Hello Sonia,
Before choosing a broker try to decide what type of trading you plan to do. Is it intraday ,Swing trades( hold for 2-3 days or more) or pure long term investment. Or do you prefer Online trading or prefer to execute your trades through a local offline broker.Most of the brokers providing online services also have local branches. So if you plan to trade from the comforts of home better go for an online broker. But then you need a good reliable internet connection.
You have lot of good choices for a good broker and DP. Some of the well known brands are Kotak securities, Indiabulls, Geojith securities, 5paisa ICICI Securities etc. Certain things you have to keep in mind while choosing a online broker is that
1. Is online transfer of funds possible and what is the maximum number of days it will take the broker to transfer your funds back to your bank account. Normally it does not take more than 2 days after the transfer request placed by you. When you transfer to the broker it takes hardly 45minutes to I hour. So getting it back also should take the same time which is not the normal case and also depends on the time of transfer request placed. Say you placed the transfer request in the afternoon most probably the broker will process your request next day only and in all probability the transfer will be done the day after.
2.In online trading there is web based trading and ODIN(Exe.). If you are looking for realtime rates and fast execution of trade orders ODIN is far ahead. In web based trading you can trade from any computer from any where in the world but refreshing rates may be slow and there may be limits to the number of scrips being watched. In Odin you need to install the programme in your computer.
3. I also feel you should give importance to the stability of trading platform. Right in the middle of trading you certainly do not want any breakdowns.
4. Brokerage. Again it depends and vary on what type of trading you do. For intraday trades it is usually between .03 to .05% (One leg) plus other charges and taxes. Brokerage also varies on the volume of trades you do. There are some brokers who want a minimum amount of brokerage per month to avail the ODIN facility. For example geogit requires you to commit RS 3000/- per month in brokerage for use of ODIN facility(Gold Plan). For their Silver plan which is web based it is only Rs 500/- month. But then their ODIN is just like a brokers terminal. For delivery trades the brokerage will be higher. But then all this depends on your negotiation skills.
5.There is a thread in this forum " Brokers & Demat Matters" which has lot of information contributed by forum members. Reading through this thread should give you valuable information regarding brokers.
But then as mentioned earlier first try to understand what trading is about , what are the tools and resources required for the trading sucessfully and profitably and what type of trading suits you. Say for example how are you going to choose a scrip to trade on your own unless you have acess to a paid service.
My advice will be to learn the art and methods of trading on your own with the help of a good Technical Analysis programme if you plan to trade for longer time. And you better get that insight as deep as possible before you start trading. From my experience i can tell you this requires a lot of effort and is highly interesting and rewarding. To me this is almost like a second career other than my professional job. Any way goodluck on your adventure and you can be assured the members of this forum are very helpful.
Regards
Saji Oommen
