4.1 – A quick recap

With the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) example in the previous chapter, we got a working knowledge of how Futures trading works. The futures trade example required us to go long on TCS futures as the expectation was that the TCS stock price would increase in due course. Further, we decided to square off the contract the very next day for a profit. However, if you recall, right at the beginning of the example, we posed a fundamental question; let me rephrase and repost the same for your ready reference.

A rational to go long on TCS was built – the thought was that TCS stock price had overreacted to the management’s statement. I expected the stock price to increase in due course of time. A directional view was established, and hence a futures trade was initiated. The question was – anyway, the expectation is that the stock price will go higher, why should one bother about buying futures and why not the stock in the spot market?

In fact, buying futures requires one to enter a digital agreement with the counterparty. Besides, a futures agreement is time-bound, meaning the directional view has to pan out within the specified time period. If it does not pan out within the specified time (as in the expiry), one has to suffer a loss. Contrast this (futures buying) with just buying stock and letting it reside in your DEMAT account. There is no obligation of an agreement or the pressure of time. So why does one really need futures? What makes it so attractive? Why not just buy the stock and stay oblivious to the stock price and the time?

The answers to all these questions lie in the financial leverage inherent in financial derivatives, including futures. As they say, Leverage is a true financial innovation; if used in the right context and spirit, leverage can create wealth. Without much ado, let us explore this angle of futures trading.

4.2 – Leverage in perspective

Leverage is something we use at some point or the other in our lives. We don’t think about it in the way it is supposed to be thought about. We miss seeing through the numbers and therefore never really appreciate the essence of leverage.

Here is a classic example of leverage – many of you may relate to this one.

A friend of mine is a real estate trader; he likes to buy apartments, sites, and buildings, hold them for a while, and then sell them for a later stage. He believes this is better than trading inequities, and I beg to differ – I could go on and on debating this, but maybe some other time.

Anyway, here is a summary of a recent real estate transaction he carried out. In November 2013, Prestige Builders (popular builders in Bangalore) identified land in South Bangalore. They announced a new project – A luxurious apartment complex with state of the art amenities. My friend jumped in and booked a 2 bedroom, hall, and kitchen apartment, expected to come up on the 9th floor for a sum of Rs.10,000,000/-. The project is expected to be completed by mid-2018. Since the apartment was just notified, and no work had started, the potential buyers were only required to pay 10% of the actual buy value. This is pretty much the norm when it comes to buying brand new apartments. The remaining 90% was scheduled to be paid as the construction progressed.

So back in Nov 2013, for an initial cash outlay of Rs.10,00,000/- (10% of 10,000,000/-), my friend was entitled to buy a property worth Rs.10,000,000/-. In fact, the property was so hot; all the 120 apartments were sold out like hot cakes just within 2 months of Prestige Builder announcing the brand new project.

Fast forward to Dec 2014, and my friend had a potential buyer for his apartment. Being a real estate trader, my friend jumped into the opportunity. A quick survey revealed that the area’s property value had appreciated by at least 25% (well, that’s how crazy real estate is in Bangalore). So my friend’s 9th-floor apartment was now valued at Rs.12,500,000/-. My friend and the potential buyer struck a deal and settled on the sale at Rs.12,500,000/-.

Here is a table summarizing the transaction –

Particulars Details
Initial Value of Apartment Rs. 10,000,000/-
Date of Purchase November 2013
Initial Cash outlay @ 10% of the apartment value Rs.10,00,000/-
Balance Payment to Builder Rs.90,00,000/-
Appreciation in apartment value 25%
Value of the apartment in Dec 2014 Rs.12,500,000/-
New buyer agrees to pay the balance payment Rs.90,00,000/- to the builder
My friend gets paid 12,500,000 – 9000000 = Rs.35,00,000/-
My friend’s profit on the transaction Rs.35,00,000/- minus Rs.10,00,000/- = Rs.25,00,000/-
Return on investment 25,00,000 / 10,00,000 = 250%

Clearly, few things stand out in this transaction.

  1. My friend was able to participate in a large transaction by paying only 10% of the transaction value.
  2. To enter into the transaction, my friend had to pay 10% of the actual value (call it the contract value)
  3. The initial value he pays (10 lakhs) can be considered a token advance, or in terms of ‘Futures Agreement,’ it would be the initial margin deposit.
  4. A small change in the asset value impacts the return massively.
  5. This is quite obvious – a 25% increase in asset value resulted in a 250% return on investment.
  6. A transaction of this type is called a “Leveraged Transaction.

Do make sure you understand this example thoroughly because this is very similar to a futures trade, as all futures transactions are leveraged. Do keep this example in perspective as we will now move back to the TCS trade.

M4-Ch4-title

4.3 – The Leverage

While we looked at the futures trade’s overall structure in the previous chapter, let us now re-work the TCS example with some specific details. For the sake of simplicity, the trade details are as follows: we will assume the opportunity to buy TCS occurs on the 15th of Dec at Rs.2362/- per share. Further, we will assume the opportunity to square off this position occurs on 23rd Dec 2014 at Rs.2519/-. Also, we will assume there is no difference between the spot and futures price.

Particulars Details
Underlying TCS Limited
Directional View Bullish
Action Buy
Capital available for the trade Rs.100,000/-
Trade Type Short term
Remarks The expectation is that the stock price will increase over the next few days
By Date 15th Dec 2014
Approximate buy Price Rs.2362/- per share
Sell Date 23rd Dec 2014
Approximate Sell Price Rs.2519/- per share

So with a bullish view on TCS stock price and Rs.100,000/ in hand, we have to decide between the two options at our disposal – Option 1 – Buy TCS stock in the spot market or Option 2 – Buy TCS futures from the Derivatives market. Let us evaluate each option to understand the respective dynamics.

Option 1 – Buy TCS Stock in the spot market

Buying TCS in the spot market requires us to check for the price at which the stock is trading and calculate the number of stocks we can afford to buy (with the capital at our disposal). After buying the stock in the spot market, we have to wait for at least two working days (T+2) to get credited to our DEMAT account. Once the stocks reside in the DEMAT account, we just have to wait for the right opportunity to sell them.

Few salient features of buying the stock in the spot market (delivery based buying) –

  1. Once we buy the stock (for delivery to DEMAT), we have to wait for at least 2 working days before deciding to sell it. This means even if the very next day, if a good opportunity to sell comes up, we cannot really sell the stock.
  2. We can buy the stock to the extent of the capital at our disposal. Meaning if our disposable cash is Rs.100,000/- we can only buy to the extent of Rs.100,000/- not beyond this.
  3. There is no pressure of time – as long as one has the time and patience, one can wait for a really long time before deciding to sell

Specifically, with Rs.100,000/- at our disposal, on 15th Dec 2014, we can buy –

= 100,000 / 2362

~ 42 shares

Now, on 23rd Dec 2014, when TCS is trading at Rs.2519/- we can square off the position for a profit –

= 42 * 2519

= Rs.105,798/-

So Rs.100,000/- invested in TCS on 14th Dec 2014 has now turned into Rs.105,798/- on 23rd Dec 2014, generating Rs.5,798/- in profits. Interesting, let us check the return generated by this trade –

= [5798/100,000] * 100

= 5.79 %

A 5.79% return over 9 days is quite impressive. In fact, a 9-day return of 5.79% when annualized yields about 235%. This is phenomenal!

But how does this contrast with option 2?

Option 2 – Buy TCS Stock in the futures market

Recall in futures market variables are predetermined. For instance, the minimum number of shares (lot size) that needs to be bought in TCS is 125 or in multiples of 125. The lot size multiplied by the futures price gives us the ‘contract value’. We know the futures price is Rs.2362/- per share; hence the contract value is –

= 125 * 2362

= Rs.295,250/-

Does that mean to participate in the futures market, I need Rs.295,250/- in total cash? Not really; Rs. 295,250/- is the contract value; however, to participate in the futures market, one just needs to deposit a margin amount which is a certain % of the contract value. In the case of TCS futures, we need about 14% margin. At 14% margin (14% of Rs.295,250/-), Rs.41,335/- is all we need to enter into a futures agreement. At this stage, you may get the following questions in your mind –

  1. What about the balance money? i.e Rs.253,915/- ( Rs.295,250/ minus Rs.41,335/-)
    • Well, that money is never really paid out.
  2. What do I mean by ‘never really paid out’?
    • We will understand this in greater clarity when we take up the chapter on “Settlement – mark 2 markets.”
  3. Is 14% fixed for all stocks?
    • No, it varies from stock to stock.

So, keeping these few points in perspective, let us explore the futures trade further. The cash available in hand is Rs.100,000/-. However, the cash requirement in terms of margin amount is just Rs. Rs.41,335/-.

This means instead of 1 lot, maybe we can buy 2 lots of TCS futures. With 2 lots of TCS futures, the number of shares would be 250 (125 * 2) – at the cost of Rs.82,670/- as the margin requirement. After committing Rs.82,670/- as margin amount for 2 lots, we would still be left with Rs.17,330/- in cash. But we cannot really do anything with this money; hence it is best left untouched.

Now here is how the TCS futures equation stacks up –

Lot Size – 125

No of lots – 2

Futures Buy price – Rs. 2362/-

Futures Contract Value at the time of buying = Lot size *number of lots* Futures Buy Price

= 125 * 2 * Rs. 2362/-

= Rs. 590,500/-

Margin Amount – Rs.82,670/-

Futures Sell price = Rs.2519/-

Futures Contract Value at the time of selling = 125 * 2 * 2519

= Rs.629,750/-

This translates to a profit of Rs. 39,250/-!

Can you see the difference? A move from 2361 to 2519 generated a profit of Rs.5,798/- in the spot market, but the same move generated Rs’ profit. 39,250/-. Let us see how juicy this looks in terms of % return.

Remember our investment for the futures trade is Rs.82,670/-, hence the return has to be calculated keeping this as the base –

[39,250 / 82,670]*100

Well, this translates to a whopping 47% over 9 days! Contrast that with 5.79% in the spot market. For the sake of annualizing, this translates to an annual return of 1925 % …. With this, hopefully, I should have convinced you why short term traders prefer transactions in the Futures market as opposed to spot market transactions.

Futures offer something more than a plain vanilla spot market transaction. Thanks to the existence of ‘Margins’, you require a much lesser amount to enter into a relatively large transaction. If your directional view is right, your profits can be huge.

We can take positions much bigger than the capital available; this is called “Leverage”. Leverage is a double-edged sword. If used in the right spirit and knowledge, leverage can create wealth; if not, it can destroy wealth.

Before we proceed further, let us just summarize the contrast between the spot and futures market in the following table –

Particular Spot Market Futures Markets
Capital Available Rs.100,000/- Rs.100,000/-
By Date 15th Dec 2014 15th Dec 2014
Buy Price Rs.2362 per share Rs.2362 per share
Qty 100,000 / 2362 = 42 shares Depends on Lot size
Lot Size Not Applicable 125
Margin Not Applicable 14%
Contract value per lot Not Applicable 125 * 2362 = 295,250/-
Margin Deposit per lot Not Applicable 14% * 295,250 = 41,335/-
How many lots can be bought Not Applicable 100,000/41,335= 2.4 or 2 Lots
Margin Deposit Not Applicable 41,335 * 2 = 82,670/-
No of shares bought 42 (as calculated above) 125 * 2 = 250
Buy Value (Contract Value) 42 * 2362 = 100,000/- 2 * 125 * 2362 = 590,500/-
Sell Date 23rd Dec 2014 23rd Dec 2014
No of days trade was live 9 days 9 days
Sell Price Rs.2519/- per share Rs.2519/- per share
Sell Value 42 * 2519 = 105,798 250 * 2519 = 629,750/-
Profit earned 105798 – 100000 = Rs.5798/- 629750 – 590500 = Rs.39,250/-
Absolute Return for 9 days 5798 / 100,000 = 5.79 % 39250 / 82670 = 47%
% Return annualized 235% 1925%

All through, we have discussed rewards of transacting in futures, but what about the risk involved? What if the directional view does not pan out as expected? To understand both the sides of a futures trade, we need to understand how much money we stand to make (or lose) based on the underlying movement. This is called the “Futures Payoff”.

4.4 – Leverage Calculation

Usually, when we talk about leverage, the common questions one gets asked is – “How many times leverage are you exposed to?” The higher the leverage, the higher is the risk, and the higher is the profit potential.

Calculating leverage is quite easy –

Leverage = [Contract Value/Margin]. Hence for TCS trade the leverage is

= [295,250/41,335]

= 7.14, which is read as 7.14 times or simply as a ratio – 1: 7.14.

This means every Rs.1/- in the trading account can buy upto Rs.7.14/- worth of TCS. This is a very manageable ratio. However, if the leverage increases, then the risk also increases. Allow me to explain.

At 7.14 times leverage, TCS has to fall by 14% for one to lose all the margin amount; this can be calculated as –

1 / Leverage

= 1/ 7.14

= 14%

Now for a moment, assume the margin requirement was just Rs.7000/- instead of Rs.41,335/-. In this case, the leverage would be –

= 295,250 / 7000

= 42.17 times

This is clearly is a very high leverage ratio. One will lose all his capital if TCS falls by –

1/41.17

= 2.3%.

So, the higher the leverage, the higher is the risk. When leverage is high, only a small move in the underlying is required to wipe out the margin deposit.

Alternatively, at roughly 42 times leverage, you just need a 2.3% move in the underlying to double your money.☺

I personally don’t like to over-leverage. I stick to trades where the leverage is about 1:10 or about 1:12, not beyond this.

4.5 – The Futures payoff

Imagine this – when I bought TCS futures, the expectation was that TCS stock price would go higher, and therefore, I would financially benefit from the futures transaction. But what if instead of going up, TCS stock price went down? I would obviously make a loss. Think about it after initiating a futures trade. At every price point, I would either stand to make a profit or loss. The payoff structure of a futures transaction simply highlights the extent to which I either make a profit or loss at various possible price points.

To understand the payoff structure better, let us build one for the TCS trade. Remember it is a long trade initiated at Rs.2362/- on 16th of Dec. After initiating the trade, by 23rd Dec, the price of TCS can go anywhere. Like I mentioned, at every price point, I will either make a profit or a loss. Hence while building the structure’s pay, I will assume various possible price point situations that can pan out by 23rd Dec, and I will analyze the P&L situation at each of these possibilities. In fact, the table below does the same –

Possible Price on 23rd Dec Buyer P&L (Price on 23rd Dec – Buy Price)
2160 (202)
2180 (182)
2200 (162)
2220 (142)
2240 (122)
2260 (102)
2280 (82)
2300 (62)
2320 (42)
2340 (22)
2360 (2)
2380 18
2400 38
2420 58
2440 78
2460 98
2480 118
2500 138
2520 158
2540 178
2560 198
2580 218
2600 238

This is the way you need to read this table – considering you are a buyer at Rs.2362/-, what would be the P&L by 23rd Dec assuming TCS is trading is Rs.2160/-. As the table suggests, you would make a loss of Rs.202/-per share (2362 – 2160).

Likewise, what would be your P&L if TCS is trading at 2600? Well, as the table suggest, you would make a profit of Rs.238/- per share (2600 – 2362). So on and so forth.

In fact, if you recollect from the previous chapter, we stated that if the buyer is making Rs. X/- as profit, then the seller is suffering a loss to the extent of Rs. X/-. So assuming  23rd Dec TCS is Trading at 2600, the buyer makes a profit of Rs.238/- per share, and the seller would be making a loss of Rs.238/- per share, provided that the seller has shorted the share at Rs.2362/-.

Another way to look at this is that the money is being transferred from the seller’s pocket to the buyer’s pocket. It is just a transfer of money and not a creation of money!

There is a difference between the transfer of money and creation of money. Money is generated when the value is created. For example, you have bought TCS shares from a long term perspective, TCS as a business does well, profits and margins improve. Obviously, you as a shareholder will benefit from under-appreciation in the share price. This is money creation or wealth generation. If you contrast this with Futures, money is not being created but moving from one pocket to another.

Precisely for this reasons, Futures (rather financial derivatives in general) is called a “Zero Sum Game”.

Further, let us now plot a graph of the possible price on 23rd December versus the buyers P&L. This is also called the “Payoff Structure”.

M4-Ch4-Chart1

As you can see, any price above the buy price (2362) results in a profit and any price below the buy price results in a loss. Since the trade involved purchasing 2 lots of futures (250 shares), a 1 point positive movement (from 2362 to 2363) results in a gain of Rs.250. Likewise, a 1 point negative movement (from 2362 to 2361) results in a loss of Rs.250. Clearly, there is a sense of proportionality here. The proportionality comes from the fact that the money made by the buyer is the loss suffered by the seller (provided they have bought/short the same price), and vice versa.

Most importantly, because the P&L is a smooth straight line, it is said that the futures are a “Linear Payoff Instrument”.


Key takeaways from this chapter

  1. Leverage plays a key role in futures trading.
  2. Margins allow us to deposit a small amount of money and take exposure to a large value transaction.
  3. Margins charged is usually a % of the contract value.
  4. Spot market transactions are not leveraged; we can transact to the extent of our capital.
  5. Under leverage, a small change in the underlying results in a massive impact on the P&L
  6. The profits made by the buyer is equivalent to the loss made by the seller and vice versa.
  7. The higher the leverage, the higher is the risk and, therefore, the higher the chance of making money.
  8. Futures Instrument simply allows one to transfer money from one pocket to another. Hence it is called a “Zero Sum Game.”
  9. The payoff structure of a futures instrument is linear.



551 comments

  1. sushil 12 says:

    Simple and easy. Too Good Sir:)

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thx 🙂

      • pops says:

        You are simply owsum, in a short exp, you just understand us everything which was a question for lifetime , great ,
        ??

      • Shrirang Sarnaik says:

        Sir I am very beginner to future stock market…Till not taken single trade in equity future. I have one query….are future contracts also getting highlighted in Demat or it takes a couple of days…Pls clarify

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          No, these contracts don’t come to DEMAT like stocks.

          • Shantanu says:

            Hi, If Future contracts dont come to demat how can see what profit or loss we have made from it ? Another query I have is , in Key points you have stated “Spot market transactions are not leveraged, we can transact to the extent of the capital that we have” but we get leverage depending on the volatility of the stock. Can you please explain this stmt.

            Thanks,
            Shantanu

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            The P&L can be tracked from the position’s tab on Kite. Shantanu, can you please give me more clarity on the line “but we get leverage depending on the volatility of the stock”. Thanks.

    • Nagesh Cavatur says:

      The leverage is the reciprocal of margin percentage x 100. In the TCS example it becomes (1/14)x100 = 7.14.

  2. Santosh says:

    Really nice detailed explanation, though some of us trade futures but do not know the underlying concepts.
    Explanation on Leverage and Risk is beautiful.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks Santosh, glad you liked it. It is in fact quite important to know the nature of beast as it helps us tame it better 🙂

      • Rahul says:

        Absolutely correctly said phrase. Hearty gratitude for the detailed explanation on Futures.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Most welcome 🙂

          • JEGANNATHAN AROCKIAM says:

            Dear Karthik,

            With respect to 4.4, advantage of leveraging you mentioned that more leveraging means ( i.e less margin amount) more risk of loosing capital when the stock price come down marginally. My question is if we loose capital, the amount also will be lesser, instead of 41335 we loose 7000 only. Moreover, why we loose that amount why not wait for increase in stock price? ( I mean within contract period)

            Please elaborate.

            Thanks

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            The futures work on an M2M basis, so the funds have to be settled on a daily basis. This means the capital has to go out from your account on an at the end of the day (in case of a loss). Yes, you can hold the futures position for recovery but then you need enough money to fund M2M losses (if any).

  3. S.R.Badrish says:

    Hi, It gives a complete explanation about all the points pertaining to futures Trading. Should clear most of the doubts of a layman also.
    Just wanted to mention one point–As far as my knowledge goes, as per the example when TCS is bougt as stock, we can sell the stock even before it comes to our DEMAT Account.
    Anyhow Hats off to the entire team for their effort in putting up a module like this.

  4. amit kumar says:

    Very good explanation kartik, I want to know how much will be profit and loss keeping brokerage and spot and future price different, kindly explain, once again hats off to u nd ur team for doing wonderful job, keep it up.

  5. sushil 12 says:

    sir next chapter plz…? 🙂

  6. Mahesh Patil says:

    Dear sir,
    Please include topic on “GAP” in technical analysis.

  7. Vidhyalakshmi says:

    Hi Karthik. Thanks for taking the effort to clear our doubts. I have one regarding the costs of transaction (tax and charges). When I look at the brokerage calculator, I see a clear advantage in choosing intraday or FnO as a product type as opposed to delivery-based trades. My question is…”Apart varying margin requirements, is there a difference in transaction costs between choosing to trade futures in NRML or MIS?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      In fact chapter 7 (which is work in progress) talks about this in detail. However just to answer your question, the biggest difference is in terms of the margins that you need to deposit. Other charges (except brokerage) are calculated as a % of turnover hence it would not change much. Brokerage as you may know is flat at Zerodha (Rs.20/- per trade) and it does not really depend on anything.

  8. Vidhyalakshmi says:

    I have one more doubt. After I buy a lot of say TCS futures and it trades lower and lower for 3 subsequent days and on the 4th day goes back to the price point at which I bought it. Will the (negative) difference in price during those 3 days be deducted from my margin on a daily basis?

  9. Vidhyalakshmi says:

    The next chapter cleared all the fog around the subject. Thank you very much for explaining everything in such a light and lucid way!

  10. Sudarshan says:

    Once we buy the stock (for delivery to DEMAT) we have to wait for at least 2 working days before we can decide to sell it. This means even if the very next day if a good opportunity to sell comes up, we cannot really sell the stock.

    What you have mentioned above is wrong…

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for pointing this, in fact this was the first draft and I was to correct it in the 2nd draft, dont know how it skipped my attention. You are right, one can even do a BTST with the risk of short delivery.

      • Martin says:

        You have agreed to Sudarshan about the factual error, however, even after 4 years, it has yet to been rectified!

  11. Muthu Selvan says:

    Could u pl. explain BTST?

  12. Shashi Shah says:

    I had invested in the Trading symbol MARUTI15JULFUT which had 15 July expiry then – however, the 15 July expiry futures seem to have vanished now! In place of the mid-month expiry futures, there are now month-end expiry futures. Has the expiry now changed to 30 July – how can I know this? I’m trading via Zerodha – how can I know my current profit / loss?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The expiry of Futures and Options contract has always been on the last Thursday of every month and never mid month. I have a feeling you may inadvertently misread the expiry dates.

  13. Ragunathan says:

    Sir, I have a basic doubt… If the money made out of derivatives is coming from someone’s pocket then is it morally a good trade? Is it not like a daytime burglary or pick pocket? Hope you will clarify my long time moral doubt.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Sir, I’m too inexperienced to talk about morality 🙂

      However here is my 2 cents on this topic – market is the only institution of sorts where merit is respected. Over the long run the knowledgeable trader always wins over the ignorant. An ignorant trader is always rash with his money, market facilitates this transfer of money from the ignorant trader to the knowledgeable trader in the most legitimate way. Think about it – what makes a person ignorant? It is his lack of willingness to learn – in other words his laziness right :).

      So for all the hard work you put towards learning…you should be rewarded right? 🙂 The ignorant trader will do just that – reward you for the knowledge you possess!

      • Ragunathan says:

        sir, great…. i thought you would neglect my question…but you established you are a good teacher. Its correct, knowledge should be rewarded but the ignorant not rewarding a well versed trader voluntarily like in a teacher student relation..isn’t it? definitely the looser whether he is ignorant or not will give the money to the gainer with tears… BUT IGNORANT CAME WITH GREED. HE PAY FOR HIS GREED. i know this is not an appropriate forum to discuss these type of morality questions because it’s BUSINESS. if we calculate in this regard no one did trade and got profit from the beginning of the HISTORY. its my longtime worry that what im doing… sucking others money? but your answer somewhat compromised. yes no trader is perfect…every one gives and gets money from the market and vice versa. but the question here is how much is the percentage….?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Yes Raghunath, please don’t think too much about these issues. As long as you are designing and executing your trades well you are doing the right job, please don’t get worked on other matters.

          Good luck.

          • samanth ch says:

            sir namasthe i think whole this zerodha modules it was gud query by raghu nd nice answer from u

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Namasthe 🙂 I’m glad you like Zerodha Varsity and the interaction here !

  14. Ragunathan says:

    Thank you sir…. -:)

  15. sudhi says:

    clear and very informative

  16. Deepali says:

    Hi,
    It is clear that the margin percentage varies from stock to stock.
    I have below queries:
    1. the margin percentage is prescribed by the exchange, is it right?
    2. where I can see this margin percentage ? is it available with BSE or NSE site?
    3. How I can know the margin amount required before buying contract in zerodha terminal?

    Thanks!

  17. jitendra says:

    Simply superb modules

  18. Manoj Naik says:

    Hi Sir, What does derivative pricing means?.What exactly goes in to derivative pricing.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Manoj – Derivatives are financial products that are sort of ‘made up’ to mimic the underlying price. Because these are completely different instruments, they need to be priced. Pricing of these instruments is what is generally called as “Derivative Pricing”.

  19. Manoj Naik says:

    Sir, Since forwards are OTC trades do we need to square off.?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yeah, only after you square off the trade is said to be complete.

      • Manoj Naik says:

        Hi Sir, In the example of gold we agree to buy gold at future price agreed upon. There will be another party who will sell the gold. On the date of settlement we will take the delivery of gold and the other party will get the money. So this trade is complete. My question is whether this trade can be called squared off or do i need to enter into counter position that is sell to square off.

  20. Manoj Naik says:

    Sir, Could you suggest me any site where i can get very good info on pricing of derivatives.

  21. Ankit says:

    Sir i want to ask very simple question

    I want to buy about 15 shares of MRF. For this I have to spend money 39200*15= 59000 (approx). I have much more money than this in my account.
    I want to buy stock of this company only. Then what should I do, should I buy stock from spot market or from future market.
    Besides leverage what other benefits are in future marketing trading

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If you want the shares in your DEMAT account, then you will have to pay Rs.588,000/- and take delivery. If you trade Futures then you will have to accommodate for daily M2M etc.

  22. PRASHANTH AV says:

    karthick,
    you have written that once we buy the stock for delivery, even though a good oppurtunity comes next day for selling we cant sell it.right. THEN HOW ARE BTST TRADES EXECUTED

  23. Varun says:

    Margins are available from brokers for intraday trading. This also can be considered as leveraging right ? How different is this from the leveraging in the futures market ?

  24. dipen says:

    hello sir,
    very nice and indepth chapter for futures trading.
    as you mentioned “zero sum game”, does it mean trading i futures no one makes money?
    will u please elaborte…
    thank u

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      ‘Zero sum game’ is a line used to describe the fact that money is transferred from one account to another. So, smart and sensible traders end up making tons of money.

  25. dipen says:

    very nice…. thank you sir.

  26. nitin k says:

    Span margin calculator and equity margin calculators are showing different margin for same stock future. Why?

  27. Sauvik Das says:

    Hello Karthik,
    It is probable the best explanation and must read for any new comer , It really shows how clear you are in concept…
    Thanks a lot

  28. ABHISHEK says:

    Sir
    I have a query. Say I have Rs 1lac in my account and the contract value is Rs 295250 as per the above mentioned scenario. Although the margin is 14% of the contract value which I’m able to pay with Rs 1 lac, but what about the remaining Rs (295259-41335(14%)). When do we have to pay the remaining about, do we have to pay it on the expiry date. If yes, what if I default and I don’t have the remaining debt to be paid in my trading account?

    Thanks!

    • ABHISHEK says:

      the above scenario is for the case if I want to hold on to the agreement till the expiry. Also, what will happen if no one decides to buy the future lot during the tenure and it just gets expired.

      • Karthik Rangappa says:

        All derivative contracts are settled in cash by the exchange upon its expiry, so you will not be in a situation where you hold a contract with no buyers/sellers.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Abhishek – you need not have to pay up the remaining funds. Futures trading works just on margins and M2M.

  29. vishal says:

    hi karthik,
    can anyone , sell the future contracts the same day , if price rises?

  30. VISHAL says:

    Hi Karthik,
    I was just checking the futures price of Tata power(Expiry 28 July, 2016), on Moneycontrol app, it was quoted at73.5, down by 0.6 points, 0.81%, & the closing price of tata power stock was 74.3, down by 0.6 points, 0.8% .
    So is it possible to buy Tata power futures, @73.5, as the price of Tata power stock is 74.3 .

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, as long as you strongly believe the discount will be bridged and the futures price will move up!

  31. vishal says:

    In chapter 3, from the example of TCS, what I was able to understand is-
    – the price of TCS futures expiry 24DEC2014 is 2374.9, down by 93.05 points, 3.77% .
    – underlying value i.e the current price of TCS stock is 2359.95 .
    – so if one buys TCS futures expiry 24DEC2014 @ 2374.9, this means if price goes beyond 2374.9, on or before 24 DEC 2014, one will gain.

    I was not able to match what i understood in TCS example, with my observation in tata power futures price as stated above.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, for you to be profitable, TCS futures (or any futures in general) has to move up beyond your entry price.

  32. Madhusudan says:

    Hi again,
    As i see in above chapter,U have used 2362 as a buy price for stock buy and future buy price and 2519 as stock sell and future sell??If this is the case then is there no meaning to the running future index and its separate prices??I hope you understand .please revert asap??

  33. vishnu says:

    If we need minimum T+2 days to sell a share in a spot market which we own already, then how one do intraday trading?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Its not T+2 Vishnu. When you sell from your demat, for all practical purpose the stocks are flushed out from you account the day day. However, while doing an intraday trade, you do not take stock to delivery so there is no question of settlement from the exchange at all.

  34. Dinesh says:

    Do we have bracket order possible on futures?

  35. John says:

    Does it really makes a difference if i invest through Bse or Nse.

  36. John says:

    Thankyou So much.

  37. sagar kumar nayak says:

    The article is great. it only takes me through the profit part of leverage. but how the loss is calculated? lets take that we have a future cont. of 250 and lot size is 1000. so i take 2 lots that is 500,000. the leverage is 1:12. the req amount is 38,461. and i have a 40,000 in my account. i take a trade and 38,461 is deducted from my account which leaves me at 1539. now i want to know when there will be a margin call ? lets say the 250 value changes to 248. this makes a loss of 4000 and makes my future contract value to 496,000. so will there be a margin call ? or what is the condition at which my trades will be automatically sold and margin call will be done?

    Please do suggest a solution.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Margin charged = SPAN + Exposure margin. You can see the split up between the SPAN and exposure here – https://zerodha.com/margin-calculator/SPAN/.

      For you to safely trade without any margin call, you need to ensure there is money in your account to the extent of SPAN (at least), all the time, during your trade’s lifetime.

  38. Khan says:

    Great work Karthik!
    I tried to buy futures of a stock I wanted to trade in but couldn’t find any. Later I realized, no all stocks listed have futures. Why so?

  39. p.shunmugaperumal says:

    This module help me learn more things about future trade i have few doubts regarding margin and leverage if increase leverage the margin will decrease vice versa obviously because margin is inversely proportional to leverage if i have a good balances and i choose a minimum lot size can I increase my leverage size

  40. salim says:

    Please correct this line , it will be (spot – strike) as it is long on trade not short. And you have mention (strike – spot)
    (As the table suggest, you would make a loss of Rs.202/-per share (2362 – 2160).)

  41. Vishal Oturkar says:

    Hi Karthik,
    there are lots of companies which r nt listed in derivatives , i mean i cn nt find there Future contract on NSE nor with Zerodha.
    some of them are.
    Tata Metaliks , Delta Corp LTD , MMTC Ltd , Coromandel International , Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd. etc.
    can you please confirm why this is so.

    Thanks for your GR888 Study material.
    Cheers.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      There are only about 270 companies listed under the F&O segment 🙂

      There are a set of trading criteria required for a company to qualify for listing in this segment…and as you can see, at this point only 270 odd companies qualify.

  42. Mohan Kabra says:

    I understand Warren Buffet has said that Financial derivatives are financial disasters for individuals and that they are fit only for corporates and institutions. What do you say about it?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The only difference between corporates and individuals is the depth of pockets. End of the day, corporates are also run by humans and they too can burn up derivative positions.

      The key, according to me is learning how these instruments work and setting realistic expectations around what can be achieved with these instruments.

  43. Mohan Kabra says:

    Can we assume that about 270 companies which are registered for F&O are more or less better than the remaining companies?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No….its just that these 270 companies have a wider market participation and therefore the volumes and trading activity are higher. Hence, they qualify for F&O. It have nothing to do with the actual performance of the company.

  44. mohit_1607 says:

    Excellent karthik..wonderful explanation..thnx a lot

  45. dhawal says:

    keep it up zerodha ..varsity

  46. Nihal says:

    Hi karthik,
    i have one doubt , if i have limited balance in my trading account and not able to get any futures , with the same amount can i deal in cash market ? am i able to get leverage ? how much % ? (specially in case Cash Market – Intraday -MIS )
    or i need to purchase shares worth of my balance only ? if i get leverage is it necessary to put SL in cash market ?
    i hope i hv nt made u confused. :-!

  47. Nihal says:

    Hi,
    In continuation with above question , with Zerodha in Cash segment(MIS) why there is not provided same leverage for all shares ?

  48. jswalia888 says:

    sir help me let assume 2% margin contract value rs 100 = 2rs margin is that
    leverages =contract value / margin so =100/2= 50 so 1:50 u said 1:10 value best so in this case 1:50 mean high leverages

  49. Kirit Dave says:

    Dear Sir,
    I am new to Zerodha & trading as well as. I am learning. I found your way of explanation very good and quite understandable.
    Thanks & regards,
    Kirit

  50. sko5prasad says:

    Hi Karthik,
    How one can earn profit also by shorting the TCS share as mentioned in the above lesson ?

    Regards,
    Sachin

  51. Suryaveer says:

    First, thanks for such wonderful tutorials.
    Second, I had a question, please don’t mind the silliness of the question. I am a complete greenhorn. THe question being, are there any mini or micro lots in futures contract as well? Can we do micro or a mini futures contract for the TCS? or its just the standard lot size?
    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      There were mini lots on Nifty available, not any more I guess. It would be nice to have them back.

  52. Ayush says:

    Will there be any initial margin deduction while shorting the futures?

  53. Ayush says:

    1. What is the maximum leverage one can get using CO or BO in equities?
    2. What is the maximum leverage one can get in futures using MIS,BO or CO?

  54. Ayush says:

    3. In case of equity if my leverage in more than 23 times in CO/BO, can’t i enter the trade?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      3) Leverage depends on the stock, if leverage is provided, you can take the a leveraged position.

  55. Ankit says:

    Hi karthik ,
    I want to know about GTM orders. Can be placed in indian market or not?

  56. Rahul Sharma says:

    HI karthik Sir
    I am big fan of zerodha. No doubt zerodha is one of the best and fastest growing brokerage house.
    Your service are really very good.
    But as far as leverage is concerned, zerodha is far behind.
    Many discount brokers provide 4x leverage or more (intraday) but zerodha provide 2.5X
    One broker provide facility of interday position only on span margin
    Why these zerodha does not provide? Zerodha is much bigger and more reputated, have more clients.
    However BO CO require less margin but can not be placed for banknifty on Thursday
    Please reply

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks Rahul. Providing excess leverage is not really a big thing for a broker, but the real question to ask is –

      1) Is it good for the client?
      2) Is it good for the business?

      The answer is no for both.

      • prats says:

        Leverage should be in proportional to the Trader’s net worth and not a blanket one. A blanket leverage of 2.5x doesn’t mean it is beneficial. For a trader with high net worth but less capital, good amount of leverage is better. Anyways , we can see now more or less leverages for MIS have been 3x or above for most of the stocks

  57. Rahul says:

    1. Will i have to pay back leverage after trade?
    2. Suppose, i have 1000 rs and i got a leverage of 500rs and my bet size increases to 1500rs, what if i got a profit of 3000rs, will the leverage be deducted from my trading a/c?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) No leverage is just provided to you…no paying back as such.
      2) No, it does not work that way. You will be allowed to initiate a position worth 1500 with just 1000.

  58. Jay says:

    Hello Karthik,
    Im a beginner in Trading, I have some silly doubts. Hope you can help me to understand the things. So far i never executed leverage trades, please let me know whether my below understanding is correct in point 1.
    Point. 1) In case i have Rs.10,000 in my trading account. i would i like to by X stock worth Rs.500 each. it has leverage of 9X in MIS as per zerodha margin calculator. Using that leverage I can buy 181 stocks, instead 20. And it is under the condition either profit or loss I need to square off before 3:20 PM. As per Zerodha brokerage calculator my profit is Rs.130.45, in case i sell for Rs.1 profit. No other charges for the entire transcation I made.

    Point. 2) What is the benefit for brokerage firms when they give leverages to their customer and what are all the criterias taken into account to fix the leverage for each stock? This question is based on curiosity.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Yes, that is how leverage works. Charges applicable are shown on the brokerage calculator. Besides this, stamp duty charges are levied. However, this is not a big component.
      2) Traders prefer to trade with leverage as they believe it is an efficient use of capital. Brokers are expected to provide this, a least on an intraday basis. Consider this as a value added service 🙂

      • Jay says:

        JAY

        May 29, 2017 at 4:14 pm
        Hello Karthik,
        In addition to above query in point.1 , to use leverages in MIS, do i need to choose any specific option in trade window. for example, I have Rs.20,000/- in my trade account and in case i want to execute 2 leverage trading for 2 different stocks with the capital of Rs.10,000/- to each. Once my order for 1st stock executed using leverage (if no specific option is avaialble to choose whether its leverage or normal MIs trade). how come there will be some balance in my account to buy another stock. As per my understanding, if total buy value is Rs.100,000/- all the amount in my account (i.e., Rs.20,000) will be taken away for 1st purchase and Rs.80,000 will be leverage instead Rs.10,000 needs to be taken and Rs.90,000 as leverage. So, that i cuyan use the remaining Rs.10,000 to buy another stock. please extend your guidance.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          When you choose MIS, it implies that you are seeking intrday leverage. I’d suggest you use the calculator here. For example with 10K, I can buy only 100 shares in CNC whereas 300 odd shares under MIS. Check this – https://zerodha.com/margin-calculator/Equity/

          • Jay says:

            Is that mean,in case my cash balance is 20k and I can buy 2 different shares in MIS with base amount 10K each using margin in a same time?
            And in Leverage I can buy only in market price or I can also place order using SL?

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Yes, you can distribute the money across 2 stocks if you want. You can place a limit order under MIS.

          • Jay says:

            Let us assume I have Rs.50 lakh in trading account, i could see Amaraja Batteries with 14X leverage. In case I wish to use it, the total value cross Rs.5 crore. Is that possible to buy for this much big price… Because I remember, somewhere i read the total value cross Rs. 5 crore or total volume minimum 5 lakh is block deal( it will happen through separate window between institutional investors) and trading of 0.5% of the number of equity shares of a listed company is bulk deal and It must be reported to exchange by brokers on daily basis… please clarify.

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Leverage is provided in the futures and options segment….so you can probably buy 5Cr of stocks via futures with 50L capital. The bulk and block deal you are talking about is mainly for Equity delivery trade.

  59. Jay says:

    Hello Karthik,

    In addition to above query in point.1 , to use leverages in MIS, do i need to choose any specific option in trade window. for example, I have Rs.20,000/- in my trade account and in case i want to execute 2 leverage trading for 2 different stocks with the capital of Rs.10,000/- to each. Once my order for 1st stock executed using leverage (if no specific option is avaialble to choose whether its leverage or normal MIs trade). how come there will be some balance in my account to buy another stock. As per my understanding, if total buy value is Rs.100,000/- all the amount in my account (i.e., Rs.20,000) will be taken away for 1st purchase and Rs.80,000 will be leverage instead Rs.10,000 needs to be taken and Rs.90,000 as leverage. So, that i cuyan use the remaining Rs.10,000 to buy another stock. please extend your guidance.

  60. Hello KARTHIK,
    For EX, if i hold 3 months contract, is it possible to not involve in trade on intermediate days within these 3 months contract time?

  61. Ajay says:

    Let’s say I have Rs. 1 lakh in my account.

    I purchase 2 lots of XYZ company futures at Y% leverage. This is such that the price exceed the total deposit in my account, which is 1 lakh. Suppose there’s a loss, will I lose the entire amount in my trading account? And after that if there’s something remaining to cover the amount, can the debtor be sued?

  62. naarayanan says:

    futures mis is more effective than equity mis , is it? it seems so from margin calculator.

  63. anu says:

    Hi Karthik, I would like to thank you for guiding us so patiently and perfectly through Varsity. I have a few queries though regarding leveraged trades in the equity cash market:

    1) Since max leverage for BO/Co is 20 times, suppose i use cover order/bracket order and initiate a position by taking 10 times leverage of my account value, then can i take another leveraged trade of 10 times before closing the old trade?

    2) if a security is not allowed for shorting but i click on sell and try to open a short position then what will happen?

    3) If by using a BO/CO with maximum leverage I make some profit and close a trade, then can i use the profits for another leveraged trade on the same day?
    For eg. I made Rs. 1000 as profit with a capital of Rs. 20k in intraday using leverage at 12pm. Then can i open another leveraged trade at 12.05 pm by taking Rs.21K as margin (which will be Rs. 420000 after applying 20 times leverage)?

  64. Maha says:

    Hello Karthik,

    The way you have explained and the summarisation along with case study and the reply to each query of the market participants are mind blowing. I was having big fear on stock market. But, now i am gearing good confidence. Thanks a lot for the knowledge sharing

  65. Dinesh Kukreja says:

    Excellent Write ups. I am Glad that you have kept it free to read. Many Thanks for Knowledge Sharing !!!

  66. shyam says:

    Kartik, you have explained leverage beautifully by clearing all concepts. Thanks to you and your team.

  67. Suren says:

    Hi kartik. If I buy Dec 2017 nifty futures today in September 2017 is it necessary to square off on 24 Oct or I can keep it till Dec 17. Thanks

  68. Sachin says:

    Great learning…thanks for this. Well Futures and Options are aliens to me but I will learn it….so far gained good knowledge.

    I have one doubt suppose I buy 1 lot of DHFL 26-Oct-2017 expiry futures today that is 05-Oct-2017 @ 557.35 what happens if I do not square off position and let it expire on 26-Oct-2017 and assume price of DHFL futures is 600 on 26-Oct-2017. Will I get profit of 63,975? (1500*600 – 1500*557.35)

  69. Tushar says:

    Hi there
    Can you please explain the concept of MIS Multiplier. I checked the equity calculator, it says for MIS for ACC stock for instance i can purchase 14x shares. But say i am doing intraday trade on ACC and for instance the current share price is rs 100 and it says I can purchase 14x shares, so do i need to pay 14 x 100 =1400 rs ? I didnt understand how this works, can you elaborate please?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Let’s say you have 75K in your account and you intend to buy a share whose stock price is 75. The number of shares you can buy is –

      75000/75

      =1000

      However, if you intend to do MIS, you can leverage your capital and buy higher number of shares. Considering the leverage as 14x, you can buy –
      14285 shares, roughly 14 times more than what you can buy otherwise.

      • Tushar says:

        Thanks for your prompt response. But say suppose my account has 75,000 but I want to utilize only 10,000 for a particular share and take the leverage. That would obviously be possible right?

  70. Bharadwaj says:

    Hi Karthik,

    What if the future price fall lower than the margin?

    Thank you

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If you wish to carry forward the position, then you will have to bring in additional margins, failing which your position may get squared off.

  71. Megh says:

    Suppose I am trading intraday in futures and have traded twice in a single day. For eg let’s say first trade margin required was Rs1000/- and profit earned was Rs100/- Next trade was also same with margin required Rs1000/- and profit earned was Rs110/-

    So now how do we calculate ROI shall we add the margins on both trade meaning 1000+1000 =2000 and profit 100+110=210/- and ROI=210/2000 = 10.5% or 210/1000 = 21%. Which one is the correct method of calculating?

    At the end of the month, it will help to calculate the ROI monthly.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If your intention is to calculate the ROI at the end of month, then its quite simple. Do the following –

      Starting capital on the 1st day of the month = 1000
      Ending capital on the last day of the month = 1200

      ROI = 200/1000
      =20%.

      • Megh says:

        Hi,
        This means no matter how many times we trade, each time amount invested in the trade is not added at the end of the month. IS this right way of calculating ROI because every time we trade we invest that amount as margin money..

  72. Dev75 says:

    Hi Karthik,
    This is my first post on Zerodha platform. Hats off to you and your team for commendable n high quality content.
    Very few has this god gift to put complex subjects to its bare essentials.
    I have few newbie questions
    1) Is it any difference between Leverage and MIS? If yes, what is that?
    2) Can u provide the link about list of companies operating in F &O segment?
    3) What is the minimum and maximum duration of futures contract?
    Thanks

  73. harshl says:

    sir
    1)how many times are use margin in different stocks
    2) any problem to do maximum stocks trade by using margin
    3)any charges
    4) any restriction to trade only one stocks trade using margin
    5) can i use daily margin in one stocks
    please answer me in one by one

  74. harshl says:

    sir my question ia margin related plase ans one by one
    1) Margin used equity not future any example through make profit example advice me
    2) Any you tube video buy and sell using marg
    3) Any zerodha any chapter reding in only equity margin is please prvide me
    4) zerodha using margin make 1 lk profit in case uaing margin 50,000 thousand imake profit 200% in my casb is it true
    4) please guide me uaing exmple

  75. Savan Patel says:

    I do not get last line of this chepter “Linear Pay-off …”?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      By linear pay off I mean that for every 1 point increase in price, the P&L also increases by 1 point. Likewise for a decline of 1 point. So both the price and P&L vary in the same proportion, hence its referred to as a ‘linear payoff’.

  76. Punita says:

    Hi

    Please explain what happens on expiry of Future purchase. For e.g. I purchased TCS shares for Dec 17 and upon expiry if future price is less than my purchase price how it will get settled.

    thanks

  77. Ajit says:

    As futures is a contract between 2 persons, if one person squares off, does another also gets squared off automatically? Like if I am sellling TCS at 1500 today and tomorrow future price is 1499, and buyer(Second Person) squares off, for any reason. Does my contract as a Seller still remains valid?

  78. Rajesh says:

    Explaination is simple.. Thank you
    What is initial margin(Span) and Exposure margin?

  79. Aakash says:

    Here we only have to pay the margin amount to get into future trading .Suppose at the end of contract i.e on expiry date TCS share price falls by more than 14% and let us suppose i have no money in my account apart from that margin amount(14% of contract value). Clearly in this situation i will not be able to pay total money to the opposite party.How this defaulter situation will be solved in this case?

  80. yogesh says:

    Sir, if I buy a futures contract (1 lot) of NMDC on 8th jan 2018( Expiry is on 25th Jan 2018) and currently future price of NMDC 162.2. I put the required margin in the trading account. Now if the futures price of NMDC goes down say by 5 rs in 1-2 days, then will i need to add more money to my trading account? Will I get any notification from Zerodha about it?

    Regards,
    Yogesh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      At any point (i.e after you initiate the trade), you need to ensure that the margin maintained is equal to SPAN + Exposure. As long as this margin is in place, you need not really worry about margin calls.

  81. sravan says:

    Hi sir,
    Suppose at the end of contract i.e on expiry date TCS share price falls by more than 14% and let us suppose i have some 20k rs left in my account apart from that margin amount(14% of contract value). Clearly in this situation i have few doubts
    1.does the contract square off automatically when blocked margin gets zero.
    2.or the contract continues with remaining 20k balance till the trading account becomes ZREO.
    Plz explain in detail especially the 2nd question?
    Thanks in advance sir.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Yes, the RMS team at the broker’s office will square off the position
      2) No – moment the margins go below the SPAN, the position will be squared off

  82. Santosh says:

    Hello Karthik,
    Thank you for wonderful content and making new traders or investors life easy. I have a question on Zero Sum Game. I agree to the point that trading in futures incur either profit or loss and that will replicate on counter party. Is it not true in spot market too? if someone is making profit means someone has to make loss? Does it not mean, if I make profit in spot market it is also coming from counterparty or a new trader who enters the market? I understand in futures it is very soon or can say one trader will make loss immediately and in large amount, which is less in spot market unless if stock price will be bullish only.

    Example – Assume a company registers in Exchange and issue an IPO at Rs/- 150 (I’m considering to explain from beginning b’coz it’s the time when a company enters into a market and people start to trade). After 10 days, price of stock is Rs/- 160, I think to square off my stock having Rs/- 10 as a profit, now I need to look for someone who agrees or wish to buy at Rs/- 160. This means a new trader will enter a market and buy from me or invest, he doesn’t make loss, however he is paying from his pocket.
    Consider a two possible situations,
    1. if the price goes up i.e. Rs/- 165 in next 10 days, the trader is happy as he made profit,
    2. what if price goes down to Rs/- 155, he is making Rs/- 5 loss? Here he is making loss after 10 days of his investment. No one can ever make loss in market if we always have bullish, which is not possible.

    To summaries, from my understanding a person trading in futures will make profit or loss in short term, similarly a person trading in spot market will make profit or loss either in short term or long term. Hence for me Zero Sum Game is not an appropriate phrase used to explain futures and also it is quite difficult to agree that future trading is not a creation of money. Please correct me if I am wrong.

    Thank you.

    Best regards
    Santosh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Agreed, Santosh. Trading in F&O is a zero-sum game, however, this is not really true in the spot market.

  83. SIMRAN says:

    Hello Sir,
    I haven’t understood the Leverage Calculation part.
    Could you please explain it to me ?
    Thanks!

  84. Vikrant says:

    Hello,
    Just one doubt. When you say zero sum game, who shells out the money for the expired contracts, where the contract has neither been sold(buyer) or bought(short seller) by the holder. TIA

  85. Srikanth Chintala says:

    Hi Sir,

    My Doubt is how does Futures benefit the market as a whole as it is not creating wealth but transferring wealth.

    Earlier futures is used to trade physical material like gold/coffee where the farmer and trader both benefit to some extent as the product will be purchased in advance and reduce the risk of volatility and improve there business.
    But in shares futures are used just for the sake of price prediction and there is not underling business which benefits.

    My doubt is if futures is not wealth creation, why is SEBI regularizing it?

  86. trader says:

    why zerodha bo co intraday futures margin for stock futures got reduced to 33.3 from 55.5? till when is it expected to be like this?

  87. Priyam Gupta says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Suppose I have a Future contract of PC jewellers jan @500 ,lot size 1500 and suppose I paid 1.5 lac Rs for this contract.
    Now for some reason next day it fell down to 200 so I am seeing a loss of (500 – 200 = 300×1500 = 450000) . So Do I need to pay this much amout or my position will get square off automatically before that. And What If I don’t have the remaining amount to pay off ?

    • quickgainer says:

      Wew dude you are rekt tbh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      This is an example where the fall is quite dramatic and sudden. The position will make a loss (exceeding the margin required) and therefore the position will be closed by your broker….and you are legally bound to make good the losses to the broker.

      • Priyam Gupta says:

        Thanks for your reply Karthik,
        I am having one more doubt, just in case If I am unable to pay off my debt to the broker as I don’t have any more money, no business, no job, no property means I have nothing. I have already blown my full savings here then what legal action will be taken against me?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          I’m really not sure, Priyam. Let me check with the legal team 🙂

        • Venu Madhav says:

          Similar to how a client can file a complaint against a broker, a broker can also file a complaint against the client if there are any defaults due from the client. The Exchange will process the complaint, follow the necessary procedures and pass a ruling either in the favor of the broker or the client. In case the client isn’t paying up, then the broker can include the client’s details in the list of defaulters: http://bit.ly/2FeGwUV

  88. Arun says:

    You shattered the mountain 🙂
    very good.novice can understand easily !!!
    Thanks a lot for this.

  89. Srivatsa says:

    Hi Karthik,

    I must admit the content on Future Trading is really explained beautifully.
    However at the risk of sounding stupid, I have a basic question that’s been nagging me.

    Suppose there is a Future contract for a company ABC ending 28th March at 833 with a lot size of 1000.
    But the CMP is already 845.

    What if I want to buy such a contract assuming that price will go even higher.?
    Is such a scenario possible?

    Please let me know
    Many thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, it certainly is possible. Here you are speculating that the price will go up by Rs.12, and hence make 12K on it. Likewise, if you have an opposite view that the share price will drop to 800, you can short it with a hope of making 33K.

  90. prabu says:

    is there interest to be paid for leverage taken ? and also explain what is
    Span ,Exposure, margin Total margin shown in margin calculator

  91. GIRISH says:

    Sir,
    just for curiosity
    suppose i have Rs 100000 in my account
    and i buy xyz future , req 98000 margin then Rs 2000 remaining in my account

    if stock goes down and i want to carry it for next few day

    it is required to maintain any amount in my account for every day ????
    if yes then how ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It is always good to have some extra funds in your account to accommodate extreme market moves. The 98K margin is further split between SPAN and exposure. Your position will be automatically cut once your losses exceed exposure margin plus the 2K in your account.

  92. Adishwar says:

    Hi Karthik!
    I am confused with Rs 17330 which you have mentioned here “After committing Rs.82,670/- as margin amount for 2 lots, we would still be left with Rs.17,330/- in cash”

  93. Vignesh says:

    Sir please explain when I sell the stock with this margin concept

  94. Pratik says:

    Sir, I am trading in options from last 6 months. But now after gaining confidence want to shift to futures. I trade only intraday. (Day trading) do not carry any positions overnight.
    I want to ask in 10 lakh capital how many bank nifty contract can be traded intraday (MIS option in kite). I got confused in different type of margins.
    I know it’s stupid question but please help.

  95. Harshad Patel says:

    Hi Karthik,

    I read all your previous Module and Chapters. (just like school time study and also do homework…)

    Anyways, can you please tell me how to keep patience with small volatility in future trading?

    I ask you here because when I do spot Market trade (with 10 or up 50 Qty) I can ignore if it happens and hold until my target not complete but in the future trade, I must have to place an order with a 1 lot of (100 or more Qty), and it is very very hard to ignore.

    So, please advice me as per your experience and knowledge.

    Thanks
    Harshad Patel

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Patience is a function of the overall capital you have plus how much of it you have exposed to the trade 🙂

  96. Amit K says:

    Hi Sir,

    Can you please tell me if zerodha provides any leverage for overnight positions in futures? And if yes where can we find it the rates? All I could find on website is leverage for intraday trading.
    Thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No extra leverage, Amit. You will have to have enough margins SPAN+Exposure to carry forward the positions.

  97. Guru says:

    Hi Karthik,

    You mentioned futures is a zero sum game. For that matter, equity investment also is the same. Am I correct? In equity as well – wealth is not created rather just transferred from losers to winners (except on the IPO where the money goes to the company). Can you please clarify?

    Kind regards,
    Guru

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Not really, you can buy stocks today and hold the same for years, all through which the capital appreciates and wealth is created.

  98. omkar says:

    hello sir,
    as you said that if the stock price goes down 14%, you will lose all your margin money…but what if hypothetically stock went down 20%, so will your position get squared off after 14% down automatically coz your margin money is lost and you cant pay more loss?
    thnk you

  99. Srinivas says:

    Hi – excellent tutorial.

    Let’s take two scenarios. Assuming one has a corpus of 10 lakhs. Scenario 1. Buy 10 lakhs worth HDFC stock, hold for 12 months and then exit at the available price, and Scenario 2. Buy 10 lakhs worth HDFC in Futures with a margin of say 1 lakh and keep rolling them over every month. Also deposit the remaining 9 lakhs cash in a Bank FD generating 7% (just an example).

    How would one evaluate the returns of these two scenarios? Scenario 1 has access to Dividends, scenario 2 would not. What other costs would one need to account for in scenario 2 e.g. (roll-over cost, cost of margin etc)?

    • Srinivas says:

      i must correct my statement – given the daily M2M requirement, let’s assume the remaining 9 lakhs is held in a liquid debt fund, as opposed to a bank FD. As and when additional margin is required, funds are transferred from the liquid debt fund to the trading account and vice versa.

      • Karthik Rangappa says:

        Yeah, but the question is, why would you want this additional headache? There are no incremental gains with this structure, given the daily volatility will keep disturbing your investment in liquid funds.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If the idea is to hold for long term, you are better off deploying the capital in the stock. There is a daily mark to markets on the futures position, so you may have to pull funds from the 9L corpus. Besides, there will be a rollover etc, which will add to the cost of holding the futures position.

  100. Akshay says:

    Hi Karthik,

    If we make a leveraged intraday equity long or short trade, would not the payoff be similar to trading futures expiring the same day?

    Thanks,
    Akshay

  101. Naina says:

    Hi 🙂
    Querry – traded nifty futures 1 lot with margin . What’s amount to be recorded in futures Purchases & future sale?
    Contract purchase cost – 7lakh
    Sold future contract – 7.016Lakh
    Margin when purchased 10,000.
    Margin When sold 11,600.

    What amount to be recorded for accounting purpose?

    • Nakul Kularni says:

      You will have to record the contract value for accounting. Your profit will be the difference between the sell value and the buy value. In the above case; 7,01,600 – 700000 = 1600 will be your profit.

      • Naina says:

        Ok. & turnover = ?

        • Nakul Kularni says:

          You may calculate the futures turnover as the sum of absolute profits and losses. The turnover for options can be calculated as the sum of absolute profits and losses and the sell value.

          For example, let’s say you executed the following trades:

          NIFTY SEP FUT: Buy Value – 7,00,000; Sell Value – 7,01,600; Profit – 1,600; Turnover – 1600
          NIFTY OCT FUT: Buy Value – 7,10,000; Sell Value – 6,80,000; Profit – (30,000); Turnover – 30,000 (Absolute Value)
          Total Futures Turnover – 1,600 + 30,000 = 31,600

          NIFTY SEP 10500 CE: Buy Value – 20,000; Sell Value – 32,000; Profit – 12000; Turnover – 44,000
          NIFTY OCT 10800 CE: Buy Value – 20,000; Sell Value – 12,000; Profit – (8,000); Turnover – 20,000 (Sum of absolute profit and sell value)
          Total Options Turnover – 44,000 + 20,000 = 64,000
          Total F&O Turnover – 31,600 + 64,000 = 95,600

          This has been explained in greater detail under chapter 6 (Turnover, Balance Sheet, and P&L) in module 7 (Markets and Taxation)

  102. Pavan says:

    Sir , is there any way we can know leverages ratio of each stock future in a table calculated on daily basis .is anything similar or a calculator available on ZERODHA or somewhere else ?

  103. Mahesh says:

    Leverage and pay off, very nicely explained.
    Here is one query
    1. I strictly intend to trade intra day only
    2. I am allowed to trade in to normal equity for up to Rs. 400000 (40xDeposit say 10000)
    3. In this case, if I decide to go for futures of equivalent sum (4 lakhs accommodating approx 1 lot of YesBank) I need to keep MIS margin of about Rs. 45000
    4. How come the leveraged trade is advisable in such case, what are monetory pros and cons
    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Sure, no problem
      2) We don’t provide 40X leverage. Also, as a suggestion, it is best if you avoid excess leverage
      3) Yes
      4) Leverage can make or break your capital, Mahesh. Have explained in detail in the chapter.

  104. Shailendra says:

    Is trading in spot market money creation or money transfer
    Is money transfer a bad thing like gamble

  105. raj says:

    So my leverage is directly decided by what the margin is? Can I decide to increase my leverage or decrease my leverage and if I can, how will I do it?

  106. SadhaSivam S says:

    Hi Karthick,.

    Why can’t we buy the future and rollover everymonth and hold it for long term for 3 years like that on a stock or index. Will there be any impact ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It’s just that you will have to bear with all the mark to market swings plus you will have to roll over every month. Hence not a great idea according to me.

      • SadhaSivam S says:

        Karthick, just to confirm ,if we roll over everymonth, we are actually lossing the value of difference between the prices for those months right? On average Which would come around 5% to 8% in one year right?

  107. SadhaSivam S says:

    Hi Karthick,.

    Why can’t we buy the future and rollover everymonth and hold it for long term for 3 years like investment that on a stock or index instead of buying the stock. Will there be any impact ?

  108. Shailendra says:

    Some broker say that they provide 2 times margin in future market what does it mean

  109. neeraj says:

    sir, can you explain me the difference between spot intraday and future intraday?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Both are intraday, except that in the spot you have to sq off the short position within the day but in futures, you can choose to roll over.

  110. Satish says:

    Good evening sir,
    Sir i want to know is this leverage applicable for intraday, or normal future contract?…..And sir where we can see future contract in demat account?

  111. Sai Prakash says:

    Hi sir, nowadays the f&o margin requirement seems to be very high when calculating in margin calculator. Is it correct? For example to buy 1lot of tatasteel it’s showing “313254” needed, meanwhile the actual price is only around “400000”. Is anything wrong with the system or leverage is less?

  112. Vinod Kumar says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Thanks for the modules and great & simple info though to understand how stock market works. Comments under each module clears all the doubts that arise at the end of completing each module. 🙂

  113. Pradip says:

    Hlw sir,
    I am new in this field.
    I have some queries.
    For holding (nrml) buying & selling in stock future minimum capital required…??
    Can I buy & sell any day the stok future for this particular month.

  114. Gaurav Pareek says:

    Hey! Amazingly written. I’ve a query

    Let’s say for example I’ve a bought a KOTAKBANK NOV 1600 CE NFO (NRML) on 8th Nov 2019 Lot Size [email protected]
    If KOTAKBANK hits beyond 1600 on expiry date which will be 28th Nov 2019. If I hold this NRML on expiry date and KOTAKBANK closes at 1650 what will be my profits? and if in case contract expires what will be my loss? I will be losing premium amount which I paid?

    Also, do I have to deposit full amount for eg 1650 (Kotak Share Price in Spot Market) @ 800 = 13,20,000 when the contract matures. Also, is there a limit like I’ve to buy the actual lot after T+7 days

    Sorry for so many questions 🙂 I’m new here. Thank you for your help once again 🙂

  115. Sumeet Chavan says:

    Hello sir
    What if i buy two lots worth margin of 40,000 each, and the total shares bought amount to about 5 lakhs.
    If the share price rises i benefit even if i dont have 5 lakh rupees.( As i had to pay the margin amount ). But what if the price falls? Will i incur loss on the initial amt of 5 lakhs? And if yes. Isnt futures too risky??

  116. Adithya Shourie says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Lucid explanation as always. Kudos to you for making this an exciting journey (I have also read Stock Market Basics, TA & FA on Varsity).

    PS: Varsity app is really useful. It was really helpful as our understanding about the concepts could be measured by taking quizzes. But it has only four chapters. Can you please update the app on iOS? It would be awesome to read concepts on the go instead of opening a browser on the phone. Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words 🙂

      The app is available on iOS, the same version as the andriod. We are making a few changes though.

  117. Janesh says:

    Hello Karthik,
    Thanks for writing good article. I have couple of questions.

    1). As we buy in equity we become as % involved in particular company. So what about when we buy Futures.. ?
    2). As in equity its transferred to DMAT account.. what’s in Future contact?
    3). Can we sell equity in next trading day.. as of today in Feb 2020.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Equity shares exist for long, but futures contract has an expiry. So no ownership when you buy futures
      2) Held in the trading account
      3) Yes, you can do buy today sell t’row trades.

  118. Janesh says:

    When you say “Once we buy the stock (for delivery to DEMAT) we have to wait for at least 2 working days before we can decide to sell it. “. So we can’t sell on next day..??

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Technically you can buy today and sell tomorrow (BTST)…however, ensure the stock is eligible for BTST trades.

  119. Veeresh Kerur says:

    Hello,

    If i have money 20000+ in my account, in there i have sold 1 lot Zinc mini @155 on date 3/10/2020 hold for next 3 days and next day (3/11/2020) Silvermic bought 1 lot @ 46480 Position. but 1st day (3/10/2020) charge 193 @ as Net obligation. on next day (3/11/2020) 983 rs charged for Net obligation.

    Can you please explain how it was charged.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Veeresh, I’d suggest you speak to our customer helpdesk for this. They will explain all the charges for you.

  120. Akash says:

    Sir
    I have following query:
    In the above TCS Futures example, suppose the BUYER of TCS Futures does the deal at Rs. 2362 but the SELLER of TCS Futures as SHORTED the TCS Futures at say Rs. 2800. In this case, even if TCS stock price goes up say to Rs. 2600, both the BUYER of TCS Futures and SELLER of TCS Futures are making profit. Who is making loss in this case?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Not sure if I understand your query completely, but here is the thing, in a futures mkts the buyer’s loss is the seller’s profit and vice versa.

  121. Suresh Nair says:

    Were do we find the expiry for Comodities.

    For futures its the last thursday of every month.Is it the same for Comodity,Crude oil?

  122. Srikanth Arugula says:

    Hello Sir!

    First off thanks for these brilliant lessons. Really make it easy to understand these concepts.
    One doubt I had was regarding your mention about Futures being a “Zero Sum Game”. As you said in the spot market one can hold shares for a long time and benefit off of the performance of the company. But the performance of the company is what causes someone else to buy the trade at a higher value which explains the higher cost of the share. In both the cases, some other party has to buy at a higher value to increase the price of the trade be it futures or spot market.

    Then how are they different? Isn’t derivatives just a virtual wrapper over the existing spot market?

    Sorry if this question feels repetitive but did not want to have any doubt in my fundamentals about the markets.

    Thanks in advance 🙂

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      What differentiates is the fact that if the company tends to do well, even the guy who has bought at higher levels can create wealth. When I say ‘create wealth’, I’m talking about new wealth being generated. In derivatives, money from one person’s pocket moves to another. No new wealth is created. Hence the zero-sum tag.

  123. Aravinth kalaiselvan says:

    hey Karthik,

    1) How does Zerodha finance the remaining amount of our future contract (we only pay some percentage of the amount we should pay as margin)? Like someone has to pay right? Do banks pay the remaining? And do we have to pay any interest?

    2) And what happens if my future margin(SPAN + Exposure) gets exhausted overnight? Say something huge happened to the underlying investment instrument? Of course, I’ll get a margin call. But will I have to pay anything extra, even if I don’t want to continue my position?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) The client is obligated to pay the broker dues, failing which a legal case can ensue
      2) Yes, as long as you have an open position you are obligated

  124. Akash says:

    can you please explain the difference between money creation and transfer with examples…?

  125. Rohit Kinger says:

    Still have a little doubt about margin.

    Lets say I have 5000rs as fund balance. And I want to Short Axis bank which is currently at 400 rs. Margin calculator shows I can buy 12 shares as CNC and 62 as MIS (5x Multiplier). When I try to buy it in the app as MIS, It shows 400 x 12 taking 4800 as margin.

    How do I buy 5x as shown in the calcluator?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      YEs, that’s could be the margin, but the number of shares can be 62. Please go with the calculator.

  126. Prasad says:

    Very good articles! Thank you! In subsection 4.4 I think it should be 1/42.17 = 2.3%…There is a typo (41.17).

  127. Krishant says:

    Sir, you said that if one buys a stock he has to wait 2 days to take the delivery and in order to sell whenever its the right time. Also that he cannot sell the stocks anytime before. But when I place CNC orders and the stock happen to make a big jump the next day or the day after, I can easily square off my position and exit. Why is it so?

  128. amit says:

    Thanks for the article explaining the leveraged gains and losses in detail.

    1. Would request a change in the article though – to bring out the risks in leveraged trades better . And critically important for investor education.
    The exact sections i would like to refer to are Sections 4.4 and 4.5 . The losses table in Section 4.5 are harder to understand than the gains table at 4.4 . To be precise – Section 4.5 deals with the results (losses) expressed in “loss per share” , whereas in section 4.4 the results (gains) are displayed in percentage terms. Reason being that the retail trader, like me, would like to know his the extent of loss as well as the loss percentage for a directional bet gone wrong. what happens when the spot price drops 5% or 10% in a futures contract (using the same example in 4.4 ) Can i loose more than just the margin money ? (yes as per your reply to other comments).

    2. are both losses and gains unlimited in either direction ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Amit, thanks for the suggestion. I will try and see what best I can do about this. Yes, in a futures contract both are theoretically unlimited.

  129. Dilip says:

    Hi,

    I would like to know if we can expect full fledged knowledge series on FnO like Hedging, Adjustments, Strategies etc..

    Awaiting reply.

    Regards,
    Dilip

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      We have a ton of content here already, Dililp. Is there anything, in particular, you are looking for?

  130. TR says:

    I have an short sell open NRML position in Aurp futures, purchased on July 1st currently in am in negative profit due to price movement.

    Question

    While i have NRML position for AURO and wait for the price to drop for me to gain
    Can i initiate a MIS position on the same futures AURO ?

    Can you please explain with an example

  131. TR says:

    I dont think this works, i have faced an issue/discrepancy in the past, i can provide the details via email
    Can we discuss this further ? Infact i lost 40k due to this
    I have provided my email in the comment, please feel free to ping me

  132. TR says:

    Cannot get through support call
    It goes on wait forever

    no luck with the support ticket as well

    I think there is a genuine problem with use-case i mentioned

    It has happened to me again yesterday

    I would like to demo this issue with Zerodha and get it sorted.

    Might help others as well

  133. TR says:

    I have a real example from yesterday.
    If Zerodha can call me, i can show the discrepancy
    It would be great if you can arrange for a call back as the support call center disconnects after being on wait for 15 minutes and for the ticket i dont see a response yet

  134. TR says:

    Ticket no 20200716224044

    I have now got the response that

    Buy average for F&O positions is calculated on a pure FIFO (First In First Out) basis. For example, let’s consider the following trades:

    Date Symbol Trade Type Quantity Rate
    06/08/2018 NIFTY18AUGFUT
    Buy 75 11000
    07/08/2018 NIFTY18AUGFUT
    Buy 75 11100
    07/08/2018
    NIFTY18AUGFUT
    Sell 75 11050
    In the above case, the buy trade executed on 07/08/2018 will be the open quantity at the end of the day hence, the average price of the open quantity on 08/08/2018 will be Rs. 11100. Irrespective of the product type used (NRML/MIS) for the trades on 07/08/2018, this logic does not change.

    If this is the case then, what is the difference between MIS and NRML option, If we choose NRML we can carry the position overnight

    However during the day if we want to take advantage of the price fluctuations for the same futures and use MIS, it adversely affects our overnight position

    I have learnt it that horrible way and loosing money

    Can you please advise or write a nice example on varsity highlighting this calculations and FAQs/do’s and donts for futures MIS and NRML orders

  135. Samantha says:

    Sir how do I calculate profit nd loss taking leverage into accoun while doing papertrade?? Zeroda has recently removed the leverage calculator so it will be helpful if u tell us the math!!!
    And sir does leverage multiply the profit/loss or the investment ???

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Leverage allows you to trade for amount far greater than you have as capital. Hence your P&L gets magnified. For example, I have 1000 with me, the stock is trading at 100, I can buy 10 shares without leverage. If I get leverages, I can buy for say for 1500, hence 15 shares.

      P&L math is simple – the difference between buying and sell price, multiply with quantity.

  136. Pradeep Kumar Dadhich says:

    I think all sections have been lucidly explained. Zerodha is doing a great service by bringing financial literacy to the masses.

  137. Pradeep Kumar Dadhich says:

    How will the new leverage regulations impact F&O trading? Please elaborate with some examples

  138. DS says:

    Hi
    When an investor says he has 2X Leverage or 3X leverage what does that mean

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You have Rs.100, your broker allows you to but for Rs.300, its 2x leverage. At Rs.400, its 3x leverage.

  139. DS says:

    So if I want to trade future with 2X leverage in zerodha what is the step by step process … sorry I couldn’t find the relevant article ie why posting it here .. i will be grateful if you could direct me the process

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The leverage is kind of baked into the contract. So for example, margins to trade 1 lot of Nifty is Rs.1.5L. The contract size of Nifty futures is roughly 8.25L. In other words you get to trade something worth 8.25L for only 1.5L, which means to say there is a leverage of 5.5 times.

  140. Pardeep Rawat says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Hope you are safe and doing good!!

    I need your opinion of the characteristics which a trader needs to have in order to become a successful trader. I guess that it doesn’t need much fundamental knowledge since the trade is done from short-term perspective. Just having a directional view would make all the difference. So what are the skills I can learn to get directional insights about any underlying asset and any other thing which could help me to be a better trader? Please advise.

    Not sure but I think you are more in fundamental (long-term investing) than future trading and if so, then please share the reason for this preference. Thanks a lot!!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I was trading quite a bit, both futures and options Pradeep. Now the company policy mandates us not to trade 🙂

      Apart from being knowledgable, things that immensely help are attributes such as – resilience to events, patience, and discipline. In my view, these are highly underrated factors.

  141. Pardeep Rawat says:

    Thanks like always Karthik!!

  142. Krishnavelu says:

    Hello Sir,
    Can you Explain me, How was the Annualaized Return % (235 %) calculated for a Absolute Return (9 days) which has a value 5.79% ?
    While i tried to do it through the formula i am getting a totally different result (880%).

  143. Krishnavelu says:

    By simple Math -Now, I am getting 235%, sir
    I confused myself with the CAGR formula,
    Thanks for the clarification,Sir

  144. Samar says:

    Excellent job, I’m loving Varsity and indebted to the simplicity in which you explained. Just a minor points that some things like BTST point mentioned in the comment has not been updated yet. And overall there a very minor grammatical errors. If you could ask for a proof read, it would be great.

    Thank you for Varsity!!!

  145. Jogender says:

    Dear Sir,

    I am a very begginer in stock market, please tell me from where I can learn to get profit from it at affordable price.

    Queries:
    1. Is leverage only work in futures not in Intraday
    2. What is Margin and where and how can it be used.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Both futures and intraday
      2) Margin is the initial deposit for the trade. Suggest you read through this chapter.

  146. Toby says:

    The person/team created this content,hatsoff to them. Easy to understand and well explained with example’s. Great Job

  147. vinay says:

    Sir ,I wud like to know zerodha feature in this scenario as this trade I have done in fyers. Today when banknifty futures is trading at 22290 ,I sold 50 qty (CO Market order) sepetmber contract with stop loss at 22340 i.e 50 pts .When bank nifty futures is trading at 22130 ,I tried to change my stop loss to 22190 to block 100 pts as profit .But the fyers did not allow me to do so. This happende to me twice in fyers. Fyers support told max s.l I can chnage to the initial sell price i.e in my case is 22290. If I trade in zerodha (I have an account) whether this problem will be there ? What are the options to train stop loss smoothly.

  148. Kireeti says:

    In 4.3 LEVERAGE –
    1. You mentioned no leverage for spot market but in 2020 we have MIS option which facilitate leverage for intraday Trading. eg:upto 12x for DR Reddy’s share.
    2. And also we can trade with in a day without waiting for T+2days.
    So, is futures an extension like MIS for intraday?
    And Is it only the Leverage the difference between spot and futures trade?

  149. Pavan says:

    Sir / Madam,

    I am new trading, I doing F & O – Banking related, Example – BANKNIFTY

    Q 1: what is CE or PE. Option or Future, Example – BANKNIFTY 10th SEP 23000 CE, BANKNIFTY 10th SEP 23000 PE,

    Q 2: zerodha giving levorage or margin for options. If yes, interest charged by zerodha to me yearly.

    Q3: If zerodha not giving levorage or margin then whether I pay first and then buy CE and PE Option. Yes/No

    Thanks in advance

  150. Arpit Raaj says:

    “The proportionality comes from the fact that the money made by the buyer is the loss suffered by the seller (provided they have bought/short the same price), and vice versa.”
    You’ve mentioned this thing in the bracket a multiple times; just need some more clarity on this as I’m a beginner. I mean my doubt is if I buy at a certain price from the seller, doesn’t the seller has to sell it necessarily at the same price?

  151. Ayush mittal says:

    If I long on a position, keeping a bullish view, and someone short a position, keeping the bearish view. But on the second day of buying my prediction is going true and the price of futures is going up, but the other party settles the trade. Then what will happen even though I don’t want the settle.

  152. Shriram says:

    Hi Karthik, I started learning Futures. My doubt is I could see from Kite,

    Spot: INFY 1200 shares, CO/BO Margin = ₹76,796.28
    MIS Margin = ₹1,27,993.80

    Futures: INFY OCT FUT * 1200, CO/BO Margin = ₹57,569.11
    MIS Margin = ₹1,01,623.50

    For intraday trading, there is not much difference in Spot and Futures in-terms of leverage, right. If yes, shall I choose to do spot trading itself. Or do we have any other benefits in Futures. Thanks.

  153. Vinay Thallam says:

    Hello Karthik,

    Great Explanation. Thank you. One question btw. I understood that the underlying is never transacted when the futures is squared off. What is the purpose of futures’ concept existence apart from facilitating traders to make/loose money ?

  154. Tanmay Selot says:

    Hello Kartik Sir,
    All I want to say is that all the modules on the varsity app, written by you are absolute gold. The way it was been explained can be understood by anyone. Thank you for that
    I have one more question. The Children’s books which zerodha is providing will be useful for which age bracket of children?

  155. Karthik Nallathambi says:

    You’re one of the greatest Mr. Karthik sir. I could understand how hard your research is, because you deliver your knowledge is very simple and easy to understand. Tell me where you are, i need an autograph from you sir 😁

  156. Mohit says:

    Great to learn in such amazing and easy way sir. Thanx alot
    Are u on any social media platforms?

  157. Shashank Pendyala says:

    Hi Karthik & Team,
    As usual explanation is top notch and to the point with perfect analogy. Some questions regarding P&L for futures.
    Suppose we purchased 1 LOT of TCS considering bullish or bearish directional view, so LOT purchased today – 15 Nov and Expiry is 30 Nov.
    1. I’m not planning to square off position till expiry then will profit and loss settle on daily basis?
    2. What if loss is greater than Margin amount blocked by broker?
    3. My understanding is that Margin amount is one time, post that even though we incur losses should we have to keep funds in our account? What if we don’t keep? Will it be squared off and how will broker recover the amount if some person incurred heavy losses.

    There are many question heads, please answer separately 🙂

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Glad you liked the content, Shashank.

      1) Yes, this is called the M2M process, more on that here – https://zerodha.com/varsity/chapter/margin-m2m/
      2) As the loss approaches the margin blocked the
      3) Margins are dynamic, keeps varying based on the movement in the underlying. Yes, it will be squared off if the losses are higher than the margin blocked.

  158. Aarti says:

    Firstly sir, i would like to take a moment to wish you a very happy new year! Hope you have a successful year ahead and keep adding many more such enriching modules to Varsity;)

    Secondly, I had a doubt in the following concept:
    “Now for a moment assume the margin requirement was just Rs.7000/- instead of Rs.41,335/-. In this case, the leverage would be
    = 295,250 / 7000
    = 42.17 times”

    Now, my doubt is that technically the leverage is Rs 295250-7000=Rs288250 so then why are we not taking 288250/7000=41.17times leverage. Because what is really happening is this: 41.17×7000+7000=295250. so then the leverage clearly becomes 41.17times the margin and not 42.17times.

    Your thoughts on this sir?
    Thanks in advance!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words, Aarti. Wishing you the same!
      The standard practises when talking about leverage is to use the contract value in the numerator. Also, 41 or 42 or 43 times does not really matter, as long as you get a sense of how large the leverage is 🙂

  159. Aarti says:

    Leverage = [Contract Value/Margin]. Hence for TCS trade the leverage is

    = [295,250/41,335]

    = 7.14, which is read as 7.14 times or simply as a ratio – 1: 7.14.

    sir here the ratio should have been 7.14:1 (i.e. to say that for every 1 rs invested we can buy 7.14rs of TCS futures) according to my understanding of maths.
    may be am wrong; would be great if you could relook at it and help me understand where exactly the catch is.

    thanks in advance!

  160. Vishaal Db says:

    I know this is nit picky but this paragraph needs the word ‘to’ added to it after the word ‘Thanks’. I’m Just making an already amazing article even more amazing 🙂

    Futures offer something more than a plain vanilla spot market transaction. Thanks ‘to’ the existence of ‘Margins’ you require a much lesser amount to enter into a relatively large transaction. If you’re directional view is right, your profits can be really large.

  161. Chandu says:

    Hi sir..
    personally don’t like to over leverage, I stick to trades where the leverage is about 1 :10 or about 1:12, not beyond this.
    Sir could you please explain this with example, how you would leverage

  162. Prince Gandhi says:

    Question 1: Can we short sell Futures like we used to short sell stocks?
    Question 2: You mentioned that we can sell stocks only after having them on our deemat account, buy I saw that we can sell stocks on T+1 day before taking the delivery. Have the rules changed? And can you explain the current changes in rules of margin given by SEBI?

    I would like to here your debate with your friend regarding which is better, equity or real estate. 😄

    By the way, you out performed on this Karthik sir, thank you!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Yes, you can
      2) No, this was always the case. These trades are called ‘Buy today, sell t’row’or the BTST trades

      Equity for me 🙂

  163. Jay Harsora says:

    Beautiful representation and easy to understand

  164. Jayesh vikas mahajan says:

    What are charges taken by zerodha on leverage amount for intraday

  165. Vikas says:

    Sir.I want intraday trading by leverage amount about 10lakh.then i get 1000/profit.then what charges taken by broker house

  166. Prince Gandhi says:

    Which segments do you prefer for yourself and recommend others to trade in? Cash, Futures or Options? (Assuming the investor has in depth knowledge of all segments)

  167. Tufel says:

    Suppose I have 1 lakh in demat account.If I buy 1000 shares of infy in MIS EQ…. Actual Buy value will be more right?…. So in this case company gives us Leverage….
    Suppose if we r in loss, only the loss money wl be deducted right?….
    And Suppose if we r in Profit? We get back amt invested n the profits after 2 days?….here only brokerage wl be deducted with tax n wat charges we wl get then?….
    or have to give actual money of 1000 shares ka more than 10lakh has to be paid…. no right?…. if we r in profit? What company actually gets ?

  168. vivek says:

    Hi
    A bit late to the party here. In the calculation for leverage ratio above, which margin value is being used? viz NRML/MIS/CO?…all are different and would throw up significantly different results, can you plz clarify?
    Also, you’ve mentioned an overleveraged position as being > 10-12. Is this with NRML margin option or MIS/CO?
    Thanks!

  169. Brajesh says:

    Do one has to wait to sell future contact as done in share T+2 days

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Sorry, I did not see to understand your query. You can sell a Futures contract instantly, no need to wait.

  170. Arvind says:

    How are the gains in futures treated for income tax purposes.

  171. Varun says:

    Hi Karthik,

    First off, Hats Off to Zerodha on its phenomenal journey since its inception. I came across Varsity about 2-3 years back and it is has been a wonderful learning experience so far.

    A fundamental query on margin trades, I may have missed it incase discussed in the comments.

    To engage in a futures trade, one has to pay only the margin amount. Why is the balance amount of the contract value never paid out?

    Thanks in advance,

    Varun

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Because Futures is a leveraged product. However, if you do hold the futures closer (stocks) to expiry, then you will be required to deposit full contract value as margins.

  172. Tufel says:

    As all explanations was really great .My question is Does Zerodha Charge For Leverage that we take for intraday…. If we r in profit we book the profit n if in loss we book the loss right?….
    All the leverage traded value has to be return which is huge amount after taking Leverage….

    And 1 more question is Can we do buy or sell same stock in intraday daily…. Is it allowed?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No, there is no separate charge for leverage. Yes, you can daily trade stocks, but ensure you know what you are doing, else the risk of capital is quite high.

  173. Suraj says:

    you took spot price and future price here in TCS’s example same , ideally this may not be case

  174. Naved Nawroz says:

    Sir,
    Does brokerage includes the interest charged on leverage provided or any other specific payment would deduct during fix time intervals?
    Specially for MIS orders.

  175. Abhijeet Sharma says:

    Hi Karthik,

    How to find margin of any specific future. As margin is base for leverage calculation and leverage is base for which future to trade in…
    TIA

    Abhijeet

  176. Abhijeet Sharma says:

    Great…
    Thanks Karthik

  177. Anand says:

    Can future options be taken as normal trade and get the share in demat account if decided for the same and paid out the full price at or before expiry

  178. Sai Avinash says:

    What if the loss exceeds the margin? how will it be paid out then

  179. ravage says:

    Don’t mislead people by showing them only the rosy side of the story .At least tell them in detail how much they will lose if the share price falls. “Never use leverage on volatile stocks guys you will lose all your money they will only show the positive side if the story”. I have been in stock market for less than 2 months and still know the disadvantages of leverage and you are teaching people about leverage and still cant mention any of its downside.

  180. Nilesh says:

    Sir,
    This is regarding term ‘Short Covering’ when underlying is index (Nifty or BankNifty).
    We know that value of Nifty is calculated from 50 Top MCap companies’ Spot Price. Then by trading Nifty Futures or Options, how can it impact value of Nifty to go up?
    Hope my question is clear to you.

    Thanks in advance

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Its tough, but if the futures go up, then for short period it may influence stock buying which in turn pushes the index up, this is not sustainable though.

  181. venus says:

    First of all thanks Karthik for your lucid explanation of all concepts.
    My query is – if an underlying has low volatility, the margin requirement will be lesser. Since margin required is a smaller percentage of contract value, leverage will be higher for taking a trade in a low volatility stock. But since leverage is high it will be a riskier trade.
    Now isn’t it counterintuitive that taking a futures trade in an underlying with LOW VOLATILITY have HIGHER RISK ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If it’s low volatility, then the chances of it moving drastically against your position is low. So that’s an important thing to note 🙂

  182. Viraj Jadhav says:

    SIR, IF I USED THE LEVERAGE IN EQUITY STOCK AND I HAVE DID A PROFIT SO I HAVE TO PAY ALL THE LEVERAGE……..AND WHAT IF I DID LOSS.

  183. Viraj Jadhav says:

    hello sir if we use leverage then we have to pay the levrage after profit????

  184. Sundaramoorthy says:

    Hi,
    Will it be right if I say that Futures Trading is nothing but an Intraday share Trading where the quantity is in lot and the day is an extended period till the expirty date?

  185. Tanmay says:

    Hello Sir,
    Lets say I have a current bullish view on Infy.

    I am not sure when exactly my target will get achieved by I think sometime in a few days-few weeks,

    So should I buy a Future and protect it with an ATM put option or should I buy an ATM call option.
    Both has the nearly identical pay-out graph, buying an ATM is requires little more premium and does not require margin compared to the Synthetic Call position? Time decay would affect both option contracts appropriately but the protection put for future reduces hence it can cause problems for me. The pro of the synthetic call is that I don’t have to pick a strike price so I don’t have to worry about when my target gets achieved.

    For an index, I have an choice to pick weekly or monthly option contracts.

    Which strike price should one choose for protecting the future?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Assuming there is a lot of time to expiry, and that you are outrightly bullish, then you can maybe buy a slightly OTM Call option. You can buy futures as well, but that the only issue is that you will have to deal with the daily mark to market. You can protect the Fut with a slightly OTM PUT.

  186. Nigel says:

    Hi…
    If I’m paying only 14% margin, how can take the profit amount Rs.39250 fully ?? Out of the total profit only 14% would be my share.

  187. Deepak says:

    Sir,
    Let’s say, for argument’s sake, TCS share were to fall by 42% at expiry, however unlikely it may be. Broker will demand triple the margin money? Or is there a mechanism to avoid such scenarios? What if I don’t have money to honor the transaction? What recourses are there?

  188. Deepak says:

    2nd question :

    “and the seller would be making a loss of Rs.238/- per share, provided that the seller has shorted the share at Rs.2362/-”

    Why would the seller of future will short short the share? Two txn in same direction?

    Besides, if shorting is allowed only intra day, how will he be able to practically do it?

    Am I making any sense here?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Its not, Deepak. The context is to explain that the buyer and seller have equal P&L but opposite..as in buyer makes a profit of 10, the seller makes a loss of -10.

  189. karan says:

    Hi sir

    Let’s suppose the future price of bank nifty is 35649 and market lot is 25 which makes the contract value as
    35649*25= 891225
    Now basis on the margin calculator the total margin ( spam+exposure) = 351129
    Now to calculate the leverage i.e contract value/ margin
    891225/351129= 2.538

    1/2.538*100= 39.4%

    Is this means that i’ll not be loosing a money until and unless bank nifty falls till 39% ?

  190. Koushik says:

    you a kannadiga bro?

  191. Deepak Kumar Singh says:

    Sir

    On an unrelated note, where can I find the list of all the buyers who bought a particular stock on a particular day? With a view to gauge the involvement of big players.

    Today, Bank of Maharashtra shares rose 13%. And it rose 10-11% within 7 minutes at one time. This, to me, seems indication of big player participation.

    Secondly, I could not find any rationale, logic or cause for such sudden spike. I know trends, the essence of short term movement, may not have any fundamental logic and may be, and more often than not are, driven by sentiments and trader psychology. Still such sudden movements can’t be predicted any mathematical formulation. It was something out of the blue. I just couldn’t find what it was. What was the cause? Could you venture a reasoned guess what it was?

    As an aside, I really do admire your unflinchingly sincerity. You must be in a job that you love. Many haven’t been that fortunate.

    One more question below pls.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      That list is not available, Deepak. The reason for the price move could be for any reason. Speculation is the biggest reason 🙂

      Yup, I love doing this and I’m glad I get to do it 🙂

  192. Deepak says:

    Can the following scenario pan out:

    Bid price of scrip A is trending at Rs. 80 and below. Mr. X with very deep pockets shorts A by selling 2 million shares (presume 2% of outstanding) at limit price of Rs. 70, just for the fun of it. To enjoy the ensuing chaos.

    1. If between 80 to 70, there are 4 million orders, and till 75 there are two million orders, then after execution of his shorting order, where will LTV be set at?

    2. Two million buy orders will be executed by priority on best price basis, i.e. even if someone bid 76, will he get price of 70?

    3. There must be other sellers besides him who may have offered/ asked their prices, now, will the software match prices and execute those orders or will it go with best price criteria?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No Deepak, such vast price differences wont occur since there are things like execution range etc in place.

  193. B SINGH says:

    I dont understand/agree that ideally delivery based stock buying is wealth generation (in sense of stock market procedure). Assuming neither new investors are coming up nor existing investors are bringing more money from salary/bank deposits/clients, equity investment is too just zero sum game like FnO in stock market operation sense. (Of course buying low and selling high will make investor feel appreciation of wealth which is in fact just transfer of collective pooled money from.others to him).
    Investment just feels as wealth creations because new money is continuously poured in market, otherwise it’s also a zero sum game. After IPO, it just works on demand and supply mechanism.
    Please someone clarify.

  194. chandan says:

    With the Sebi new margin rule, we will not be able to use leverage. ? correct me if I am wrong. &

    and also how will it effect the market. ?

  195. Lionel Ronald says:

    What if the losses are so great that the margin amount is not enough? Is the margin amount the maximum loss you can have in a futures trade ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thats possible too. In such cases the the broker will have to recover from you by invoicing you.

  196. Abhishek says:

    Hello sir,
    as you explained that (What about the balance money? i.e Rs.253,915/- ( Rs.295,250/ minus Rs.41,335/-)
    Well, that money is never really paid out.)
    what if the trade is moving in our favor and we want to benefit from it by exercising the full contract value(as the profit that we earned is for only fraction of percentage of total contract value)
    how will it be settled in the trading account if we want to do that?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Futures has market to market settlement, Abhishek. I’ve explained that later in the module.

  197. Sara says:

    Thankyou for this wonderful initiative. I came across this resource totally by chance yet this has the best explanation in stock market! I m reading this in 2021 and I guess nothing has changed

  198. Murali says:

    Hello Sir,
    I have a doubt about the following section. As far i see, i need not wait for T+2 days to sell a stock after buying ..right? Buying on T+2 days is applicable for only T2T category stocks..isn’t it?

    Option 1 – Buy TCS Stock in the spot market

    Buying TCS in the spot market requires us to check for the price at which the stock is trading and calculate the number of stocks we can afford to buy (with the capital at our disposal). After buying the stock in the spot market, we have to wait for at least two working days (T+2) to get credited to our DEMAT account. Once the stocks reside in the DEMAT account, we just have to wait for the right opportunity to sell them.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thats right Murali. But since TCS does not really belong to the T2T category, you can buy and sell at share even before the T+2 settlement. This is called the Buy today, sell tomorrow transaction.

  199. Hrishikesh says:

    Sir can you explain how margin percentage calculated. In the case of TCS it was 14%. How can we calculate for others.

  200. Ishita says:

    Hi Karthik! Post 1 Sep 2021, since new SEBI rules are applicable, do futures still have the benefit of margin or are margins completely eliminated now? If so, then returns would be the same whether we buy equity or futures right? Only benefit in case of buying futures is that you can sell it the next day itself. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Thanks!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Margins still exist, it is just that the leverage on these instruments is restricted to 5 times across all brokers.

  201. Aman Mishra says:

    Hi Karthik. Can you please tell me that what will happen if the price goes really down and i lose all my margin and then the price goes up. Wil I be in the trade???

    BTW great content…

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Aman, the broker would have closed your position in case of short margin. Unfortunately, there is nothing much that can be done in such situations.

  202. Vikshita M says:

    Hello Sir. I’m a CA final student. Your varsity teachings have helped me a lot for my CA final SFM preparation. Thanks a lot!

  203. bharath says:

    Hello Karthik

    Is there a way I could do dummy trades(paper trades) to learn futures and options.
    Thanks also for varsity i lacked knowledge in many areas this has helped me hugely please keep up the good work!

    Regards
    Bharath

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Dummy trades or paper trades may not help. Instead, I’d suggest you try the USD INR futures, to try out trades and experience it, margins are lower and so is the risk.

  204. suchi says:

    I didn’t understand the formula 1/leverage. How did we arrive at this formula and conclusion that if 1/leverage is 14% then it means if TCS stocks fall by 14% we will lose our margin amount. How ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Reduce the stock price by 14%, and multiply the new stock price by lot size, which gives you the loss. Which will be equal to the margin you’ve put for the trade.

  205. Swapnil says:

    Really made easy to understand with the help of examples. Kudos to you sir!! Thank you.

  206. Swaminathan says:

    Mr.Karthik, thank you for educating the readers through these topics. So, with the new margin rules in force, Equity F&O trading has lost its edge over Equities trading (from a leverage perspective). Is that right ? Kindly clarify.

  207. Swaminathan says:

    Earlier, while trading in F&O segment, we were given huge leverage. Some of the brokers were giving 50 times leverage or even more. But while trading in the Equity segment, we will not get this much leverage. This was the top lucrative reason for traders seeking to trade in F&O segment. But now, after SEBI’s new margin rules, the leverage has been restricted to 5 times in Equity as well as F&O segment. That’s why I said F&O has lost its edge over Equities trading from a leverage perspective. Don’t you think ? Also, with high leverage comes high reward ( and high risk too ). Now that the high leverage is cut down, what would be the top factors that would still pull traders towards trading in F&O. Your views pls.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      5 times leverage is still good enough for active traders. Like you mentioned, high leverage comes with a very high risk, something that’s not worth taking for bulk majority of traders.

  208. Swaminathan says:

    Thanks for the reply. Keep up the good work of educating and transforming people into traders.

  209. U H Bhise says:

    Excellently simplified.

  210. Ankush says:

    What is the difference between obtaining leverage through pledging of holdings and the leverage in margin trading in equity intraday? I mean if we do intraday in equity cash segment we can get leverage by pledging our holdings and also by maintaining the required margin, so what is the difference between them? And what exactly happens if my losses go beyond the required margin and my fund shows a huge negative balance in case of volatility and my broker was unable to square off the position? In this case when will my position get square off? Will it get square off after market closes? And what consequences will i have to face? And what consequences do my broker face?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ankush, they both are different forms of leverage, but the end of the day it’s still leverage. If losses goes beyond margins, the broker will cut your position and make good for losses.

  211. Jay says:

    Hi Karthik. Thanks for an excellent explanation…I want to know, after entering into a futures contract, if at the time of contract expiry date I’m in profit (or loss) then what exactly happens? In case of profit, do I need to pay the remaining contract value & get the shares in my Demat account? or do I get only the profit portion amount transferred in my account?

  212. Piyush says:

    Hi Karthik,
    I started late in stock market because of lack of exposure initially and was in search of good structured training course to understand basic terminology, jargons. I found training sessions designed by your team simple, structured that helped me immensely. I hope that thousands of retail investors will benefit from such training courses.

    Thanks
    Piyush

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad that you found the content easy to follow and understand 🙂
      Happy learning!

  213. Animesh says:

    Hiii there , I want to trade in future in indices, so I have a few querries regarding , the risk I want to ask the risk of the trade is equal to the moment of the stock ( which is against your direction) * lot size … Or is there any this else which is needed to be noticed , thaanks!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      There are several risks Animesh – price moving against your trade, volatility increasing, liquidity risk.

  214. yash jadhav says:

    sir how can there be same buy price in spot market and future market in case of tcs example ?

  215. yash jadhav says:

    ANOTHER QUERY WHAT IF LOSSES EXCEEDS OUR MARGIN DEPOSITED AMOUNT ?

  216. Akshatha T says:

    Could you please explain more about the “zero-sum game”?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      In derivatives, money just transfers hands from one party to another. No new wealth is created as such. Hence its called a zero-sum game.

  217. Animesh jain says:

    Sir u mentioned that ” if tcs falls by 14% , then we will loose all the margin amount”. Does this mean that suppose if i bought tcs today and the expiry is suppose 25 days from now and If tcs falls by 14% say tomorrow, then will the margin amount be debited from my account or will it simply show a loss of the margin amount? I mean will the contract remain or not?

  218. Arpitha says:

    is it compulsory to take leverage? for futures

  219. Arpitha says:

    sir as per my understanding: leverage is optional …if we take leverage 1) in case of loss it deducts money from margin money. 2)if in case only take a trade on margin money in case of loss it gets to deduct from margin money itself…..am I right sir?

  220. Riddhi Kamal Parekh says:

    Isnt the leverage only 3.57 times in the TCS eg i.e. 295,250/82670, as we have bought 2 lots?

  221. ROMESH says:

    Leverage is a double-edged sword. If used in the right spirit and knowledge, leverage can create wealth; if not, it can destroy wealth. – Beautiful lines.

  222. Ram says:

    Hello, Karthick I can understand your teaching It’s in a very simple way. By the way, my age is 22 I would like to take some risks till my age of 30. So, my question to you is How can we relate this future Market to real estate. Bot are different.

  223. Pradeep P says:

    Hi Karthik, quick question, it’s been giving me a hard time understanding –

    Let’s say we do intraday in futures of a stock and we are long. Is the price that appear on the chart and the tradable price the same? I have this question because futures is a derived price and the chart shows that. But if we want to trade in that, we need to look at the market depth, so will the market depth also have prices that is close to what is been shown on the chart. Will there be a situation where I am long and the futures price (as per the chart) has gone up but the market depth prices (bid/offer) has not changed much? I hope my question is clear, might be a weird question but nobody to ask this to other than you Mr Karthik.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes Pradeep, for example, if you are trading Infy futures, then look at Infy futures chart. The chart displays the last traded price. Bid and ask is just on the dept and wont impact the chart.

  224. Anil POLINENI says:

    Futures are daily settled in India? Futures on stocks are cash settled?

  225. Ujjwal says:

    So when should one consider buying stocks instead of futures?

  226. Shrihari khemka says:

    Hi, Can you please explain how 1/leverage gives us the percentage drop for entire margin to be wiped out? Rest all the part is crisp and clear. thanks!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      When you do 1/leverage, you get the percentage representing the min movement required to double your money or lose the entire capital. 1/leverage is just the math.

  227. Abhishek says:

    Its a great great explanation Karthik.
    I have one question here, If I buy 1 lot of TCS and paying 41335(margin amount) and contract value is 295250 and holding this position till expiry or carry forward for next month so any interest have to pay on contract amount or any of the amount.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      There is no interest Abhishek. But remember, the contract will expire on the last Thursday of the month and you cant hold beyond that.

  228. A K PRASAD says:

    lucid explanation. easy to understand. thanks.

  229. Yadagiri says:

    Very good simple explanation

  230. Kumar says:

    Hey Anand – Great tutorials here. I have a noob query here.

    Irrespective of the underlying stock price , will the price fluctuation always remains in tune with the amount of leverage ?

    For example, “if I take a leverage of say 10X on any given futures, will it ALWAYS take 10% fall in the price of futures to get my margin money to zero” ?

  231. Kumar says:

    Wow. That’s an amazing insight. Thanks for the response Karthik.

    So I am safe to play around with the trade as long as the price of derivative doesn’t fall beyond 10% incase of 10X margin right ? But it will eventually settle on expiry date at whatever is the spot price.

    Let me know if my thinking is correct below:
    In the case of perpetuals(in crypto), there is no expiry. So does it mean for relatively stable bluechip assets where price fluctuations are not drastic, can I hold and trade as much as time I can ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Leverages like 10x can wipe out the accounts quickly if the risk is not managed well 🙂

      Also, it depends on how you define drastic. Technically, you can keep rolling over and hold the futures as well tp perpetuity.

  232. Anto Tennichan says:

    cant find a better explanation about leverage than this.

  233. Shreyas p says:

    Can we square off oru position easily while trading in futures?

  234. SATYAPRAKASH says:

    Can i sell a future contract on the same day if i have bought it on that day on overnight basis ?

  235. Deepak Goyal says:

    SECTION 4.4

    Stock has to fall by x %age for one to lose all the margin amount; this can be calculated as –

    1 / Leverage

    So it works out, margin %age one has to deposit for a contract is the same %age a stock has to fall for one to lose all the margin amount.

    Nice Karthik, thanks bro for detailed chapters

  236. Elephant says:

    Hello,

    As I am new, I may have understood something wrong. Kindly clarify a doubt for me. Here, you assumed the futures price is 2362. But I thought that was the spot price and the future price is ~2374. Am I missing something?

  237. DR DEVENDRA AGRAWAL says:

    “Another way to look at this is that the money is being transferred from the seller’s pocket to the buyer’s pocket. It is just a transfer of money and not a creation of money!

    There is a difference between the transfer of money and creation of money. Money is generated when the value is created. For example, you have bought TCS shares from a long term perspective, TCS as a business does well, profits and margins improve. Obviously, you as a shareholder will benefit from under-appreciation in the share price. This is money creation or wealth generation. If you contrast this with Futures, money is not being created but moving from one pocket to another.”
    THIS IS THE STATEMENT FROM ABOVE CHAPTER. Futures is a money movement. VEry nicely explained. Thanks a lot for such a wonderful explaination. Futures is a fight between two mindsets- equivalent to playing a chess or any game with an opponent.

  238. DR DEVENDRA AGRAWAL says:

    it is so wonderful to learn with zerodha varsity. Thanks to all the team members. Karthik sir, i am putting some formulas as i have understood. please correct me where i am wrong. Thanks for your valuable time and thanks again such a good study material.

    Leverage is in terms of times or ratio and not percentage
    Margin can be in terms of percentage or value

    Leverage = contract size value/ margin value
    Margin value = contract value / Leverage

    Margin % = Margin value / Contract value x 100
    Margin % = 100/Leverage
    Leverage = 100/Margin % (if margin is in terms of percentage)
    Hence, Leverage = 100/(Margin value x 100/contract value)
    Hence, Leverage = contract value / Margin value

    % Margin loss = % loss of contract x Leverage
    % Margin loss = % loss of contract x 100/margin%

    1. if % loss of contract = 100/leverage then whole margin will wipe out
    2. if % loss of contract = margin % then whole margin will wipe out

    similarly we can calculate % margin profit

    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      So margin value is given by the exchange and brokers, you cant really calculate that. So you need to keep that in perspective. For P&L, you need to consider what profit or loss you’ve made and divide that over the margin you’ve deposited.

  239. aarnav says:

    Sir in the option 1 section, you’ve written it takes T+2 days for the stock to reflect in your DEMAT account and it also takes 2 days to sell (basically you cannot sell it before 2 days of buying the stock)….hasn’t this situation changed? SEBI has initiated the T+1 system, please correct me if I’m wrong.

  240. Ajith V says:

    Hi,

    Pls consider this example for INTRADAY trading with leverage :

    Total funds in Demat : 30,000

    Cost per share : 558
    No of shares bought: 150 ( leveraging 53000 ) – Total Cost : 83700

    If I sell this share during an intraday session at suppose : 560
    Trade Value – 84000.

    What would be my profit value selling at ₹560 per share if calculated on leverage ?.

    Eager for your response

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It would be Buy value (8400) minus sell value (83700) = 300 or
      Sell price (560) minus buy price (558) multiplied by number of shares i.e. 2*150 = 300.

  241. naik says:

    A 5.79% return over 9 days is quite impressive. In fact, a 9-day return of 5.79% when annualized yields about 235%. This is phenomenal!

  242. Shiju says:

    Excellent content. Thanks to the Team.

  243. sid says:

    A question; what is the benefit of new buyer buying apartment from your friend? I mean couldnt he simply get the apartment directly from builder!

  244. Teju says:

    Hi Sir,
    Thank you so much for such a great content.
    So total profit of the buyer at the end of DEC 23rd will be
    114(Sum of P/L of buyer) x 250(2 lots) = 28500 right?

  245. Ayush says:

    Here it is said that in spot market there is no lot size but that is opposite of what I observe.whenver I try to buy in spot market there also that have lot size minimum number of stock to buy. Can you clarify.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ayush, there is no lot size when it comes to spot market. You can buy to whatever extent you want, even 1 share 🙂

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