For making money on the internet, the trader needs a broker or trading house. They provide him with the trading platform that contains all the tools. The absence and presence of specific tools mark the difference between different trading platforms. In India, ICICI Direct marks one of the biggest trading platforms with over 3 million clients. The ICICI Securities (I-Sec) are one of the biggest brokerage houses in India with over 25 lakh customers.
Different trading options
With ICICI Direct you can indulge in many trading activities including investing money in mutual funds, currencies, and derivatives. Mutual funds have associated services such loans, tax services, pension schemes and coverages, fixed deposits, and so on. It also helps you place market and limit order, use the call and trade services, gain margin product, margin plus product, and indulge in cash trading.
Attractive fee structure
The outstanding features of ICICI direct account are that it charges nil trading annual maintenance contract amounts and the trading account opening fee is nil. So also you do not have to pay any Demat Account Opening fees and you can make use their own DP service. The Demat AMC is free for the first year but from the second year on, you must pay Rs 600 for each year. In the brokerage plans you can opt for the I Secure plan which is the 3-in-1 plan or the I-Saver plan.
You can use the Desktop Trading Platform known as the Trade Racer to do your trading. Or else, you could use the com Web Trading Platform. The third option is to use ICICIDirect Lite, the mobile trading platform. With ICICI Pros, you can use the 3 in 1 account. Mobile trading is possible with this and you get SMS alerts with the market changes. You can make use of the online Demo for clarity and create an online Portfolio.
Charges for the transaction with ICICI Direct
Your 3 in 1 account helps you manage revenue and do trading in the stock market. For investments, your options are Mutual Funds, Postal Savings Scheme, and IPOs. You could also take general insurance from ICICI. The turnover transaction charges for the ICICI direct are standard. The charges are Rs 325 per crore for Equity Delivery, Equity Intratrade, and Currency Futures. For Equity Futures you pay Rs 190 and for currency options, the charge is Rs 100. Equity Options cost Rs 5000 per crore.
ICICI Direct provides excellent support for energetic trading, research, and in the form of ease of use. The customer support is very good and they help customers with their tax services, loans, fixed deposits, pension structure, coverage, and so on. The brokerage charges for ICICI direct for Equity Options is Rs 95 to Rs 35 per lot for the 3-in-1 account and Rs 95 to Rs 65 for I-Saver plan. Currency options trading brokerage is Rs 25 to Rs 10 per lot for the former and 0.05% to 0.03% for I-Saver.
Given the high profile of the trading house, one has a surprise to find any shortcomings. But, one cannot do commodity trading with ICICI direct. Also, the rate of the brokerage is quite high. Small traders cannot use or gain from this platform.
