Lowest Brokerage Charges Demat Account for Intraday, Futures, and Options Trading in India in 2025? Choosing the right demat account is a crucial decision for every trader and investor. In India’s dynamic stock market, traders—especially those involved in intraday and options trading—are constantly in pursuit of efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness. One of the most significant factors influencing their overall profitability is brokerage charges.
While features like user interface, charting tools, research support, and mobile access are all important, the brokerage fee is the single most critical cost that affects bottom lines—particularly for high-frequency traders like intraday and options traders.
In this comprehensive article, we will explore why lowest brokerage charges play a pivotal role in demat account selection, delve into how brokerage impacts various trading strategies, and why options and intraday traders should pay even closer attention to this factor than anyone else.
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What Is a Demat Account?
Before diving deep, let’s understand the basics.
A Demat account (short for dematerialized account) holds securities such as shares, mutual funds, bonds, and ETFs in electronic format. It’s essential for buying and selling financial instruments on the Indian stock exchanges—NSE and BSE.
However, a Demat account is often bundled with a trading account, through which transactions happen. Brokerage charges apply every time you execute a trade, making the cost per trade an unavoidable aspect of stock market activity.
What Are Brokerage Charges?
Brokerage charges are the fees levied by brokers for facilitating trades. They can be of the following types:
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Percentage-Based Brokerage: Charges a percentage of the trade value.
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Flat Brokerage: Fixed fee per trade, regardless of trade size.
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Zero Brokerage: Some brokers offer zero brokerage for certain segments.
The magnitude of these charges can vary dramatically between brokers. While full-service brokers may charge between 0.3%–0.5% per trade, discount brokers often charge as low as ₹20 per executed order—or even ₹0 in some cases.
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Why Lowest Brokerage is Crucial
Let’s break down the importance of lowest brokerage across different perspectives:
1. Direct Impact on Profits
Every time you place a trade, brokerage is deducted—whether you profit or lose. The more frequently you trade, the higher the cumulative cost. For example:
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If a trader executes 20 intraday trades in a day and pays ₹20 per trade, that’s ₹400 in brokerage charges per day.
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If the same trades are done with a broker offering ₹10 per trade or zero brokerage, the cost drops by 50–100%.
The math is simple—lower brokerage directly increases your net profits or reduces your losses.
2. More Flexibility in Strategy
Low brokerage allows traders to:
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Enter and exit trades more freely.
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Book profits at smaller price moves.
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Avoid hesitation due to brokerage cost concerns.
This strategic flexibility is extremely important for traders who work on slim margins.
3. Reduces Breakeven Point
Every trade has a breakeven point—the price movement needed to cover the cost of the trade. Higher brokerage means a higher breakeven point. This can make certain strategies less viable.
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For example, a trade involving ₹2,00,000 with a 0.3% brokerage will incur ₹600.
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In comparison, a flat ₹20 fee offers the same service for a fraction of the cost.
This difference can determine whether a trade is profitable or not.
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4. Compounding Effect on Frequent Traders
Frequent traders place dozens, even hundreds of trades per month. Over time, even small differences in brokerage per trade compound into significant amounts.
For example:
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100 trades × ₹20 = ₹2,000/month
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100 trades × ₹10 = ₹1,000/month
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Over a year, that's a ₹12,000 difference
The cumulative impact is undeniable.
Why It’s Most Important for Intraday Traders
Intraday trading involves buying and selling stocks within the same day. Traders aim to profit from small price movements using large volumes.
Here’s why lowest brokerage is crucial for intraday traders:
1. High Volume, Low Margin
Intraday traders rely on thin margins, often between 0.2% to 1% per trade. In such cases, brokerage fees can eat up a substantial portion of the gains.
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If you make 0.5% profit but pay 0.3% as brokerage, you're left with just 0.2%.
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Switch to a flat fee of ₹10 or ₹0, and your net gain increases substantially.
2. Multiple Trades Per Day
An active intraday trader may execute dozens of trades daily. Lower brokerage significantly lowers cost per trade, making the strategy viable.
3. Scalping Becomes Viable
Scalping involves quick, small trades for minuscule gains. These are impossible to execute profitably if brokerage costs are high.
With flat or zero brokerage, scalping becomes more practical.
4. Psychological Comfort
Traders are more confident entering a trade when they know their breakeven point is low. This increases participation and consistency.
5. Tighter Stop-Losses & Profit Targets
Lower brokerage allows for tighter stop-loss and take-profit orders—essential for risk management in intraday strategies.
Why It’s Even More Important for Options Traders
Options trading involves buying or selling contracts based on an underlying asset. The pricing of these contracts is complex, and profitability hinges on precision and timing.
1. Premiums Are Already Low
Options contracts may trade for ₹50–₹200, especially near expiry. A ₹20 brokerage on a ₹50 premium is a 40% cost per lot—making the trade virtually unviable.
Low or zero brokerage reduces this burden, allowing better profit potential.
2. Multiple Legs Per Strategy
Options strategies like straddles, strangles, iron condors, and butterflies involve multiple legs—often 4 or more trades per strategy.
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Traditional brokerage: ₹20 × 4 = ₹80 per strategy
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Discount brokerage: ₹10 × 4 = ₹40
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Zero brokerage: ₹0
The lower the cost per leg, the more feasible it becomes to run complex strategies.
3. Frequent Adjustments Required
Options traders often need to adjust positions as the market moves—by adding, squaring off, or shifting strikes. Low brokerage encourages smart, timely adjustments.
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4. Weekly Expiry Popularity
With Nifty and Bank Nifty offering weekly options expiry, active traders participate every week. High brokerage can drastically reduce profits from such high-frequency trades.
5. Spread-based Profits
Options traders frequently rely on spreads (difference in premium between two contracts) for profits. These profits are often small, and high brokerage can wipe them out.
Case Studies: Real Impact of Low Brokerage
Case Study 1: Intraday Trader with 40 Trades/Day
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Broker A: ₹20/trade → ₹800/day
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Broker B: ₹10/trade → ₹400/day
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Broker C: ₹0/trade → ₹0/day
Monthly Brokerage Cost:
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Broker A: ₹16,000
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Broker B: ₹8,000
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Broker C: ₹0
Even a ₹10 difference per trade can double monthly costs.
Case Study 2: Options Trader Doing 8 Trades Per Day
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Traditional brokerage: ₹20 × 8 = ₹160/day
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Monthly (20 days): ₹3,200
With a discount or zero-brokerage plan, that cost can be reduced to ₹1,600 or even ₹0.
Additional Benefits of Low-Brokerage Demat Accounts
1. Supports Small-Capital Traders
Beginner traders or those with limited capital often get discouraged by brokerage eating into profits. Low or zero brokerage enables them to compete.
2. Faster Portfolio Scaling
Less money spent on brokerage = more capital available to compound returns and increase position sizes.
3. Ease of Experimentation
Traders can test new strategies with smaller trades without worrying about high fixed costs.
4. Encourages Risk Management
More trades at lower cost allow for better diversification and adherence to strict stop-loss rules without the worry of overpaying brokerage.
Points to Consider Beyond Brokerage
While brokerage is critically important, a trader shouldn’t compromise on:
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Reliability of Trading Platform: Downtime can cost more than high brokerage.
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Speed of Execution: Especially important for intraday and options.
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Charting & Analysis Tools: Low brokerage is useless if the platform is lacking.
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Customer Support: Especially when trades or withdrawals are stuck.
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Hidden Charges: Always check for other fees like call & trade charges, demat charges, fund transfer fees, etc.
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