Account was activated in less than a day . Trading was smooth and error free but trading after market hours is still a bit confusing . As I trade only occasionally, I place my trades in the evening for the next day with a buy or sell price defined . On Zerodha trading outside of trading hours is still a bit confusing and I would not say it is seamless . Also as a discount broker, the trading account is not linked to any bank account and therefore money for purchase has to be transferred from your bank account by net banking or UPI transfer . Similar is the case whilst selling shares – the amount received has to be transferred from your Zerodha trading account to your bank account . That is one of the advantages of a 3-1 account provided by the bank trading portals like ICICI and HDFC. I buy and sell all my mutual funds through the online portal and therefore do not use Zerodha for any mutual fund purchase. In addition in Zeroda the mutual fund units has to be held in Demat form which I am not in favour of especially for mutual funds . Where Zerodha scores over ICICI direct is IPO application, applying for IPOs using UPI is a breeze and definitely simpler than the ASBA mode used by ICICI Direct .
The Zerodha portal appears a little too bland intended mainly for heavy traders; Investment guidance is completely missing for which you have to go to an entirely different site . I have seen a number of feedback on missing trades and have also experienced the same on their trading portal – I could purchase shares of a company on ICICI direct without any issues though Zerodha was displaying the – share has reached UC price ( upper circuit breaker) warning on the same share for two consecutive days . To recap – this is a portal meant for the heavy traders, for investors who will trade only occasionally, the comfort of a bank driven online broker is much more re-assuring . The bank has also realised this and have aggressively cut their broking charges .
