Indian Stock Market

I do my trades through my broker & my HDFC Securities online trading account.

But i find that the online platform provided by HDFC is quite rudimentary & places it’s users at a disadvantage vis-a-vis others.

The issues that I am facing with HDFC Securities on-line trading account are as follows :
(a) Not being able to see the best 5 buy/sell quotes & not being able to see the total buy / total sell quantity for various scrips on BSE (particularly non-index scrips like Magma Leasing, Saboo Sodium etc), which is crucial information for making any buy/sell decision. See attached screenshot & see the table on the left showing Magma Leasing quotes on BSE - only best buy & sell is shown, and note that no total buy/sell qty is shown.

I had complained about this earlier to HDFCSec, in response to which they had replied that “for certain scrips, the broadcast from BSE was limited to the first best buy/sell rate”.

However i find that for the same scrips where HDFCSec is unable to provide these best 5 BSE quotes in the online trading suite, other online trading service providers are able to do so !!

I got the proof of this in the form of screenshot’s from a friend who was using Geojit’s platform & I have complained again to HDFC Securities, attaching the screenshots.

Obviously a user of HDFC Securities online platform is put at a substantial disadvantage vis-=E0-vis most other investors & for all that, he actually pays a higher brokerage !!

(b) Lack of a single screen “MarketWatch” option to track multiple scrips. One can only see the information of one scrip at a time, that too in the quotes screen.

I had complained about this too earlier to HDFCSec, in response to which they had replied that the same was “under development stage” & that they would keep me informed as & when it was implemented.

Almost 9 months have passed since, and i still do not see the same in my options, nor has HDFCSec updated me on anything.

I have noticed that most other online trading platforms like MOST, Geogit etc provide this sort of a screen . I have once again complained to HDFC Securities, attaching a screenshot of the screen in Geojit & asking for an explanation.

(c) For NSE quotes, i find that the refresh is often delayed (even inspite of clearing cache etc) - not sure if it is only for non-index scrips or what, as my universe of stocks are the mid/small-caps. For example i may see a best buy for 100 shares of “A” at (say) 200 bucks & my Sell order is pending at 205 bucks, but when i change my order & try to sell the same at 200, it often does not executed, the order is visible as pending in my order book at 200 bucks, but the quotes screen still shows a best buy of 200 bucks & my earlier ask at 205 bucks. After a minute or so of constant refreshes, suddenly the screen refreshes & i find the best buy is now (say) 199 & my sell is at 200. Obviously i could have sold at 195 if my screen had only shown me the correct information in real time. This problem often causes me to miss out on execution of my trades at optimum rates, because of the time lost.

Luckily i do most of my trading on BSE, where i have not noticed this issue thus far. I had intimated my HDFCSec RM about this but nothing was done about that either, in any case I have not traded much on NSE in the last few months.

(d) In addition, i have the usual problem of non-receipt of bills - the bills are often returned by the courier if no one is at home - they say that they are not authorised by HDFC to “drop” the same in the house - this would surely cause a lot of problems for working couples - in my case this has become less problematic now that i am at home most of the time, but it still happens. The bills can be printed from the website also, though.

However, there ARE a couple of good points regarding the account which i must also reproduce, to be even-handed :
1. Seamless Integration b/w the trading account & the bank/demat accounts. So if one buys or sells shares, the transaction happens very smoothly - *there is no need to put a HOLD on the money or the shares well in advance *. Just an extra pop-up comes up when you place the order to do the hold, which only involves an extra button-click, and hence no extra time is wasted. This is very helpful if one wants to act on news & hence needs to put in a trade in seconds. Once the trade is done, the shares are either debited/credited to the demat account & likewise the money is either credited/debited to the bank account on the afternoon/evening of the T+2 settlement date, automatically.
2. The moment one does a buy or sell, one is allowed to do the reverse in part or in full anytime thereafter, not just on the same day. If one has bought some shares, one can sell the same on the same day, the next day or even on the settlement day, without the shares having beem credited to the account - how HDFCSec handles a short delivery in such a case i am not sure. Similarly, if one has sold some shares, one can buy shares of an equivalent value immediately & anytime thereafter, even before the funds are credited to the bank account.

I would request members who are users of HDFC Securities to let me know if they too have complained regarding the above, if so give me the complaint numbers so that i can consolidate & take up the issue with them.

I would especially request members (non HDFCSec users) to let me know regarding the following points with respect to the online trading platforms being used by them (please mention which platform you are using) :
i. Integration b/w the trading account & the bank/demat accounts - how seamless is the integration - does it work the way I have described above in pt 1 above ?
ii. Can you sell/buy shares immediately after you have bought/sold the same, and can you do so any day thereafter, even before the settlement happens (sort of BTST) , as described by me in pt 2 above ?
iii. Does your platform show you best 5 buy & sell orders on BSE even for smaller scrips like Magma Leasing, Saboo Sodium etc ? And Total Buy/Sell Qty too, in all cases ?
iv. Does your platform allow you to buy Z-group shares that are in demat ?
v. What is the delivery brokerage charged to you ?

I look forward to receiving your replies to my above queries, and any additional information regarding good/bad points about your respective online trading platforms.

Regds,

ZeeNut