Hello @nithin,
In one of your posts (https://zerodha.com/z-connect/queries/the-twisted-world-of-illegal-cfds-binary-options), you mentioned how CFD trading is illegal in India. But, just today, I saw an ad on the IPL stream on Hotstar of OctaFX, advertising their international currency trading. They also mentioned that they are the Official Trading Partner of the Delhi Capitals.
How is this possible? If all this is illegal, how are they even allowed to advertise all this on Television?
Yeah, it is weird that no regulator is doing anything about this.
OctaFX has been sponsoring for ads in some regionalised YouTube Channels. I was surprised that these YouTube Channel do not do any due diligence prior to taking sponsorship.
Or maybe we are missing some loophole that they are using to trade in Forex Markets?
I mean, how can NOBODY from the regulatory body be doing anything about this, if it is actually illegal.
People are signing up for their account at OctaFX after these ads. And trading too. I personally know 3 people around me.
11 years and octafx is going on without any issues. I am actually considering it now because any illegal stuff cannot operate for 11 years. Heck, it is slightly younger than zerodha. Must be something which keeps it going.
Someone said they are registered as broker in NSE. Means probably they show themselves as authorised brokers for trading CDS markets. And it’s true that you can trade eur/usd and other important pairs i.e futures as NSE allows them. However when users sign up they are probably are offered spot fx or a CFD probably or probably along with nse CDS currency fut these spot fx & CFD are there. I am not a member of octafx but I quite guess this must be the way.
You are right, they are registered under SEBI. It is clearly mentioned on SEBI website, I wonder why most people think it is not legal or some kind of scam
SEBI | Registered Stock Brokers in Currency Derivative Segment
They are registered to deal with currency derivatives in BSE only. Any other currency related product falls out of legal territory.
That means even BSE & SEBI knows what they are doing and still not cancelling their registeration? Something is legal here, otherwise banning cryptocurrencies by the govt is also a joke. If we can’t ban a company running right under the nose of SEBI then how we gonna ban anything for that matter?
I think there is a catch and people think they are doing something illegal.
Crypto is not banned by govt yet. RBI earlier tried to do it but it was overturned by supreme court. Currently crypto transactions are taxed. Also companies have to disclose crypto trading / investments etc during a financial year. Thats all.
Yes, I too trade full time forex with Octafx. There seems to be no problem. But one needs to be careful with that insane leverage in the forex markets. You will find more info on this thread :
An interesting article discusses Chinese loan apps and how PGs have enabled payments without proper due diligence. It is almost the same issue with CFD platforms that can take money locally today. This will eventually get banned when the problem becomes larger.
This is a paid article, maybe someone who has access can share some interesting excerpts from this here.
You own Zerodha, so aren’t you subscribed to financial websites like these? Or is that they don’t add any value to your line of work?
Ah, my bad, I should have worded this better. 
Of course, I have subscriptions on all of these. I am unsure about sharing bits from the article on this forum personally as CEO of Zerodha since it is behind a paywall. Let me ask the Journo if he is okay, and maybe I can only share excerpts.
That’s more like it 
Coincidentally RBI just shared this
https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/Content/PDFs/ALERTLIST1AB72E4086BB4DD698AB9E973735BB42.PDF
An alert list of entities with whom you shouldn’t be dealing.
Members of the public are once again cautioned not to undertake forex transactions on unauthorised ETPs or remit/deposit money for such unauthorised transactions. Resident persons undertaking forex transactions for purposes other than those permitted under the FEMA or on ETPs not authorised by the RBI shall render themselves liable for legal action under the FEMA.
The list of names include Octafx and a whole bunch of others.
1 Alpari https://alpari.com
2 AnyFX https://anyfx.in
3 Ava Trade https://www.avatrade.com
4 Binomo Binomo – trading platform
5 eToro https://www.etoro.com
6 Exness https://www.exness.com
7 Expert Option https://expertoption.com
8 FBS https://fbs.com
9 FinFxPro https://finfxpro.com
10 Forex.com https://www.forex.com
11 Forex4money https://www.forex4money.com
12 Foxorex https://foxorex.com
13 FTMO https://ftmo.com/en
14 FVP Trade https://fvpt-uk.com
15 FXPrimus https://fxprimus.com
16 FXStreet https://www.fxstreet.com
17 FXCM https://www.fxcm.com
18 FxNice https://fx-nice.net
19 FXTM https://www.forextime.com
20 HotForex https://www.hotforex.com
21 ibell Markets https://ibellmarkets.com
22 IC Markets https://www.icmarkets.com
23 iFOREX https://www.iforex.in
24 IG Markets https://www.ig.com
25 IQ Option https://iq-option.com
26 NTS Forex Trading https://ntstradingrobot.com
27 OctaFX https://octaindia.net
https://hi.octafx.com
https://www.octafx.com
28 Olymp Trade https://olymptrade.com
29 TD Ameritrade https://www.tdameritrade.com
30 TP Global FX https://www.tpglobalfx.com
31 Trade Sight FX https://tradesightfx.co.in
32 Urban Forex https://www.urbanforex.com
33 XM https://www.xm.com
34 XTB https://www.xtb.com
thats the boss here. You did right thing here otherwise people will loose money by betting in forex fraud. Now i think it will help many who are trading big in these companies. I think RBI and Sebi has to be careful about these frauds.
Imagine who benefits the most if all the money parked in these forex brokers are brought back. This is the same as Americas diktat on other countries from buying weapons from Russia
Updated list as of May 2024
Source: RBI.
I don’t know for sure, but some YouTube channels even talk about finance and OctaFX in the same breath.