Nithin – Zero to Zerodha

July 26, 2013

Traders,

Since we are profiling winners – traders who are successful trading the markets and get them to share ideas, we thought why not Nithin, an astute trader himself. It is Nithin’s idea to have the Winners’ section and the following interaction to share what helped him while trading. He writes on Zconnect, am taking over from him this time.

Hanan

Team Zerodha

nithin

Nithin Kamath – Founder-CEO, Zerodha

1. They say a trader is for life and if he is trading well he would never do anything else. Why stop trading and get into broking?

Who says I have stopped trading? Isn’t starting and running Zerodha a trade?

On a serious note, 2008 was a very good year for me trading the markets and 2009 the most frustrating, especially more so because it came on the back of a year where I had felt invincible. In 2009, the markets were stuck in a range without any trend, chopping me like crazy and that is when there was a day when the markets were closed, hitting upper circuit after the election result. I was not holding any position into the event, usually I always went into a big event with a long straddle (buy both calls and puts) with 5 to 10% of my trading capital. This could be said as the defining moment of my career. I realized that there wasn’t as much passion for trading after being in it for almost 12 years, of which 8 years were spent trading full time and 20 to 100 trades a day (I was essentially a scalper), a huge emotional roller coaster.

After going bust earlier in my trading career in 2001 when I had to join a call center, I have never been the kinds who used to put a stop loss on every trade, but I knew there had to be a stop loss on trading itself this time around. So I didn’t stop at the top of my game, but you could say around 20% draw down from the top after starting at Rs 2000 way back in 1998 to being able to setup a brokerage firm from just day trading the markets. What also helped me switch was the fact that my younger brother Nikhil had started trading and you could say it is genes, but we were ending up taking similar trades and I knew the odds would be higher of him winning with the edge he had in terms of being almost 7 years younger and smarter than me.

2. Never used to put stop losses? Are you serious? Isn’t this what every person on TV keeps asking you to put?

Yes, it might sound strange when everyone around keeps bombarding you to keep stop losses. Not having a stop loss is what kills an amateur and too many stop losses is what kills a professional. One of the things that I can attribute some success of my trading was of knowing the fact that at a particular point on a trade there are only 2 things you can feel either right or wrong, if you feel wrong exit and you feel right hold it. But you can run such a strategy only if you are not heavily leveraged because if you are, the damage can be extreme because of having no stops in the system.

So what is the right trading size?

Personally, I have always gauged my correct trading size based on if I can take a position and walk out not worrying about what is happening to my position.

I have essentially been a Nifty trader my entire trading career and would be running multiple strategies; the more strategies that were giving an entry would mean adding up the position. So typically 80% of my trades would have been just with 5% of my trading capital and the remaining 20% would have a higher position size of upto 40%, because I would have added more as and when any other strategy would give me an entry and this would usually be like pyramiding a position, (pyramiding: you increase your position only if the existing position is making profits).

On the similar logic, I never used limit orders, the reason being at a particular time I felt you can either feel bullish, bearish or nothing. If you feel nothing don’t do anything, if you feel bullish buy and if you feel bearish sell. I didn’t understand the logic of saying Nifty is 6000, if it comes to 5995 I will buy, because you are now trying to go take a trade against the trend. I could afford market orders because I was trading Nifty, otherwise in today’s liquidity scenario the impact cost might hit you on contracts other than Nifty especially if you are trading a decent size.

3. What kind of strategies were you following?

Strategies evolved over time, but I have always believed that it is not the strategy that makes money; it is everything you do around it that does.I can have the best strategy in the world, but still blow out with a bad money management strategy and similarly with good money management skills I can make profits even from an ordinary strategy.

A few things that I have essentially followed in my life were to never go against the trend and technical analysis worked the best to tell you the direction. I would mix TA with something else like open interest data, volume data, option PCR, etc. I kept increasing the position as and when more conditions gave a green signal.

There is no holy grail of trading that can make money consistently. In the markets and in life, there are things which are under our control and things which are not, no point worrying about what is not under your control. Similarly, whatever strategy you use, there is no one who can control the outcome of it, but the idea is to be on top of what is in your control, essentially your money management skills.

The important thing to do though, is to put your buy and sell entry strategy on paper, which I guess a lot of amateurs/beginners don’t. Because as soon as you put it on paper and start tracking the performance, you will automatically know how to improve it, but do put the strategy on paper and maintain a journal of its performance.

4. What is your call on leverage?

Sometime around 2006, I had attended a seminar where Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was having a Q&A session with the audience, predominantly traders. RJ kept talking about how you need to invest and get that 20% compounded interest, shouldn’t trade F&O or take any leverage.

I stood up and asked, Did you turn your Rs 5000 to Rs 5000 crores without any leverage?

He smiled and didn’t answer the question.

For someone trading the markets actively, leverage is probably the most important tool, it is like a WMD (weapon of mass destruction), you need to know when to use it. But leverage, like WMD is not what mere mortals can handle, it has ruined many lives. I have had friends who trade brilliantly in demo conditions and fail in real markets, mainly because they couldn’t handle it.

I guess it is very important to analyze if you have it in you to handle leverage, if not it is best to avoid, because not handling leverage well would be detrimental to both our financial and personal health. If we can’t handle leverage, best to stick to investing in stocks as RJ said and wait to hit the next Infosys/Reliance.

Though, I personally believe that we don’t need a stop loss for every trade, I know it is needed for trading itself. You need to know when to stop trading. This is not something a broker will ever tell you because you are earning him brokerage, but make sure if you are not enjoying what you are doing, stop it immediately or else you will eventually be forced to with a big dent to your trading account. There is nothing to be ashamed or egoistic about it, I can proudly say that I personally put a stop on trading when I felt a drop in my levels of passion for it.

5. Any advice for beginners/amateurs?

Trading for a living is beautiful, if you are in control of it. Probably among the best careers on this planet, but as I said earlier it also requires some inborn skills and it is best to stop if you don’t see it in you.

Since I was day trading, it was important for me to be feeling the sharpest during trading hours, so I worked on staying fit, even if I was trading from home – I would dress up in formals and keep the area where I trade tidy. Sleeping well the previous night was important, it took me a while but it benefited after I stopped watching CNBC or my international accounts in the nights to track what is happening to NASDAQ/DOW Jones if I had an open position overnight.

I always found that having a TV switched on during trading hours hurt my trading performance, you end up reacting to news which most likely is already factored in. Made sure to not look at tips/research reports during a trade, because I felt it could change my perspective.

Take a break when you are on the back of a losing streak, but never break if you are on a winning streak.

Read as much as possible because knowledge gives you a sense of being under control, a feeling very important to trade profitably.

Today as a broker, I have been able to see a lot of traders both winning and losing, one of those habits which I find common among the winners is discipline; discipline to follow rules you have set. It is tough to be discipined only in trading, it has to be a way of life.

Finally, it is very important to understand that over a longer period of time, the role of luck to your trading success keeps reducing. As they say, “Luck is not a chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.”

I am just an average trader and the above thoughts are what worked for me. If anything of this is helpful to you, I’d be very happy. But do note that whatever style mentioned is what suited me the best, it has to be self-discovery to find what works best for each one of us.

___________________________________________

My trading career changed after reading Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, getting insights on what some of the best traders in the world do. The idea with this section of Winners on Z-connect is similar. We want to be able to profile traders who are making profits in the markets. The objective is to showcase traders of various kinds in the Indian context and get them to share ideas and thoughts which has helped them make profits and hopefully guide you in discovering your trading rules and style, especially for the beginners/amateurs.

Do check out the other Winners

Happy Learning,

Team Zerodha

Team Zerodha

Head of client relations at Zerodha


Post a comment




103 comments
  1. dinesh kumar says:

    if i sell my stocks on record date will i get dividend or not

  2. Sai Krishna says:

    How much did you loose when you got busted this is the question that keeps haunting me everytime you say you got busted twice

  3. Gaurav says:

    I really appreciate your effort sir . I have tried all the trading platforms but found zerodha perfect in every aspect.

  4. Hanuman says:

    I have found difficult to invest in IPO of the companies, I thought it is long process to physical go-to banks and fill the forms, Is there any solution for online?, Is it will come soon.

  5. Rupendra Kr Dubey says:

    hi,
    Sir tell me customer help numberso that my problem ismay solved.

  6. pankaj agrawal says:

    Hello sir,main abhi new zerodha mein demat a/c banaya hu sabhi process puri ho chuki h ,e-sign completed ho chuka hai ,mujhe pdf format v mil gya h ,ab uske aage ki process nhi ho rahi h , please help me,aap apni team se kahiye Meri help kare jisse Mai form fill up kar saku aur Head office mein courier kar saku jisse mujhe I’d, password mil sake aur Mai apni trading jari rakh saku
    Dhanyavad….

  7. Naveen says:

    I am not sure if Nithin Kamath would see this message or has time to go through the message in the forum. I am very fond of Zerodha Kite, Kite is light and fast but needs more enhancements to help short term and swing traders. I do 99% of transactions using kite and not on web console. Below can be some of the features that will increase number of trades for me and I hope it would be same with other traders as well.

    – Allow to add all the nifty 50 and nifty 100 stocks in one go in the watch list
    – Increase the watchwindow limit upto 100 (current limit is 50 per sheet/1…5)
    – show other stats like Gapup%, % recovery from day’s low, volume, volume % in the watch window and provide an option for users to select. Incase a visual cue can be include in the watch window for golden crossovers or crossovers for 14 /50, that would be an awesome feature, as a trader I would know what is potential candidate for trading for the day or coming days and can quickly go to that chart for confirmation. Decisions making can be done in less than 5 to 10 seconds.
    – Provide option in Kite to sort on Price, Price increase%, Gapup%, volume% based on the column included in the view
    – In holdings, show the total cost including brokerage along with average buying price, this helps traders to decide whether they need to exit or the day or not. This feature is not available in any of the trading console like HDFC, ShareKhan etc., but this would be helpful feature. It becomes time consuming for trader to calculate break even every now and then

    Honestly, I don’t know how difficult or easy it is to develop this features, but for sure, Kite users will find it very very useful

    Expecting honest answer from Kite development team and Nithin bhai.

  8. Yashoda mungi says:

    Thank you very much,received refund today

  9. Yashoda mungi says:

    Sir, my 60 day challenge brokerage refund not given.
    Daily saying that you will get refund by end of the day.
    YQ7996.
    Token number 477094
    When will i get refund money?

  10. Aditya Bhat says:

    Hi Nithin,

    Nice article. One thing I noticed in the article is :”The important thing to do though, is to put your buy and sell entry strategy on paper, which I guess a lot of amateurs/beginners don’t.” It would be better if you provide a place against stock holding/portfolio, where we can write and keep out strategy or target or stop loss or anything in that matter. because, I think those paper days are gone.!!

    And Wish you brothers and Team Z, all the very best to all your future endeavours.

    Thanks and Regards,
    Aditya Bhat.

  11. Amit says:

    How to decide I have inborn skills to trade or not I have suffered loss when I have shorted sbi due to money pouring and when I should quit trading

  12. Amit Hasurkar says:

    Hi Nithin,

    I had emailed you with regards to placing buy and sell orders on charts itself on Kite app. Please check the email which I had sent.

    I had received reply stating that Zerodha developers will be working on it. Please check as it has been more than 1 month.

    Thanks.

  13. Ritesh gupta says:

    Sir, you should try an experiment as done by Richard Dennis. It may provide an opportunity for traders who don’t have sufficient money to trade in commodity futures with proper diversification and with proper money management

  14. Prakhar Agrawal says:

    As a beginner can I trade through Zerodha Mobile App and get same facilities like that in PC.

  15. sujay kumar says:

    sir i have taken 60 days challenge and from the day 1 i have completed trades in profit not even one trade shown loss, do i get certificate if i do the same for next 55 days, is there any terms and condition there

  16. Hemanth Roy says:

    Great writing by Hanan of Nithin’s thoughts.
    I have won and I have lost in trading with so many brokers since maybe 1998
    I don’t remember.

    But now, I am sticking to Zerodha. Thanks Nithin and team for this social change among traders and investors.

    I somehow feel Nithin is averse towards me regarding political thoughts.
    I don’t mind. I hope he doesn’t mind my choice.

  17. arun reddy says:

    Hi Nithin,

    i have a query in funds transfer between commodity to equity and vice versa.
    In few brokerages it is available which helps alot,could you please provide such option in zerodha.
    where we can transfer funds between commodity to equity and equity to commodity.
    if it is available we can trade in equity till 3:30 and then we can transfer amount to commodity and trade in evening session.
    is it possible?
    thanks in advance.

    • Arun, SEBI clearly says that funds can’t be transferred this way and also has penalized a few brokers. If a broker is still doing this today, he is being hugely non-compliant.

  18. bindiya mishra says:

    dear sir
    i am also use pi platform for trading
    i suggest to update line chart facility and weekly chart facility in all nse bse and commodity

  19. Prathvi says:

    The books that helped you the most ?

  20. vishal says:

    Dear nitin ,
    can your company provide High frequency trading tools( HFT) in your software pls share.

  21. Shashikant says:

    Dear Nitin, I am customer of zerodha since last one and half year. In last year I didn’t found many improvements in your pi platform. It is good if you add some fundamental indicators in your platform, why you are not giving support to ninja trader which is better and free technical analysis software. Your small case platform is excellent, I am big fan of it and recommend to my friends for investment purposes as alternative to Mutial funds.
    Now I am looking from trade journal from zerodha to Indian customers as many trade journals avilable on net are costly and doesn’t support Indian stock market.

  22. Sachin thorat says:

    Hi..nitin inhave opened ac with ur firm2-3 months ago to check the platform specially the mob app…i had been associated with Iifl since 9 yrs n used.its web exe n mob app fully..but after using ur mob app i felt that its not as fast..or it had problems of login in the mornings.. it also showed problem when high volatility seen in mkts..i was not satisfied with the performance of app..obviously comparing with iifl app is also not possible considering the huge performance difference n costing..but still i had c.omplained this to ur sup nos..you must bw agree that mob app is wifely getting used for various reasons..n so will it b for trading as well in future infact its already so in such case its very important to have a app which is stunning n fast at performance without errors n 0 compromise as money of customers is on bet..Try trsting iifl app once it has guest mode to get idea of possible improvement in kite..if its dne..it will mint money..

  23. Sarat C Sahu says:

    Dear Nitin,
    I am having complains regarding Profit/Loss statement for the month of July 2016. The name change of SKS Micro finance to Bharat Financial has made your system to calculate wrongly profits made in my Bharat Financial trades in F&O. I have contacted the customer service few times, but no action so far.
    I request you to kindly look into this matter and provide me with corrected P/L report for July.
    Complain request Ticket no. 371070 and client ID RS0497.

  24. Abhijit says:

    Hello sir
    I have opened my account last year.Iam still learning to trade profitably.I had not read this section earlier.It would have benefited me if I had read it when I had opened the account.First thing I have observed is the difference in brokerage,between Zerodha & Share khan.I have not tried leverage yet & Iam only in nifty trading.My biggest problem is I am not able to follow any plans.When the trading starts I usually try to be over smart & do lots of things I should not do while trading

  25. Praveen says:

    Nitin & All,
    I have been to retail biz from age 12yrs biz was good till family bebt hit me hard, I lost hope and went to BPO & it was until recently, some guy forwarded a video of Warren Buffet, I am so inspired – its not about money or just winning, this is new experience – I have been literally studying stock market past two months then on. Trading only few times (max 10 times) not big investment or on big loss just to learn and understand market. Your story has inspired me – I am a challenger as well who had even won couple of Kaizen awards where i literally dint have any one to compete me (unless they used my formulas and templates) at office….soon I will be in stock market – if the 60 day challenge is on – I am sure will be in that list soon.

    I really have to appreciate – you have a good team whose support was enormous.

    Regards,

    PV

  26. Hrushikesh says:

    Great Posts!, Simply great admiration for Nithin Sir!!
    I believe the journey has been truly phenomenal for you. I am in the process of opening an account with you for algo trading and thanks to your wonderful team support, already we are creating the back end for integrating with your platform for personal algo trading.
    Am founder of the company mystocklive.com.
    Your post not only inspires entrepreneurship, but also brings in confidence to a lot of traders/ or wanna be traders.

    I really hope to meet you in person some day and draw additional inspiration.

    Thanks a lot for having this wonderful Zerodha family

    Kind Regards
    -Hrushikesh

  27. Ram says:

    Hi Mr.Nithin,
    I am a full time trader like u an engineer..Achieving reasonable profits in swing tradings by using different strategies with futures & options instrument simultaneously(basically running with delta of 0.3 to 0.4 with predefined loss & profit even if the direction is right).
    I would like to be a scalper apart from the swing trading.. I tried 5, 15 & 30 mins chart in nifty & bank nifty but the profit achieving in day trading is not reasonable..
    In addition to the swing trading i would like to be scalper..Can u suggest the book which can give the in depth skills & knowledge of scalping trade.. And i would like to inform u that i am in the market since last 2 years and in addition i am the 60 day winner also..
    Pls suggest the best book and your views about scalping trade..

  28. siraj presswala says:

    great posts…I admire you since you represent the new generations of entrepreneurs who are indeed challenging the strong hold that large but less innovative firms have had on this field whilst having a positive impact on competition and customers. India needs a great many more like you. I would like to think that if one is hugely profitable in trading over an extended period of time, she/he can be successful in almost any other personal or professional endeavors. Goodluck.

  29. dhamo says:

    http://www.fscomeau.com/why-technical-analysis-is-bullshit/

    hello NK,
    i have read the TA module which is available in the zerodha varsity. and it was q quite a good read.But, i have comes across this article today and it says TA is bullshit and i felt like i have wasted my time on reading that and my trading desires and making money feels like a far-fetched dream. I hope you will reply for this question.

    • Dhamo, I don’t think you should change your views just based on a single article. The good thing with technical analysis is that it seldom lets you go against market trends, which is extremely crucial for a trader looking at surviving the markets. As and when you master trading, I am sure you will start mixing other things with TA.

  30. Ram says:

    There is an important information missing in the Winner’s list.

    – What was the kind of return they made on their invested capital?
    – What was the indicative capital they traded?

    Could you publish that please, so that people know the standard to match/beat when they enter the arena! 🙂

  31. psushant says:

    why does Brokerage calculator and contract notes show different net profits earned?

  32. sreeraj says:

    I can understand what you really wanted to say and what the media had published.You may either demand to correct/withdraw or move legally as it may spread wrong idea about you among the public as long as it has been there in internet.

  33. sreeraj says:

    Hai Nithin,

    I am a silent and regular visitor of zerodha.com.I appreciate your sincere efforts to help traders by breaking all the barrios they face during trading and also to prove making money is possible through trading. But i have come across an article in economictimes.indiatimes.com about you.Where the author says that the man who got out of trading loosing a huge amount is now trying to help others to do the same.Link to the post is given below.
    http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/heres-how-you-can-really-make-money-in-trading/articleshow/47497621.cms
    Hope you might have read this, but it would be good to answer to it here also.Once again wishing you all the very best.
    Sreeraj

    • The author who had written article had never gotten in touch with me before taking this to press. When I contacted him after to have this corrected, he didn’t respond either. There was an interview where I had said that I wanted to take a break from trading in 2009 after having a good run in 2008, and the fact that I had blown out my trading account twice in early 2000’s. I guess he just assumed it was the same reason I started Zerodha.

  34. Ram says:

    1)What is your view about TBQ and TSQ? If TBQ >TSQ the demand is more and the market can go up and vice versa..but I tracked its not working well.. Even if some market participants may placed the best buy price to close the short positions..
    2)As a scalper whats the strike price to play?

  35. Ram says:

    I am a full time Nifty options trader since last 2 years and having the overall view of the options theory and technical analysis.. Through varsity i got an opportunity to hone my trading skills and first i would like to thank you for that..In the post you mentioned that basically as a scalper, used to do 20-100 trades/day.. I got amaze is it possible to do that much of trades in nifty options only? Can you explain how many points in each trade at an average u used to book the profit? Are you used to do trade in ITM/OTM options? And i used to track the open interest change continuously during the market hrs in NIFTY TRACKER.COM but it’s not that much of reliable.. Are u used to track the OI only/change in OI and also from which web/software? And final question at an average how much average returns achieved during your trading career?

    • Usually scalpers do much more than 20 to 100 trades a day. usually if you have a fixed point of profit, it is very tough to net net make a profit. Every once in a while (luck or law of averages), even as a scalper you get into one of those moves that you need to hold on for longer. The best way if at all you want to have a SL is to have a trailing SL, which is once in profit never let it go into a loss, but run ur profitable positions with the trail. OI studies, hmmm.. didn’t work very well for me.
      As a scalper the % returns can be spectacular, but the issue will be with scaling up the trading size. So if I can do x% with 1lk, it will be very tough to do it with say Rs 5lks. To be honest 2008 was the black swan year for me, I managed to stay in the right side of market moves more often than not. The volatility in the markets was so high that if you caught the right direction, rewards were extremely big. Those kind of years come only once in 5 to 7 years. Don’t want to give you a number to the % returns, because if I do people reading will think it is possible regularly.

  36. soujanya says:

    Hi Nithin,

    I cannot see any interviews with the people who succeeded in commodity trading.
    Does that mean nobody is in profit in commodity after 60day challenge?

  37. Anantha Raman says:

    Hi Nithin,

    Since you have been a trader yourself, can you please advise whether it is detrimental for a trader in the long term, if he / she uses targets along with SL and TSL to exit a position.

    Few trader friends were having a debate whether it is good or not so good to place targets (risk reward ratio will be 1:3 or more). Some were suggesting that max wealth can only be made by trailing SL without targets, whereas the other side was saying that in the long run it doesn’t make lot of difference.

    Kindly give me your views on this

    • I think it is always good to have some kind of stop when trading longer term. Price of the stock will typically factor in all the fundamental news, so if something wrong in the underlying business, you will be out of the stock. Unless you are one of those proficient technical or fundamental analyst, I think putting targets might not be the best thing to do.

  38. SUDHANSU says:

    Pls post useful interviews of other Zerodha winners.The previous winners interviews are really very encouraging.Please its a request from most of the eagerly waiting traders & new comers to market.
    Regards
    Sudhansu

  39. rj says:

    Hi Nithin,

    Can brokers steal trading concepts? As they have all the trade record of best traders of the country.

    • There is no trading concepts that a broker can get from client trades. If you buy 1 lot of Nifty, the broker will not know why you are buying that 1 lot of Nifty, that analysis will be happening at your end.

  40. anu says:

    Hi Nithin,
    Is there any way that two people login in to same account and trade. May be through different applications. my requirement is like this: suppose i want to trade in cash and my husband want to trade in F&O. I login from home and he logs in from office. Both wants to trade in same account. we are ok to login in different applications like Zerodhamobile, nest trader, web interface, PI
    Anu

  41. Deepesh Yadav says:

    Hi Nithin,
    You said there are some inborn skills, what are those skills like ? As i just started trading so its very important for me to know.
    Thank you

    • What are the inborn skills, hmmm.. Ability to stay calm when there is chaos, being unemotional about business(trading in this case), disciplined, ability to stick out of the crowd (doing things differently), money management skills. You can try and learn some of it, but some people are blessed, they are born right.

  42. sujeet maurya says:

    Hello Nitin,
    Is it possible to introduce Fundamental buy indicators like stock price is at book value, Price to earning ratio below certain given value etc. in pi version .

  43. Bimal says:

    Hello Nitin,

    What order (limit or market) do you place in trades that are mostly scalping in nature or last about 5-10 minutes or have very small profit-loss targets. This is because I have not been very successful in placing limit orders. But in scrips/contracts where bid and ask price has a big difference, market order may not be viable. It will help us if you can kindly share your experience on this NItin.

    • Bimal, I have stopped trading now, but for whatever time I did, it was always market orders. Scalping strategies don’t really work with illiquid contracts, so I think it is best to avoid them.

      • Kaustubh Salunke says:

        Hey , master hats off to you, couldn’t say many thanks for you for creating this kind of wonderful brokerage firm, nowadays when I wasn’t having any cash left in hand and sis marriage coming I was lot depressed but thanks to your cover orders which saved me so I can earn almost 1lk per day with just 30K caps,
        thanks ,
        no word to say!

  44. Manjunath B G says:

    Dear Nithin,
    Today, covered call is not squared off at 3:20 pm ,your support team is telling server problem, pls. tell them not to repeat the problem, it’s a major issue.

    Regards,
    Manjunath

  45. Manjunath B G says:

    Dear Nithin,
    when ever i open plus chart i am getting configuration error pls restart nest plus, many times i contacted to your support team they are not able to solve, how to solve this problem pls. give me the solution.

    Thanks,
    Manjunath

    • Manjunath, we just sent an email today about the latest update to plus charts. New version from Monday which should fix it. Can you check your inbox and do the update to plus.

      • Manjunath B G says:

        Dear Nithin,
        Not recd. mail, your support team told to install nest plus 2.9.3.0 from your website, it has been done, i have to check weather this will solve my problem.

        Thks,
        Manjunath

  46. Manjunath B G says:

    Dear Nithin,
    Compared to other Brokers leverage in zerodha looks very small what is the reason, once i put stop loss leverage can be extended why its not happening in zerodha.

    Thks. & Regards,
    Manjunath

  47. Rohit says:

    Hi

    I am new in trading. Can you please inform what is meant by leveraging in your above discussion.

    Regards

    Rohit

  48. saffron84 says:

    Hi Nitin,

    first of all congratulations on brilliant business.

    I have got one app Idea for intra day traders. Mostly This app will publish hourly basis bullish, bearish stocks with recommended targets by experts. This will definitely bring lot of interest amongs intraday traders, scalpers. where can i send you mock ups.

    Looking forward to hear from you.

    saff

  49. proudfarmer says:

    Nitin, it is great to learn from your trading experiences. You said that you were mostly doing scalping with up to 20 trades a day. Just wanted to know whether you were trading in stocks or indexes. Besides, whether you were trading in cash or future or option. I have a third query Nitin. How much profit/loss you targeted for an average trade and what was the average timeframe (duration) of an average trade.

    • I was trading mostly Nifty F&O, I was more of a heart trader :), so yeah there was no target P&L. I think the right think I used to do was on the money management side, ensuring that no single or multiple big moves against me can make a big hole in the account. Once you know the damage is not much even if you are wrong, there is a lot more confidence you get to trade.

      • proudfarmer says:

        Thank you Nitin,

        Can you elaborate a little more about average time of trade, average P/L points aimed per trade etc. Asking these since I am interested to learn from your scalping experience.

        Regards

  50. tarique says:

    why you dont provide facility of leverage in zerodha

  51. hemanth kumar k says:

    I AM beginner have good advice for your’s

  52. Kunal says:

    Hi ,

    Sharekhan s Tradetiger charts visuality and Handeling is
    very clear and easy, Request you to launch such software.

  53. ASH says:

    i am a beginner and have a problem using this trading platform. When trying to see my holdings(bought on CNC) on surveilance, it shows “URL not found in ini file for demat page” . . can anyone help me on this? how to view my holdings ? or is this a problem when i try during after office hours ? please advice

  54. appan says:

    Dear Nithin,
    What time frame and indicators you use for scalping.

  55. Siva_Sri says:

    Good post. You always rock….

    80% of the trade , using 5% of the capital itself is a great , superb stop loss strategy.

    If you loose or diminish this 5% , that means , you are in the opposite direction of the trend. So , reverse and trade with 10% of the capital along with the trend will lead to gain and recover the loosen trade. I am following this strategy, but my percentage is 20% of the capital. I am totally a scalper .

  56. makarandkokane says:

    Great post! Good to know I’m at the right place!

  57. Kushal says:

    Isn’t not keeping a stop loss and being a scalper very contradicting? Isn’t stop loss very important for a scalper?

    • Nithink says:

      A beginner/amateur or someone trying out new strategies needs a price stop loss to ensure that you are not losing too much for experimenting. But once you have done all of that and spent a few years trading in and out, you will realize that stop losses are quite detrimental to your performance.
      Though I am saying that I didn’t use stop losses, but what you need to understand is that 80% of my trades were using just 5% of the capital. This personally for me was a better money management strategy.
      When you take higher leverages you are forced to put very tight stops and possibly lose out on the potential of the trade. When you are lighter on a trade, you don’t get emotional and more likely are going to think through the trade, hence no need of price stops.

      My personal view!!! 🙂

      Best of luck

  58. Smart_trade says:

    Good post Nithin. Shows that successful trading requires a trader to do lot of things right apart from a winning method, and they include discipline,MM, position sizing and risk control and a winning mindset.

    Are you trading with any Algo/High Frequency trading systems ?

    Looking forward to interviews of many more traders from top 20 or 30 in the Zerodha challenge. It could be a mix of small cap traders, large cap traders, old traders and bold traders and old and bold traders( rare species though ), ladies making the mark in top 20/30 traders etc .

    Continue the good work as always,

    Smart_trade

  59. AMITh says:

    WHYZERODHA DONT GIVE TECHNICAL CALLS

  60. Pawan_Arora says:

    Great post Nithin. I m sure you are going to get tough questions on not putting stop loss topic :))