Trade Smart Online is a discount broker based out of Mumbai offering their services in stock, currency and commodity trading segments.
Trade Smart is the discount broking arm of the VNS Finance who itself can be considered a full-service broker with over 20 years of experience in this field.
The broker is known to offer trading in Equity, currency derivatives, commodity and depository service segments to its customers. It has a client base of around 21,000 and claims to do a daily turnover of Rs. 2500 crore.
The broker is known to provide low brokerage plans for its users with various variations like flat fee brokerage plans, percentage-based plans, zero brokerage plans, etc.
We will discuss these plans in detail later in this review. Now let’s have a look at the trading software on offer from Trade Smart Online:
Trade Smart Online Trading Platforms
Most of the trading platforms on offer from Trade Smart Online are supported by 3rd party organizations but they have built an in-house trading application called SPIN along with its mobile app. Let’s have a look at these platforms in detail:
NEST Trader
A comprehensive trading solution developed and supported by Omnesys Technologies, especially for heavy traders, NEST is an installable software that traders can install on their laptops or desktop computers. This platform offers a quick trading speed on top of features like:
- 2-level authentication
- A highly secure and encrypted trading environment
- Real-time access to trends and quotes of the market
- Allows placing, modifying, and canceling orders
- Allows access to orders, trades, and positions on a single platform
- Multiple orders including bracket orders(BO) and cover orders(CO)
- Create multiple watchlists to monitor specific stocks
- Instant bank transfer facility
The trading platform is also being licensed by many other discount brokers but has some issues with it that need to be addressed like the application is bulky and can sometimes take a long time to load causing a delay in placing orders.
Also, it is difficult for new traders to understand the various functionalities of this app and can be simplified a bit more.
NSE Now
A web-based platform, developed and maintained by National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), is offered by Trade Smart Online under a subscription license.
Traders don’t need to download or install and can access this platform from any web browser to use the services offered by this broker just by clicking on a link.
Offering a flexible and hassle-free experience, the platform allows direct access to NSE servers. Some features of this platform include:
- Ability to modify notifications and alerts as per individual preferences and trading patterns
- Notifications can be received through email or SMS
- Access to advanced technical charts supporting better judgments before investment or trade.
Customers can also NSE’s mobile application and trade on the go without any hassles as it is a very user-friendly app.
You can download the app by clicking here.
SINE Web
SINE Web is a browser-based trading software developed in-house by Trade Smart Online’s team of developers.
This software offers all the essential features required for faster trading and trend analysis. Here are the major features of this platform:
- Place multiple order types like BO and CO
- Various indicators help in trend analysis and customized charting tools.
- Access to multiple trade reports
- Fast funds transfer facility
- Create multiple watchlists and set price alerts of your favorite stocks.
- Create your own portfolio
- Trade inequities, currency, and commodities through one platform
SINE Mobile App
SINE Mobile App allows customers to trade from anywhere in the world provided they have a good internet connection. Here are some of the features of this app:
- Trading across segments such as equity, currency, commodities through a mobile app.
- Multiple types of market scanners and F&O strategies available in the app.
- Create multiple watchlists and set price alerts.
- Place Bracket Orders, Cover Orders and After Market Orders.
- Advance charting to help you identify trading opportunities.
- This app provides various indicators for detailed analysis like RSI, Moving Average, MACD, Bollinger Bands, etc.
- Instant funds transfer facility.
To download this app click here
Trade Smart Online Pricing
When it comes to pricing Trade smart Online is on par with its competitors and provides flat fee and monthly brokerage plans. Below we have discussed the account opening charges, brokerage plans and transaction charges on offer by the discount broker.
Account Opening and Maintenance Charges
Here are the details of the account opening charges being levied by the discount broker:
| 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) | ₹300 |
Trade Smart Online Brokerage Plans
Value Plan
The discount broker has various brokerage plans depending on the user preference and their trading habits. If you are a small-time trader and don’t trade in large volumes, then a Value Plan is more suitable to your needs. Here are the details of this plan:
| Segment | Brokerage Fee |
| Equity Delivery | 0.01% |
| Equity Intraday | 0.01% |
| Equity Futures | 0.01% |
| Equity Options | ₹7 Per Lot |
| Currency Futures | 0.01% |
| Currency Options | ₹7 Per Lot |
| Commodity Futures | 0.01% |
| Commodity Options | ₹7 Per Lot |
Power Plan
This plan is for traders who trade in higher volume. Here are the details of the plan:
| Segment | Brokerage Fee |
| Equity Delivery | ₹15 per executed order |
| Equity Intraday | ₹15 per executed order |
| Equity Futures | ₹15 per executed order |
| Equity Options | ₹15 per executed order |
| Currency Futures | ₹15 per executed order |
| Currency Options | ₹15 per executed order |
| Commodity Futures | ₹15 per executed order |
| Commodity Options | ₹15 per executed order |
Infinity Plan
This is a plan which offers unlimited trades for a monthly subscription fee and is suitable for anyone who trades constantly for a long period of time. Here are the details of the brokerage plan:
| Segment | Transaction Fee |
| Equity Delivery | ₹3999 monthly |
| Equity Intraday | ₹3999 monthly |
| Equity Futures | ₹3999 monthly |
| Equity Options | ₹3999 monthly |
| Currency Futures | ₹1999 monthly |
| Currency Options | ₹1999 monthly |
| Commodity | ₹3999 monthly |
Transaction Charges
Apart from brokerage and account opening and maintenance fees, customers also have to pay for transaction charges, here are the details of the same charged by Trade Smart Online:
| Segment | Transaction Fee |
| Equity Delivery | 0.0035% |
| Equity Intraday | 0.0035% |
| Equity Futures | 0.0024% |
| Equity Options | 0.0715% |
| Currency Futures | 0.0017% |
| Currency Options | 0.0600% |
| Commodity | 0.0039% |
Trade Smart Online Margin
Here are the details of the margin plans on offer from Trade Smart Online:
| Segment | Margin |
| Delivery | Upto 4X |
| Intraday | Upto 30X |
| Equity Futures | Upto 5X |
| Equity Options | Upto 5X |
| Currency Futures | Upto 3X |
| Currency Options | Upto 3X |
| Commodities | Upto 5X |
Trade Smart Online is also known in the market for its high exposure limits for intraday trades. The exposure facility allows customers to trade many times over the funds available in their account.
TSO offers a leverage limit as high as 30x for some trades. So, if you have Rs 10,000 in your account then you can trade up to Rs 3,00,000 in some cases.
TSO also provides Margin Against Shares facility. This facility allows you to get an exposure limit against shares held in your demat account. The collateral for your shares is calculated at a hair-cut.
The total limit provided under Margin Against Shares (MAS) is subjected to the Cash to the Collateral ratio of 40:60.
They also provide a facility called Equimax which allows you take leverage of up to 4 times only for the NSE Cash segment and has an annual subscription charge of ₹1000 to avail this facility and your account needs to be settled at least once in a quarter.
Trade Smart Online Customer Service
Trade Smart Online provides only a limited number of communication channels to resolve any customer complaints. Here is a list of them below:
- Chat
- Website
- Toll-free number
In order to be a successful discount broker, TSO needs to be able to retain its customers by providing them with better customer service.
This, however, is not an area where they excel and there needs to be significant work done in order to provide their customers with a better experience by resolving their queries in a timely and efficient manner.
Educational Material
Before you start your career in trading it is important to understand the basics of investing in the markets.
Trade Smart Online has taken a good initiative in this regards by providing online classes on youtube where they actively teach new techniques for finding patterns and indicators to help beginners in learning the basics of the stock market. They also provide detailed videos on how to use their trading platforms efficiently.
If you are interested in learning more about the basics of investing, kindly check out our knowledge series.
Consumer Complaint Report
This report gives an indication of the quality of customer service being provided by Trade Smart Online by comparing the number of complaints which are still pending with NSE with the total number of clients they have had over the years.
Looking at the table we can see a spike in the number of client complaints till the year 2018 which has gone down considerably in the year 2019 which indicates more focus on providing better customer service from the discount broker. Here are the details of the report:
| Exchange | Financial Year | Number of Clients | Total Complaints |
| NSE | 2019-20 | 22,085 | 1 |
| NSE | 2018-19 | 21,722 | 11 |
| BSE | 2017-18 | 5,873 | 1 |
| NSE | 2017-18 | 19,469 | 12 |
| NSE | 2016-17 | 11,995 | 6 |
| NSE | 2015-16 | 9,644 | 5 |
| NSE | 2014-15 | 7,542 | 7 |
| NSE | 2013-14 | 4,223 | 4 |
To access the complete list of complaints registered against brokers with NSE, just click on this link
Conclusion
This Trade Smart Online Review highlights the fact that they are one better discount brokers in this ever-growing field. But, it is also important to note that they need to improve in a lot of areas if they are to become one of the best discount brokers in India.
Currently, they don’t provide any proprietary technology in the form of trading platforms which are of really good quality, nor is there customer service team one of the best in India.
Hence in order to be one of the big players, it is important to provide better products on top of the low brokerages and high margin plans being offered by them which has become a theme among most discount brokers.
