In recent years, share trading and stock trading have grown in popularity in India. Many investors are directly investing in the stock market to create long-term riches due to the increased internet and smartphone usage. However, stock trading may be a challenging activity that necessitates a mastery of several topics, resources, and software. An essential instrument that helps investors efficiently purchase and sell equities online is a share trading platform. The main advantages and features of online share trading sites are discussed in this article.
What is a Share Trading Platform?
An investor can place orders for buying and selling shares/stocks listed on stock exchanges like the National Stock Exchange as well as the Bombay Stock Exchange directly from their computer or mobile device using a share trading platform, also known as the stock trading platform. Trading platforms serve as a conduit between stock brokers and investors. To assist investors in making wise investment decisions, they offer the required resources and market information. Several well-liked categories of trading platforms involve:
- Desktop platforms: Desktop/laptop PCs must be installed with these software-based systems. Advanced charting, screening, and analytical capabilities are available from them.
- Mobile apps: For trading while on the go, top brokers have created mobile apps for iOS and Android smartphones. Compared to desktop platforms, mobile applications are more simplistic.
- Web-based platforms: These platforms don’t require any program installation and may be accessed with any internet browser. They are practical but might not have all the functionality of desktop systems.
- Third party platforms: There are independent third-party providers along with the proprietary systems used by brokers that may be utilized to trade through various brokers.
Benefits of Using a Share Trading Platform
- Convenience: Because investors may place orders from anywhere with internet-connected PCs and cellphones, trading platforms have the convenience benefit. This eliminates the need to physically travel to brokerage offices to complete transactions, saving time and effort. Trading is convenient and hassle-free thanks to anytime, anywhere order access when traveling.
- Low brokerage: To encourage more investors to trade online through digital platforms, many brokers offer lower brokerage rates or even zero brokerage on trades placed on their websites and apps. This is significantly less than the brokerage charged on offline trades made through brokers’ call centers or branches. The reduced online brokerage costs incentivize traders to adopt the digital route.
- Research tools: Trading platforms provide robust research tools that help investors analyze stocks in-depth. Features like real-time news feeds, financial databases, charting techniques, stock screeners and analytical metrics aid both fundamental and technical research. These tools equip users with valuable insights for informed investment decision making.
- Automation: Trading platforms offer various automation features that enable setting up conditional orders like stop-loss and bracket orders to automatically execute trades based on pre-defined price levels. This automates trading decisions and risk management processes, thereby reducing the need for constant monitoring of positions. Automated features help investors manage risk efficiently without being glued to market movements.
- Transparency: Trading platforms provide transparency through various features. They display live market prices of stocks alongside real-time status updates of orders placed. The portfolio performance tracking feature gives an overview of holdings along with their current value and returns. It also shares periodic transaction statements to keep investors aware of all the activities in their account. Together these functionalities ensure transparency in a trader’s transactions on the platform.
- Paper trading: Paper trading refers to the practice of placing hypothetical trades in a virtual environment without using real money. Some trading platforms provide this useful feature which allows new traders to learn trading strategies by experimenting with virtual money. This helps traders understand the nuances of placing actual trades without the risk of losing capital until they hone their skills.
- Variety of orders: Trading platforms allow investors to place different order types to suit their unique trading strategies. They can execute market orders to buy or sell instantly at current prices or use limit orders to trade at pre-defined price levels. Stop-loss orders automatically sell when prices reach a particular point, limiting downside. This variety of order types gives traders flexibility to take positions and manage risks in different market conditions.
- Community: Trading platforms commonly provide discussion forums, blogs and social features to enable interaction between traders. These community features allow traders to exchange market opinions, learn from the experiences of others and stay up-to-date with the latest commentary and analysis. The social elements help create a network for traders to engage with like-minded individuals, thereby improving their trading knowledge over time.
Key Features of Trading Platforms
Trading platforms provide a variety of tools to aid investors in managing their portfolios and selecting investments with knowledge. A configurable dashboard that serves as the home screen is one of the main features. It provides a snapshot of key market data, news, portfolio performance metrics and outstanding orders for quick reference. Platforms also feature robust market watch and charting tools. The market watch allows viewing real-time prices of stocks, indices, currencies etc. on a single screen. Charting tools offer technical analysis capabilities with overlay indicators, drawing tools and customization options to spot trends and patterns in price movements.
An important feature is the stock screening and filtering tool. It enables shortlisting stocks based on various financial parameters like sector, market capitalization, PE ratio, dividend yield etc. This assists investors in filtering opportunities as per their strategy. Newsfeeds continuously stream company-specific announcements and market updates. Research reports provide access to brokerage analysis, financial statements and transcripts. These aid fundamental analysis. Order placement options allow executing different order types like market, limit or stop-loss orders online.
Conclusion
An online share trading platforms serves as a very useful online tool for Indian investors and traders to participate in stock markets conveniently and efficiently. By leveraging powerful features of these platforms, investors can perform advanced technical analysis, automate trading decisions, manage risks better and hopefully generate higher returns over time. Choosing a reliable platform based on individual needs is important for a smooth trading experience.
