A very good logical reasoning.
My personal opinion, not as a employee of Zerodha.
By seeing your above analogy I believe you are assuming too much, if Zerodha stop trading by 2pm then no client will trade with them, it is plain and simple, I mean that is a basic thing for you to understand. Also not sure if you are seeing yourself as the one who is fighting for investor rights, which is good to see but I can say you have misplaced your priorities, Zerodha acknowledged and Nithin said multiple times that they will try to close the difference. As a client if you are not satisfied with their service I believe you should close account with them and move out, no point on dragging this.
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Hey, @rupeshmandal we have certain limitations when it comes to mutual fund transactions in the way we offer it, Demat + using funds in a trading account and Exchange platforms for powering MF transactions. Like I have mentioned earlier, there are many benefits as well - being able to offer direct MF for free without us continuously burning money on it, offering added benefits like SIP anytime Start/Pause or Step-up SIP, etc. We believe that the benefits far outweigh the limitations. Btw, unlike many of the standalone direct MF platforms trying to earn revenue, we have never taken any pass back in any form (investor education, etc) from the Mutual fund houses, which was a common practice until late last year when SEBI put out a circular explicitly banning this.
We are trying to figure a way to extend the cut-off timing to as late as possible. But we canāt guarantee that it will be as late as you want. And if this cut-off is the most important prerogative for you, you should take your business to the platform where you get this. As a business we have an option to decide to offer what we think is the best for our customer in the long run, you as a customer have an option to decide where you want to do your business. Eventually, the better platform wins. I donāt see a point in you continuously harping about this and wasting each others time.
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Stick to what has been asked to you @nithin. Whether you have to comply to SEBI - YES or NO?
And I am paying Zerodha. As a consumer I have all the rights to ask valid questions, whether it makes you uncomfortable or however much irritating they be. And Zerodha is obliged to answer. You are in service business remember. To fight or to leave is upto me. You canāt decide for me.
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Excellent composure and balanced in providing your views.
Comply to which regulation?
Check this SEBI circular where they have defined Cut-off timing.
ācut-off timingā, in relation to an investor making an application to a mutual fund for purchase or sale of units, shall mean the outer limits of timings within a particular day which are relevant for determination of the NAV that is to be applied for his transaction.
āOuter limits of timingsā - which means this is the maximum until when an application can be made. There is no regulation that says that an AMC or platform selling MF has to extend until cut-off timings.
Btw, this is unrelated, but if you have seen circulars from SEBI they are in favor of early cut-off so people donāt try timing the market which gives the opportunity to manipulation as well.
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Zerodha does not let the mutual fund order application submitted beyond 1:30 pm. Even redemption orders. Itās a brute force way to block investors to place order even if SEBI window is open till 3 pm.
Moreover as I have mentioned above it is not just one issue. It is a collective one. BSE Star MF forces Zerodha, Kuvera etc to pass on the orders by 2:30 pm max while deadline is 3 pm by SEBI. So BSE Star MF is forcing the intermediaries and in return Zerodha is forcing investors keeping their margin.
In all this a retail investor is at the receiving end. Because a retail investors are easy to suppress. Is it?
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The answer for this is
If not for exchange MF platforms there is no way direct mutual fund offerings would be free of cost for this long. The few direct MF platforms not integrated with exchange MF platforms are burning a lot of money and only a matter of time before they start charging.
Like I have said earlier, as a business we will continue to improve and will offer what we think is sustainable in the long run.
@nithin May I ask you another question - Since you are aware that BSE Star MF is forcing intermediaries to collect mutual fund orders by 2:30 pm which is affecting retail investors in the end, did Zerodha being the largest broker, keeping retail investorsā interest in mind, said anything against it? Any message to the BSE Star MF or proposed any solution that would protect retail investors?
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Both the exchange platforms collect all orders from across everyone using them and send them to the RTAs. As you know that RTAs have a hard stop at 3 pm. This 2.30 pm is to give exchange platforms enough time in case there was any technical issue between exchange platforms and RTAs. You rather have them cut off 30 mins early and ensure that orders are fired the same day than have 2.59 pm and have many instances of issues where orders donāt get in time which will cause a lot more issues and complaints.
The only way for an MF platform to extend till 3 pm is by directly firing orders to RTA. But that means you have to build an integration for all the 40+ AMCs (be like a STAR MF) which is a technological nightmare and requires a lot of resources. Platforms like Paytm money, ET money have built the integration, you can check their financials to see how much money they are losing, mostly due to this.
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@nithin Thank you for sharing this. I would look into it.
My last question and I swear itās my last question -
If I have to sum up, it is not against Zerodha or you or BSE Star MF in particular. My fight is that the cut-off should be uniform across the platforms. Doesnāt matter at 3 pm or 1 pm. Even if 1 pm it should be the same for everyone, across platforms. Currently, on AMC websites you can place an order by 3 pm and get same-day NAV while Kuvera users can place orders till 2:30 for same day NAV while Coin users can place orders latest by 1:30 for same-day NAV because they are dependent on BSE Star MF and the intermediaries keep their margins.
Do you agree that there should be uniformity across the platforms for cut-off without any discrimination so that retail investors regardless of the platform get the same cut-off time everywhere? So whether on AMC website or any platform, a retail investor gets the same cut-off timing.
If you agree with me on this, please guide how to proceed to get this. And how can you in your personal capacity and Zerodha help on this?
Thanks.
The only way for this to happen is that the entire industry agrees on a hard stop which is before the cut-off timing. There have been many complaints across various platforms that have direct RTA integration where due to a tech issue orders didnāt get to the RTA by the cut-off timing of 3 pm. So having a hard stop before the actual cut-off will be beneficial for everyone. And MF investments arenāt really meant to be timed in any case.
But will the entire industry agree on a hard stop before the cut-off time? I doubt. I have brought this up a couple of times in the groups/committees that I am part of, but it was met with resistance. Pushing exchange platforms to extend till cut-off (2.59.59) is a recipe for bigger issues.
So I donāt know if there is anything that can be really done, but I canāt still figure why it bothers you this much. But yeah, I guess I will not be able to understand if I havenāt until now. 
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If you know me by now with our public interactions and one-to-one discussions, I am wired like this. Any wrong I encounter bothers me. Itās not just about this case. Maybe something is wrong with me inside. Maybe I am born like this. As you know I donāt trade. Simply buy and sell of stocks and mutual funds. Thatās why maybe when I noticed this it affected me. Or maybe because I have too high expectations from you and Zerodha. I donāt know. Now that you pointed out, I should introspect. Because it is indeed a lot of energy invested in such discussions.
On a different note and sharing something personal here, my brother has given up on this country and he lives in Stockholm for a reason. Before quitting India he told me India will never change, and he has no interest in changing others and he quit India to reside in Stockholm for good. I too had an opportunity to leave India as well and settle in Singapore. But I chose to be here.
@siva See, I kept my word. I didnāt ask a question. See!
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