In my previous article, I listed down some of the top demat accounts of India. However, if you are some one who is interested in carrying out intraday trades, all the demat accounts in that list are not suitable. Hence I am providing a exclusive list of best demat account for Intraday trading in India in 2024. This list mainly focus on cost effectiveness and only considers reputed stock brokers.
What is Intraday Trading
Intraday trading refers to buying and selling of the shares within the same day. If you buy the shares and don’t sell it on the same day, it is called delivery trade.
Shares purchased through delivery transaction are credited to demat account.
In case of the intraday trading, you need to close the trade by end of the session. If you fail to do so, your broker’s risk management team will close it.
Why traders carry out Intraday trading?
There are several pros and cons of intraday trading. In my opinion, it is very difficult to make money on sustainable basis in long term through intraday trading. However, there are traders who make their living through intraday trading itself.
Advantages of intraday trading
- Trader can utilise the margin provided by the broker. Usually brokers provide exposure in the range of 3-20 times which will help in making more money
- Intraday trading does not have any overnight risk.
- Traders can initiate both long (buy first and sell later) and short (sell first and buy later) positions, which is not possible in delivery trades.
- Unlike F&O where you are required to buy fixed number of shares (lots), in intraday trading you can buy even a single share.
Disadvantages of intraday trading
- Profit margin after deducting all the expenses such as brokerage and taxes is very low
- Difficult to analyse the price movement in short terms
- Physical strain and fatigue as one need to keep observing the screen throughout the day
Suggested Read : 10 Best Stock Brokers of India
Pointers in Selecting Best Demat Account For Intraday Trading
To identify the best demat account for intraday trading, I will give some pointers to you.
Consider and evaluate below parameters while opening the demat account for intraday trading
- Low brokerage charge without any hidden costs : Obviously it it the fore most parameter to be considered. Lower the brokerage, higher would the profit. (Read : Lowest Brokerage Charges demat accounts in India)
- Margin/Exposure/Leverage offered by the stock broker: Though exposure is important, dont go with the broker who provide unreasonably high leverage. Broker may go bankrupt if any trader defaults and your funds would be at risk. (Read : List of Top Stock brokers with low brokerage and high leverage)
- Yearly Account Maintenance Charges (AMC) : Some brokers misguide you telling it as free demat account. However, there is no AMC for first year only. They charge hefty AMC from second year onwards.
- Stability of the Trading Platform: For intraday trading, not only your trading strategy is important, the platform you use for placing the order is also extremely critical. Your profit making position can quickly turn in to loss if the platform hangs in between. (Read: Best Trading Platforms in India)
- Usability of Mobile apps and its features: Though intraday traders mainly use desktop applications, but sometime mobile apps come handy when they are not in front of system. (Read : 7 Best Mobile Trading apps of India)
Best Demat Account For Intraday Trading in India 2024
I suggest you to consider any one of the demat accounts for intraday trading which will help you in saving lot of cost.
Below is the list of 5 best demat account for Intraday trading in India.
- Zerodha demat account for intraday trading
- Upstox demat account for intraday trading
- Angel Broking demat account for intraday trading
- 5 Paisa demat account for intraday trading
- Trade Smart Online demat account for Intraday trading
#1 Zerodha demat account for intraday trading
- Brokerage Charges: Rs 20/Executed order. Zero brokerage for delivery trades (Investments)
- Intraday Margin : 3x to14x
- AMC : Rs 300 per year
- Trading Platforms : KITE
Zerodha has become No1 stock broker in India beating likes of ICICI Direct and Sharekhan in just 8 years of it’s incorporation. (READ : Zerodha Review)
They offered the lowest brokerage for intraday trading to Indians at that time. When all other brokers were charging on percentage basis of traded value, Zerodha came up with unique and first of its kind brokerage plan in India.
They offered Rs 20/trade irrespective of trade size. This resulted in massive savings in terms of brokerage to intraday traders.
Let me give you an example for better understanding.
Suppose you buy shares of worth Rs 10,00,000 (quite possible as you will be using leverage) then lets see how much brokerage you need to shell out in case of ICICI Direct and Zerodha
ICICI Direct on average charges 0.07% of traded value. So 0.14% if we consider both buy and sell trades.
Rs 10,00,000 * 0.14% = Rs 1400
In comparison Zerodha Charges Rs 20 for buy and Rs 20 for sell hence total Rs 40 for entire trade.
I hope now why it is important to choose a discount broker like Zerodha for Intraday trading. More than 10Lakh traders are trading using their trading platform called KITE. Hence I recommend to go with the company trusted by large number of people.
Zerodha Account Opening Charges:
Zerodha has made account opening free with effect from June 29, 2024. Use below link to go directly to Zerodha account opening page to open the Zerodha demat account without any fees.
I have written a step by step guide with screen shots on procedure to demat account with Zerodha. Entire process is online & hassle free based on Aadhar number and it hardly takes 30 minutes.
#2 Upstox demat account for intraday trading
- Brokerage Charges: Rs 20/Executed order.
- Intraday Margin : Up to 20x for stocks listed in F&O, up to 2x for stocks with 20% circuit breaker
- AMC : NIl for first year and Rs 150 from second year onwards
- Trading Platforms : Upstox PRO
Upstox also started almost at the same time of Zerodha. They are based out of Mumbai.
You can read the complete review about them here.
Brokerage Charges of Upstox is identical to that of Zerodha. So if you are looking for any alternative of Zerodha, Upstox provides better demat account for intraday trading in India.
They charge Rs20/executed trade for intraday trading.
They offer the state of the art trading platform called Upstox PRO.
#3. Angel Broking demat account for intraday trading
- Brokerage Charges: Rs 20/Executed order.
- Intraday Margin : Up to 20x
- AMC : Rs 240 per year
- Trading Platforms : Angel Speed Pro, Angel One
Angel Broking started as full service broker in 1987 hence it is one of the oldest stock broker of India. But due to competition from discount brokers like Zerodha and Upstox, they have re-modelled themselves as discount broker.
Delivery brokerage is Zero and the For intraday they charge Rs20/Execured order
Read the complete review of Angel Broking here.
#4. 5Paisa demat account for intraday trading
- Brokerage Charges: Rs 10/Executed order.
- Intraday Margin : Up to 20x
- AMC : Rs 400 per year
- Trading Platforms : 5Paisa Trade Station
5Paisa started little late in year 2015 but quickly catched up to become one of the biggest discount broker of India.
They have placed their brokerage at very competitive rates, that is Rs 20/executed order.
Read the complete review of 5Paisa here.
#5 Trade Smart Online demat account for intraday trading
- Brokerage Charges: Rs 15/Executed order.
- Intraday Margin : Up to 30x
- AMC : Rs 300 per year
- Trading Platforms : NEST and SINE Web & App
Trade Smart Online is discount Brokerage arm of VNS Limited
VNS is a full service broker who is in the stock broking industry for more than 30 years and has built trust factor. The broker is based out of Mumbai.
TradeSmartOnline has two brokerage plans and customer can choose any one of them based on their preference.
- Big Volume Traders : Rs 15/executed order
- Lesser Volume Traders : 0.007% of traded value
Best Demat account for intraday trading – Final thoughts
I have not purposefully included the full service brokers in this list. Not because they are not good, but their brokerage structure doesn’t simply suit intraday trading.
Before 2010, we had no option but to open demat account with them. But the advent of discount brokers and with help of technological progress, intraday traders benefited a lot.
But still no stock broker offers zero brokerage for intraday trading. And I feel that is not viable also.
So my suggestion is to go with the above demat accounts which are best for intraday trading. If you wish to open account with any other broker, please make sure they are reputed and registered with SEBI . Don’t fall prey by going to brokers who offer Rs5/trade etc.
I currently use Zerodha since 2012 and satisfied with their Trading platform KITE and can recommend Zerodha demat account as one of the good demat account for intraday trading in India.
You May Also Like To Read :
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- Key Factors to Consider Before Opening a Demat Account
- Top Demat Account In India For Non Resident Indians – NRIs
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