About Brokerage

Hi Nitin, How did you decide that the brokerage will be Rs.20 exactly? could you tell me the factors behind 20 Number?

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Puja tumhe kaam nhi dooja

1 factor that I can think of is t20 was at its peak when zerodha started. :hugs:

Actually the Rs20 brokerage should have gone up considering the inflation !

I guess the surge in new customers is what is keeping them profitable !

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price of a tender coconut was rs.20 back then

https://www.roboglobaletfs.com/news-and-views/technology-is-deflationary-its-the-nature-of-the-beast?hs_amp=true

:slightly_smiling_face:

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Yes technology has brought down the cost. Besides there is competition.

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When we started in 2010, the lowest brokerage in the market was around 0.01%. To get this brokerage you had to commit a certain amount of turnover to the broker or pay upfront brokerage. So when we decided to charge a flat fee per order, we knew that even for someone who trades just 1 lot of Nifty, we should be able to reduce the brokerage costs the trader is paying with no conditions attached. This was the time when futures trading activity was more than options.

So Nifty lot size was 50, and Nifty was around 4000 or a contract value of Rs 2lks. 0.01% of Rs 2lks = Rs 20. So we knew the brokerage has to be around Rs 20 with no conditions attached, so even the one lot trader paying at least 0.03% to 0.05% could save significantly on brokerage costs.

We could have potentially set the pricing at Rs 19 or Rs 19.50, but Rs 20 sounded much cleaner. :slight_smile: We didn’t want to come across as one of those brands that charge Rs 999 instead of Rs 1000 just to play around with the psychology of the customers.

Not really. Never thought of IPL for deciding this.

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@nithin Can we expect brokerage to stay unchanged for the foreseeable future or any talks of increasing it?
Also have you ever considered offering monthly fixed prepaid brokerage plans?

I had shared this last year on Twitter

https://twitter.com/Nithin0dha/status/1578238205388025856

With all the regulatory changes that are happening, I wouldn’t be surprised if brokerages go up in the future.

I had answered this before.

The whole idea of charging flat fees per executed order is that the cost of executed order doesn’t go up with the size of the trade. So if someone buys 1 lot or 100 lots, the effort that we put is the same and hence charge the same.

Coming to the fixed monthly,yearly or any such plans, the effort put from our side will not be the same, if 1 person does one trade a month and another does 300 a month. We think it is a flawed business logic and unless a brokerage firm also makes money, how will the business survive? If the business doesn’t make money, how will the business build on technology?

So, no we don’t have any plans to offer fixed monthly/yearly/lifetime fees. We plan to build and give the best trading/reporting platforms without increasing the cost of trading with us.

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The number of brokers i’ve tried so far is well into the double digits. Zerodha is def the best of them. I’m happy to pay as long as the services are good :slight_smile:

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Hahaha. For sure. It’s a financial decision and I was just seeing the lighter side of it.
Well. I should have added some emojis. :grimacing:

It’s possible that the Rs. 20 brokerage fee has remained constant over time despite inflation due to various factors.