‘Margin” means borrowing money from your broker to buy a stock. Now the question is why would you borrow? Investors generally go for trading on margin so to increase their purchasing power so that they can own more stock without fully paying for it. That means you will pay a part of the buy price and the broker will lend you the difference.

For the loan you have taken -

• You will pay interest in addition to the usual fees.
• Broker will hold the stocks as collateral and has the right to sell that as well in case buyer doesn’t meet certain obligations as per margin rules and agreements.

Let us understand this with an example:

Suppose you wish to buy a stock with market price of Rs 50.  Under margin trading, you would be paying Rs 25 in cash while remaining 25 Rs will be lent to you by the broker (Assuming the initial margin requirement with your broker is 50%). How does this help? Let’s see.  Suppose the price of the stock rises to Rs 75.

In case of Margin trading – Your return on the investment is 100% because you paid Rs 25.

In case of normal trading – Your return on investment is 50% because you paid Rs 50.

However there is also an equal probability of higher loss for trading on margin. Suppose the stock price falls to Rs 25. If you fully paid for the stock, you lost 50 percent of your money. But if you have traded on margin, you lost 100 percent. And on the top of that you are supposed to pay interest for the loan you have taken from the broker along with the broker’s commission. Moreover if the investor doesn’t maintain minimum margin in his account the broker will have the right to sell all your stocks without notifying you. By this you would even loose the chance to make up your losses when the price goes up later. Below are certain terms that would make the concept more clear.

Initial margin: The proportion of total purchase price an investor is supposed to deposit for opening a margin account is referred as its initial margin and is generally 50% of the total value.

Maintenance margin: In order to keep the margin account open for doing margin trading, it is necessary to maintain minimum cash or marginable securities which is called the maintenance margin. This is just to prevent an investor from incurring a level of debt that he would not be able to repay.

Margin call: If your account falls below the maintenance margin, your broker will make a margin call to ask you to deposit more cash or securities into your account. If case you fail to meet the margin call, your broker will sell your securities so to make up for the stipulated maintenance requirement.

Lastly, for novice traders it is very important to have a realization that trading on margin can help you magnify your profit and at the same time multiplies the associated risks.

Happy DIWALI and Happy Investing

Renuka Kinger

Every investment involves two important aspects – returns and risk. And every investor wants to get the maximum returns with minimum risk. In this post is described the significance of Alpha and beta parameters of the stock portfolio that are used to describe the two main risks inherent in investing in stocks. Alpha relates to factors affecting the performance of an individual stock or the fund manager’s skill in selecting the stocks while beta relates to market risks.

Alpha of a stock or portfolio:

Alpha is the risk-adjusted return on an investment. It is excess return of a stock portfolio or fund over a given benchmark and hence is usually used to measure the performance of fund manager in managing the fund portfolio. So usually an investor’s strategy should be to buy securities with positive alpha as these may be undervalued.

If an investment outperformed the benchmark, that means more reward for a given amount of risk. In that case α > 0.

If an investment underperformed the benchmark; that means the investment has earned too little for its risk. In that case α < 0.

For efficient markets, the expected value of the alpha is zero. i.e α = 0 and the investment has earned a return adequate for the risk taken.

Fund managers are rated according to how much alpha their fund generates. It is thus a measure of the fund manager’s ability to generate profits in excess of market returns. Fund managers are usually paid in accordance to how much alpha their fund generates. Higher the alpha, the higher is their fees.

Beta of stock portfolio:

Beta is a measure of a volatility of a stock and expresses the relation of movement of stock with the movement of market as a whole. The S & P 500 Index is assigned a Beta of 1. So a stock can have positive or negative value of beta.

If Beta = 1; that means security’s price will move in sync with the market.

If Beta is positive; that means stock moves more than the market and is more volatile.

If Beta is negative; that means stock moves less than the market and is less volatile.

High-beta stocks are generally riskier being more volatile but provide a potential for higher returns as these are in the early stages of growth. On other side low-beta stocks pose less risk and hence lower returns. Usually utilities stocks have a beta of less than 1 while high-tech stocks have a beta of greater than 1.

Having gone through the fundamentals of alpha and beta; it can be inferred that low beta and high alpha stocks are good. But blindly following this concept is not desirable because these parameters are calculated based on historical data and history is never the indicator of future performance of a stock portfolio.

Happy Trading !

Renuka Kinger

Wikipedia defines Forex Trading as “The foreign exchange market (currency, forex, or FX) trades currencies. It lets banks and other institutions easily buy and sell currencies.”

With the current economic scenario, increasingly more folks see themselves prepared wherever they have to help make additional funds to carry on living to their standards. Additionally , there are individuals who learn how to make very good utilization of present day condition and help to make a continual income. It doesn’t matter the truth, you ought to learn how to trade the Currency trading, considering that this turned out to be to be the most effective way to gain a little extra money, and get a good profit while doing so.


The Forex markets is known for a three trillion US dollars trade every single day, therefore being the biggest tradable market on the globe. Simply because, or even better mentioned thanks, to the belief that most trades are usually speculative, any kind of real movement of foreign exchange is small – this really is these people key to getting a huge profit having a small investment.
Forex market doesn’t trade on the central exchange, the interbank marketplace staying the actual place exactly where deals happen, therefore two entities may trade with out going trough an exchange. In Simple terms, trading in currencies indicates buying one foreign currency while at the same time selling another.
If you would like to learn to trade the forex and try to get a profit, you have to learn how to get the best trades possible, the quickest possible way. For this reason it is recommended to gather all of the knowledge you are able to. There are many available resources on the internet that you need to use and there are also tools which will help you trade 24 hours a day, five days a week – like Forex robots.
More informative info regarding the Forex Market in order to learn how to trade the Forex is available here.

SEBI has recently allowed allowed registered stockbrokers to transact mutual fund units on behalf of their clients through the stock exchange mechanism. When the systems are in place there are a few points the investor has to consider while investing in mutual funds through Stock Exchanges (NSE and BSE)

- Existing mutual fund investors who intend to buy more units will also benefit as this system will allow them to keep track of all investments under a single statement.

- The SEBI circular on Friday also said that investors can hold units of mutual fund schemes in dematerialised form, and that the demat statement given by the depository participants would be deemed adequate compliance with SEBI norms. Buying and selling will become more efficient and transparent , particularly if investors choose to transact through a demat account.

- Though cost seems to be a factor for those who do not have a demat account, the impact will be minimal for those who already are demat account holders.

- End-users can use the convenience of their neighbouring broker’s office for their mutual fund transactions. However, once the broker starts acting as a distributor, there is an issue about what commission he might ask for and whether the client would be ready to pay that or not.

- In terms of convenience, the advantages are similar to investing online through the AMC’s website — reducing the clutter of paperwork and speedy execution.

- Investing in SIPs (systematic investment plans) – A reading of the SEBI circular on entry loads suggests that the entry load will continue to apply on instalments of SIPs registered before August 2009. As long as this loophole remains unplugged, existing SIPs will be at a disadvantage to the ones registered after August 1. The only way out is to stop the existing SIPs and start afresh in the same scheme.For those with SIPs, the only way to benefit from the entry load waiver is to stop them and start new ones in the same scheme.

- Switching from one scheme to another within the same fund house – As per the new guidelines, no entry load will be charged for purchases, additional purchases and switch-in accepted by any fund house with effect from August 1, 2009.Similarly, no entry load will be charged with respect to applications for registration under systematic transfer plans.

Source : ET and Hindu Businessline

Stock quotes can be obtained in newspapers and online but the most convenient place is online as it is very close to real time information. Website like Yahoo!Finance and rediff help you get real-time quotes at a mouse-button click. Different sources provide different sets of information. Some might provide with detailed information like corporate actions, mutual fund activity in the shares in addition to some basic price information. Below is the list of common figures in the stock quote details:

52-week High/low : These are the highest and lowest price recorded in the last 52 weeks. The highest/lowest price figures for past 52 weeks can help make a judgement whether or not you should invest in stock at current price .

Days Range: It is the price range within which a stock has traded on a day. It thus consists of high/low price the stock has touched in a day.

PE: It is the Price to Earnings Ratio of the stock (per-share earnings by closing price).

Open and Close: Close is the last price quoted on a stock during a day. Open price is the opening price at which stock starts trading for a day. Opening price may not be same as the closing price of the stock on previous day.

Bid and ask prices: Bid price is the price a buyer is willing to pay for a stock while ask/offer is price at which seller is willing to accept the stock.

Trade volume: It is the quantity of shares traded on the stock exchange on a day. It helps you determine the liquidity of stock as you might land up in trouble if you want to sell your share and there is no one to buy it

Percentage change: It refers to the percentage change between current stock price w.r.t to its previous close.

Market Capitalisation: It gives you an insight into the company’s equity capital available for trading and is the price of each share multiplied by number of equity shares outstanding.

Dividend: Some quotes also give the last dividend paid to the shareholders and can be useful in determining how much and what type of dividend can be expected from the company. This also details their record date, ex date so that you can decide upon what time will be right to invest in the stock to avail the dividend.

Renuka Kinger

Day trading conditions the most intense approach to stock market trading. To be on top of the fluctuations in stock prices, day traders spend hours together in monitoring the market. Day traders could make dozens of trades any day, sometimes in a matter of minutes hoping to grab the wave of price change. They avoid the risks of long term buy and hold. Day trading could be exciting, the fast pace attracting risk takers. Yet this strategy for stock market trading is only effective for day traders, who apply analysis rather then emotion to trading decision. Savvy day traders could turn profits quick. Emotional traders usually lose fast and leave disenchanted.

Swing trading uses a slightly longer time horizon than day trading, watching a stock for weeks or months before trading. This type of stock market trading relies on careful monitoring of fundamental and technical analysis. Swing traders often specialize in a certain business or industry so that they become experts in the movement within those stocks. They also have more time to study the company financial reports and industry forecasts. Since swing trading does not require hours of daily monitoring, it is a good strategy for the trader who wants to make money from stock market trading without turning it into a full time job. Even the study of reports could be done during the daily commute or lunch hour so that the swing trader stays well informed.

Position trading works well for investors who want to be involved in the stock market trading, but run short of time. Stocks are being held for months awaiting any changes in the trend. Position traders keep up with the fundamental and technical analysis as well as news events but apply a long term strategy to their stock market trading.

Holder: Holder is the buyer of derivative agreement. By buying an agreement, the buyer may agree to buy or sell the underlying asset.

Seller: One who sells the contract to holder.

Expiry date: The date at which agreement will get matured / exercised.

Strike price: The price at which derivative will get exercised and is decided at the time of entering into agreement (between buyer and seller).

Premium: It is the price which buyer pays for buying an option contract. The premium is not to be paid for futures contract.

The reason of its appeal to investors which makes it different than other financial instruments is that it is not an asset in itself but an agreement to convey the transfer of actual assets later in future. The catch here is why to enter an agreement to buy/sell assets in future?? Why not buy the real asset (underlying asset referred here) directly from spot market at current levels??  Why making an agreement to be executed in future date? The answer is; derivates are usually seen as instruments for bringing in protection against unexpected rise or fall in the price of underlying asset. Secondly, derivatives are used to yield better returns with lower capital investment as compared to the amount that will be invested to buy the shares directly form the spot market.

Types of derivative instruments:

Forward Contract: It is an agreement to buy or sell the derivative at a known date in the future at a price decided as per negotiation between the contracting parties. These are not traded in exchanges.

Futures Contract: It is an agreement to buy or sell a financial instrument at a known date in the future at a price as per negotiation between contracting parties. These are traded on stock exchange.

Option Contract: It is a contract that gives holder the right, but not the obligation to exercise it. Call options give holder the right to buy while put option give the holder the right to sell at the strike price at stipulated date as per agreement.

Warrants: These are long term options having 3-7 years of expiration. Warrants are issued by companies for raising finance with no initial servicing costs like divided or interest. It is a type of security issued by corporation usually together with a bond or preferred stock that gives holder the right to buy a certain amount of common stock at a stated price. So it acts as a “sweetener offered along with the fixed-income securities”.

Swap Contract: Swaps are agreements between counterparties to exchange one set of financial obligations for another as per the terms of agreement.

Swaptions: Swaptions are options on swaps. They give holder the right to enter into having calls options and put options.

- Renuka Kinger

You could soon be able to trade for an additional two-and-a-half hours on stock exchanges with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday allowing trading between 9 a m and 5 p m to align timings to international standards.

At present, trading hours are between 9.55 a m and 3.30 p m.

Sebi, however, raised the caveat that the exchanges would have to ensure that risk management systems and infrastructure commensurate to longer trading hours were in place before investors transact for eight hours a day.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) welcomed the Sebi move and added that they would soon extend trade timings. They, however, did not clarify whether timings would be extended to 5 p m, though executives indicated that trading would start at 9 a m.

Last year, NSE had first proposed a change in trading hours at a time when foreign institutional investors and hedge funds preferred to trade on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), where NSE Nifty futures were also listed. With longer trading hours because SGX opened for trading at around 6.30 a m India time, the open interest positions on Nifty futures traded on SGX had reached close to the levels seen on NSE.

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While concerns about online security will always be there, rest assured that the brokerages themselves have a very, very high stake in making you feel comfortable about the level of security being used. All online brokerages have a portion of their website devoted to explaining the measures they employ to protect your transactions.

Here are a few questions that you may have regarding Online Trading in Stocks.

Is trading through the Internet safe?

The safety of transactions on the Internet depends on the encryption system used. The better this transaction system, the more difficult it is for any person to hack the site. Internationally, the best system available today is the 128-bit encryption.

Secondly, you too can ensure the safety of the transactions online. You normally get a secured user id and password, the secrecy of which is to be maintained entirely by you.

Thirdly, if the transaction system requires no manual intervention, you further improve the safety in the transactions. Among Indian sites, very few are fully integrated online trading sites. This enables the elimination of the possibility of any manual intervention, which means orders are directly sent to the exchange ensuring that you get the best and right price.

Is trading through Internet Difficult ?

The experience of trading through Internet depends a great deal on the type of product offered by the site. Say, for example, one of the issues bothering you may be getting tired of the paperwork involved after every trade, in writing cheques.

In online trading sites, the greater the back-end integration of the system, the greater the amount of work the sites do for you, therefore greater the convenience available to you.

In big financial institutions your broking account, bank account and Demat account are linked electronically. So when you punch in a buy or sell order, the system checks the funds/shares availability and automatically credits/debits the accounts once the order is executed by the exchange.

Is trading through Internet a costly affair?

The convenience provided by online trading is even then worth the costs involved.

And online trading sites are not that costly. For example, a trader can trade shares on margin at rates as low as 0.10% and if one wishes to trade in cash, then the rates applicable are as low as 0.4%.

However, it is important to compare various online trading sites on brokerage rates, inclusive of all sub-charges.

I am pretty satisfied with my present broker who serves me off-line. Why should I choose to go online to trade shares?

Many of those customers who have chosen to trade shares online today, had at one point of time been trading through offline brokers, just like you are today. They took a chance to go online and trade shares. After realizing the advantages of trading shares online, they have shifted to online trading now. Just try trading shares after opening an account with any online trading site. However, before choosing an online trading site, please compare all such websites and then make a decision.

How frequently are the prices updated at all these online trading sites?

The tickers available at online trading sites provide instantaneous updates. Also, some websites can offer to transact in those shares instantaneously and with convenience.

How can I be sure that I shall be trading at a price I want to or at a price appearing in the website?

The solution to your problem could be provided in different ways by different online share trading sites. For any trade order, the customer is asked to click ‘Proceed’ after he has the opportunity to completely check the order verification form.

Moreover, you have the option of modifying or canceling the order till the moment the order is executed at the exchange.

Finally, online trade confirmations reach our customers within 4 minutes, while contract notes are dispatched at the end of the day and reach within 24-36 hours.

What other services can I get by trading shares online?

Internet has brought to the retail investors what was till sometime ago the sole prerogative of large brokerage houses and high net worth individuals.

In the era of capitalism, with arguments of whether socialism would take over, emerged the concept of stocks and hence stock markets. We were always familiar with the bonds that the government issued against a certain security it provided us, which we often term as deficit financing. It is now applicable for the private industrialists as well, when they want to accrue capital and they are running short of funds. They fly shares, some of which are collectively called stocks and they collect money against the shares that you hold. This way you actually own up the company even though just by bits and pieces. Your money, of course is a risk of undergoing a loss if the company loses profit. However, the chances of gaining profits are not very less either. Often shares are termed as risky assets, which can yield very high returns. You could say it acts almost like an insurance market when it comes to risk spreading.

As many seem obvious to you, unless you know your way through the stock market, you might end up losing money. Stock market, as the common notion goes, is not gambling for money. It is rather pure mathematics and what we call in statistical terms, econometrics. So, when you are new to stock market investing, trying to find your way out, you indeed could do with the help of a stockbroker, who know the principles of how the market will work for a set of political and financial developments. And once you know your way about the market, you could do with discount brokerages, which charge you a lot lesser than the traditional stockbrokers in lieu of providing you with lesser advices. Discount brokerage allows you to take your own decision with little or no help from the stockbrokers as per your preferences.

If you want to trade stocks or buy and sell financial assets within the same day, what you do is day trading. With Internet making the world a smaller place, the concept of online stock market trading has come up to be very popular. You can undertake online stock trading when you want to trade stocks without being fooled into buying a certain stock or selling one, doing directly to the market. This is where discount stock trading could help you from losing money for nothing. It provides you with an opportunity for the cheapest stock trading. Many casual traders are now into the scenario of day trading due to improved Internet options, changes in legislation and advanced technology. Traditionally though, day trading was the nook for financial firms, investors and speculators.

Discount stockbrokers allow you the flexibility of creating your own portfolio, sharing your money between mutual funds, bonds, stocks, options and exchange traded funds. Most of the companies that are into discount brokering, allow the options of banking like checking and savings accounts, credit cards, certificate of deposits and mortgages and money market accounts. Such companies offer you options of the best online trading.

Short Selling

Looking at the flow of shares in above flowchart, one would ponder why to borrow shares for selling in market and then transfer them back to the lender? The logic behind shorting is very simple; earning profit margin. Let’s see how??

If you think a stock is overvalued and expect that the price would come down in future for sure; you would wish to sell the shares at current levels at higher price. So you borrow the shares and sell them at higher price. And when the stock actually falls as you had speculated; you buy it from market at lower price and return it to the lender and the difference between the selling price (higher) and buy price (lower) is what you earned in the deal. So at the end you must close the short by paying back the shares and this is called as “covering the short”. Concluding this, investors who anticipate fall in the stock price go short to take advantage of market fall. An investor can hold the short for as long as he wants but he is charged an interest as it is similar to a loan taken in the form of shares. Also if during the course of loan, the company declares dividend or rights issue, it must be paid to the lender who is the actual owner of shares because you are just a borrower.

Short selling is considered to destabilize markets directly or indirectly. In 2001, the stock prices crashed heavily owing to short selling by big operators after which SEBI banned it. After a gap of 6 years in December 2007 SEBI came up with updated norms of short selling to cover the loopholes and ultimately institutional investor were also permitted to short sell.

Concluding this, short selling no doubt gives you an opportunity to earn profit by taking advantage of downturn of markets, it might bring in huge loss to your investment if stock price moves up. Because in real sense, shorting is a bet against the current market trend. When stock is at current higher levels, you are expecting it to fall down and entering the arena. Speculation is what makes shorting a riskier job. So beware of the dark side of shorting before you actually go for it!

All the Best

Renuka Kinger