SAS Online is one of the more experienced discount brokers in India. Incorporated in 2013 as the discount broking arm of South Asian Stock Limited, SAS Online has grown at a rapid pace acquiring new customers at a fast speed.
As of August 2019, they have 300000+ customers spread across India with a daily turnover of 10000cr+ turnover accounting for more than 1% of the total market share. One of the major reasons for this growth is their focus on providing low brokerage, high-quality customer service and trading platforms which exceed the expectations of their clients.
Why Invest with SAS Online?
SAS Online is one of India’s most trusted online discount broker providing their customers with easy account opening, good to use trading software, cheap brokerage plans coupled with good customer service.
They are a depository participant with NSDL and allows its customers to trade in Equity cash, Intraday, futures and options, currency and commodities on NSE, BSE, and MCX.
The company originally started as a team of 3 people and gradually went on to grow in terms of clients and working professionals. They have a centralized office in Delhi and don’t have any branches thereby leveraging technology and saving costs on real estate, HR and other operational costs.
Online Trading Platforms
Trading Platforms have become a necessity for brokers and their customers these days and SAS Online is known to develop reliable trading platforms thanks to their team of developers.
SAS Online provides the ALPHA platform to its clients for trading purposes. ALPHA is a re-branded Omnesys NEST trading platform which is known for its reliable performance amongst traders in India. Here is a look at the features it has to offer:
ALPHA trader
Alpha Trader is the desktop-based or software-based version of the Alpha Platform. It comes in an executable .exe file which needs to be downloaded on your desktop to start trading. Here are some of the features of this platform:
- This platform has superior charting which includes 80+ Technical indicators to help you find patterns.
- Alpha Trader offers power, flexibility, reliability, and speed to meet a trader’s demand.
- You can browse through BSE, NSE, and MCX trading and quotes using a single window.
- You can set up Scripted Alerts that notify you of any emerging opportunities by comparing your ideas with the real market data in no time.
ALPHA Web
Alpha Web is a web-based trading platform to carry out lightning-fast trades on the web. You don’t need to install any software to access it, just click on the URL and enter your login credentials to start trading.n Here are some of its features:
- You can make use of keyboard shortcuts that you may be familiar with to execute orders or navigate through the platform.
- The availability of keyboard shortcuts allows clients to instantly make sales and purchases of securities as and when they desire.
- You can easily customize the features of various charts using Alpha Web, with over 80+ technical indicators.
- Set price alert, buy/sell scripts in a single click, add scripts in the watch list, different order types and many more advanced features for traders and investors.
Click here to start using their Alpha Web
ALPHA Mobile
Alpha Mobile is the mobile trading app introduced by SAS Online where customers can easily buy and sell securities using their mobile phones. The app is available on iOs and Android app stores. Here are some of the features of this app:
- Using Alpha Mobile, one can easily monitor stock quotes, perform chart analysis, place and execute orders, trade, and check your positions using your mobile phones.
- Get access to real-time market data of stock market indices like NSE and BSE along with access to advanced order types, which includes cover orders, aftermarket orders, and bracket orders etc.
- Alpha Mobile allows you to set alerts for price variation and order execution at the tip of your fingers.
- This application does not limit any of your activities and even allows you to transfer funds quickly through the app.
SAS Online Pricing
To open a trading account with SAS Online you have to pay a fixed one time fee and they also charge a yearly account maintenance fee of Rs.200 to maintain your account. Below we have explained about the SAS Online trading Account Opening Charges and AMC.
| Trading Account Opening Charges (One Time) | ₹200 |
| Trading Annual Maintenance Charges | 0 |
| Demat Account Opening Charges (One Time) | ₹200 |
| Demat Annual Maintenance Charges(Yearly Fee) | ₹200 |
SAS Online Brokerage Charges
SAS Online provides its customers with three types of plans to choose from according to which they will be charged a fixed brokerage fee. Here we have discussed in detail about SAS Online Brokerage Charges/Plans
Plan-1: SAS Online Brokerage Charges- Rs 9 per order trading plan
This plan offers a flat brokerage of Rs. 9 per executed order available to all types of investors. This plan also provides 20X leverage for Equity Cash and 5X leverage for MCX and Commodity segments. Here are the details of the plan:
| Segment | Brokerage Fee |
| Equity Delivery | ₹9 per executed order |
| Equity Intraday | ₹9 per executed order |
| Equity Futures | ₹9 per executed order |
| Equity Options | ₹9 per executed order |
| Currency Futures | ₹9 per executed order |
| Currency Options | ₹9 per executed order |
| Commodity Futures | ₹9 per executed order |
| Commodity Options | ₹9 per executed order |
Plan-2: SAS Online Brokerage Charges- Rs 999 trading plan
The discount broker is offering its clients to trade in commodities by paying a flat brokerage of Rs. 999. This plan also offers up to 5X leverage to trade in MCX. Here are the details of SAS Online Rs. 999 Online Brokerage Plan:
| Segment | Brokerage Fee |
| Monthly Fee (Fixed) | ₹999 |
| Equity Delivery | NA |
| Equity Intraday | NA |
| Equity Futures | NA |
| Equity Options | NA |
| Currency Futures | NA |
| Currency Options | NA |
| Commodity Futures | NA |
| Commodity Options | NA |
Plan-3: SAS Online Brokerage Charges -Rs.999 Equity trading plan
Pay Rs.999 monthly to trade in Equity, Cash, Futures and Options. This plan also provides 20X leverage for Equity Cash and 5X leverage for MCX and Commodity segments. Here are the details of the SAS Online Rs 999 Equity trading plan
| Segment | Brokerage Fee |
| Monthly Fee (Fixed) | ₹999 |
| Equity Delivery | ₹0 |
| Equity Intraday | ₹0 |
| Equity Futures | ₹0 |
| Equity Options | ₹0 |
| Currency Futures | ₹0 |
| Currency Options | ₹0 |
| Commodity Futures | ₹0 |
| Commodity Options | ₹0 |
SAS Online Transaction Charges
This is a combination of Exchange Turnover Charge and Trade clearing charge. Here are the details of SAS Online’s transaction charges below:
| Segment | Transaction Fee |
| Equity Delivery | 0.00325% |
| Equity Intraday | 0.00325% |
| Equity Futures | 0.00220% |
| Equity Options | 0.05500% |
| Currency Futures | 0.00120% |
| Currency Options | 0.04500% |
| Commodity | 0.00360% |
SAS Online Margin
Apart from flat-fee brokerage plans, SAS Online offers its customers with attractive margin facilities to its clients which allows them to trade many times over with the funds at their disposal. SAS Online offers various margin facilities for different trading segments. For eg, the margin facility for stocks is 20 times while in commodities it is 5 times which means that if you have Rs. 5,000 in your trading account you can buy up to 1 Lakh worth of stocks and 25,000 worth of commodities.
In addition to that, you can also avail margin facilities on your demat holdings but you need to transfer your holdings to the company’s account to avail that facility. Here are the details of SAS Online Margin:
| Trading Segment | SAS Online Margin |
| Equity Delivery | 1x (no margin) |
| Equity Intraday | 13x to 20x with CO (Intraday), 5x to 9x for MIS (Intraday) |
| Equity Future | 5x with CO (Intraday), 2x for MIS (Intraday) |
| Equity Options | 2x for selling 100% premium amount for buying |
| Currency Future | 2x trading margin |
| Currency Options | 2x for selling 100% premium amount for buying |
| Commodity Future | NA |
SAS Online Customer Care
The broker is renowned for providing better customer service to its customers than most of their peers. You can easily contact over email regarding any queries that you may have. They provide support for both offline and online trading to their customers. Here are some of the ways you can reach out to them:
- Social Media
- Website
However, the discount broker still doesn’t have a dedicated toll-free number to help out their customers and they don’t have any branches meaning they need to expand their customer support staff to ease any hassles the clients face.
Consumer Complaint Report
SAS Online consumer complaints report sheds light on the number of complaints registered against them in NSE by their customers. This report is a guide on how seriously the broker takes these complaints and works to resolve them.
The below report compares the number of active clients with the broker and the number of unsolved complaints against them. The higher the number the worse the broker is at handling their clients.
| Exchange | Financial Year | Number of Clients | Total Complaints |
| NSE | 2019-20 | 12,402 | 2 |
| NSE | 2018-19 | 12,445 | 11 |
| NSE | 2017-18 | 11,869 | 6 |
| NSE | 2016-17 | 9,384 | 5 |
| NSE | 2015-16 | 6,436 | 8 |
| NSE | 2014-15 | 4,091 | 9 |
| NSE | 2013-14 | 1,933 | 1 |
To access the complete list of complaints registered against brokers with NSE, just click on this link
Conclusion
SAS Online is one of the few discount brokers who provide very low brokerage charges coupled with a high margin which makes them suitable for traders with less capital. They are also known to provide a decent quality of trading platforms for their customers at no cost and they aim to provide good customer service on top of that. This has made them a trustable brand in the Indian discount broking space which hopefully they will build on.
However, they still don’t have any branches in any cities in India and operate out of their headquarters in Delhi which is an area of concern. Also, they are yet to offer any substantial educational material to their clients coupled with the need of better trading platforms and improvement on customer service which could help their clients be more successful.
Hope this SAS Online review will help readers who are curious about their products and services.
