Investment - How to start investment in shares, mutual fund

Here in this article, I will discuss basics of Stocks (Shares, equity) and Online Share Trading - Following Investment options are available for common invester in india -

• Equity (Stock) Trading
• Derivatives Trading
• Forex Trading
• Commodity Trading
• IPO's
• Mutual Funds
• Insurance

Stock Market Trading in India - Some basics -

Stock Exchange Stocks (Shares, equity) are traded in stock exchange. India has two big stock exchanges (Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE and National Stock Exchange - NSE) and few small exchanges like Delhi Stock Exchange etc. Investor can trade stocks in any of the stock exchange in India.

Stock Broker Investor requires a Stock Broker to buy and sell shares in stock exchanges (BSE, NSE etc.). Stock Broker are registered member of stock exchange. A stock broker can register to one or more stock exchanges. Only stock brokers can directly buy and sell shares in Stock Market. An investor must contact a stock broker to trade stocks. Broker charge commissions (brokerages) for their service. Brokerage is usually a percent of total amount of trade and varies from broker to broker.

Stock Trading Traditionally stock trading is done through stock brokers, personally or through telephones. As number of people trading in stock market increase enormously in last few years, some issues like location constrains, busy phone lines, miss communication etc start growing in stock broker offices. Information technology (Stock Market Software) helps stock brokers in solving these problems with Online Stock Trading.

Online Stock Market Trading is an internet based stock trading facility. Investor can trade shares through a website without any manual intervention from Stock Broker. In this case these Online Stock Trading companies are stock broker for the investor . They are registered with one or more Stock Exchanges. Mostly Online Trading Websites in India trades in BSE and NSE. There are two different type of trading environments available for online equity trading.

Installable software based Stock Trading Terminals These trading environment requires software to be installed on investors computer. These software are provided by the stock broker. These softwares require high speed internet connection. This kind of trading terminals are used by high volume intra day equity traders.

Advantages: Orders directly send to stock exchanges rather then stock broker. This makes order execution very fast. It provides almost each and every information which is required to a trader on a single screen including stock market charts, live data, alerts, stock market news etc.

Disadvantages:
Location constrain - You cannot trade if you are not on the computer where you have installed trading terminal software. It requires high speed internet connection. These trading terminals are not easily available for low volumn share traders.

Web (Internet) based trading application These kind of trading environment doesn't require any additional software installation. They are like other internet websites which investor can access from around the world through normal internet connection.


Advantages of Online Stock Trading (Website based):

• Real time stock trading without calling or visiting broker's office.
• Display real time market watch, historical datas, graphs etc.
• Investment in IPOs, Mutual Funds and Bonds.
• Check the trading history;
• demat account balance and bank account balance at any time.
• Provide online tools like market watch, graphs and recommendations to do analysis of stocks. Place offline orders for buying or selling stocks.
• Set alert to inform you certain activity on the stock through email or sms.
• Customer service through Email or Chat.
• Secure transactions.

Disadvantages of Online Stock Trading (Website based):

• Website performance - sometime the website is too slow or not enough user friendly.
• Little long learning curve especially for people who doesn't know much about computer and internet.
• Brokerages are little high.

Document Required to open Equity Trading Account

1. One passport size photograph.
2. Proof of bank account
3. Copy of PAN card.
4. Identity proof - copy of passport or PAN card or voter ID or driving license or ration card.
5. Address proof - copy of driving license or passport or ration card or voter card or telephone bill or electricity bill or bank statement.