What a stock trade costs in India, charge by charge

"Zero brokerage" is true for delivery trades at several brokers and still leaves a trade far from free. Taxes and fees are set by the government, the exchanges and the depositories, and every broker passes them on.

The charges on a delivery trade

STT, the securities transaction tax, is 0.1% of the buy and 0.1% of the sale. It is the biggest charge, ₹200 on a ₹1 lakh round trip.

Stamp duty is 0.015% of the buy, ₹15 on ₹1 lakh.

Exchange transaction charges and the SEBI fee are small fractions of the traded value, with GST at 18% added on top of them and on any brokerage.

The DP charge is a flat amount each time shares leave your demat account on a sale, whatever the quantity. On a small position it can be the second-largest cost.

Intraday is cheaper per trade

On intraday trades STT is 0.025% and only on the sale, stamp duty is lower, and there is no DP charge. Brokerage applies instead, usually a small percentage capped at a flat amount per order. Intraday traders also trade far more often, and the costs add up with every round trip.

Margin interest

Buying with the broker's money through a margin trading facility (MTF) adds interest on the funded part for every day you hold, often 0.04% a day, which is about 15% a year. On a trade held for weeks it can outweigh everything else. MTF explained shows what it does to a trade.

The break-even move

Add the charges up and divide by the position size, and you get the move a trade needs just to break even. For a delivery trade it is usually around a quarter of a percent. For a small position or a long margin trade it can be several times that. That number belongs in every backtest. A strategy whose average trade makes less than the break-even move loses money when you trade it.

The charges calculator works out every line for a trade you enter, and compares delivery, intraday and margin side by side.