ICICI Direct is a retail trading business which provides investment service from ICICI Securities. The broking house as a subsidiary of the ICICI Bank is a technology driven open conciliator working towards providing many financial trading based services to their respective traders and investors throughout the nation.
In today’s article we will converge all our focus on highlighting whether the financial giant is really worth the fame it commands or not. Click here petersburg car accident lawyers.
We will be dissecting their products and services, offers they extend eventually or regularly, brokerage they charge, other relevant charges they impose in terms of a varied number of taxes and most definitely, the platforms they have to offer to their respective clients for remote based trading.
Lets have a detailed ICICI Direct Review below –
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ICICI Direct Customer Ratings & Review
| ICICI Direct Ratings | |
| Experience | 8.8 / 10 |
| Trading Platform | 8.4 / 10 |
| Product & Services | 8.5 / 10 |
| Brokerage Charges | 7.9 / 10 |
| Research | 8.6 / 10 |
| Overall Rating | 8.44 / 10 |
| Star Rating | ★★★★☆ |
| Custumer Reviews | 4026 |
About ICICI Direct
| Overview | |
| Company Type | Public |
| Broker Type | Full Service Broker |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, India |
| MD & CEO | Vjay Chandok |
| Established Year | 1994 |
ICICI Direct is the 2nd largest retail stock brokering firm in India that offers a wide range of investment to the retail and institutional customers.
ICICI Securities is part of ICICI Group. The broking house provides these services to more than 20,00,000 customers through ICICI Direct.
Their website offers a complete suite of investment products such as Mutual Fund & IPO, Online Equity Trading, Fixed Deposit, Bond, Derivatives Trading, NCD, wealth products, Home Loans, etc. ICICIdirect.com is one of the most visited investment portals in India.
It provides a 3-in-1 account, which includes ICICI Bank Account, ICICI Demat Account and ICICI Trading Account offering for retail stock market investors in India. It is very simple and efficient way to invest in various financial instruments.
The customers can visit any of the ICICIDirect offices to get in-person help on financial products. ICICIDirect provides timely pay-in and pay-out and hassle-free settlements.
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ICICI Direct Brokerage Charges
| Brokerage Charge & Fees | |
| Delivery Trading | 0.55% |
| Intraday Trading | 0.03% – 0.05% |
| Commodity Options Trading | NA |
| Futures Trading | 0.03% – 0.05% |
| Equity Options Trading | Rs.35 – Rs.95 per Lot |
| Currency Futures Trading | 0.03% – 0.05% |
| Currency Options Trading | Rs.10 – Rs.35 per Lot |
| Minimum Brokerage | Rs.35 per Trade |
| Demat AMC Charges | Rs.500 per Annum |
| Trading AMC Charges | Rs.975 per Annum |
| Margin Money | Minimum Rs.20,000 |
| Brokerage Calculator | ICICI Direct Brokerage Calculator |
The aforementioned chart of contents has been deliberately positioned there in order to give you a distinctive and proper knowledge about the every sort of brokerage charge which is imposed by ICICI Direct up on their respective clientele.
As you can conclude from observing the table, they typically impose a brokerage fee worth 0.03 % – 0.05 % with respect to Currency Futures Trading, 0.03 % – 0.05 % with respect to Equity Futures Trading, 0.55 % with respect to Equity Delivery Trading, 0.03 % – 0.05 % with respect to Equity Intraday Trading.
Brokerage of Rs. 35 – Rs. 95 per lot with respect to Equity Options Trading, Rs. 10 – Rs. 35 per lot with respect to Currency Options Trading, Rs. 35 per trade in terms of Minimum Brokerage is also charged by the broker.
ICICIDirect charges Rs. 975 per annum with respect to the annual maintenance charges for Trading Account and Rs. 500 per annum with respect to the annual maintenance charges for Trading Account.
They also have made it mandatory for their respective traders as well as investors to maintain a minimum balance of Rs. 20,000 with respect to the Margin Money in order to trade seamlessly.
ICICIDirect Brokerage Plans
ICICI Direct offers 2-types of brokerage plans:
ICICI Direct I-Secure & Saver Brokerage Plan
The brokerage is based on trading volume that is, high brokerage for low volume and low brokerage for high volume trades. Those traders/investors who trade in high volumes and can benefit from low brokerage.
| Monthly Turnover in Crores | Delivery | Intraday | Futures | Currency Futures |
| Rs.20 Crores or more | 0.55% | 0.30% | .30% | 0.30% |
| Rs.10 Cr. – Rs.20 Cr. | 0.55% | 0.35% | .35% | 0.35% |
| Rs.5 Cr. – Rs. 10 Cr. | 0.55% | 0.40% | .40% | 0.40% |
| Rs.5 Cr. or Less | 0.55% | 0.45% | 0.50% | 0.50% |
Equity Option & Currency Options
| Lots per Month | Equity Options | Lots per Month | Currency Options | |
| Above 4800 | Rs.35 per Lot | Above 1500 | Rs.10 per Lot | |
| 2401 – 4800 | Rs.45 per Lot | 601 – 1500 | Rs.15 per Lot | |
| 1201 – 2400 | Rs.55 per Lot | 301 – 600 | Rs.20 per Lot | |
| 601 – 1200 | Rs.65 per Lot | 0 – 300 | Rs.25 per Lot | |
| 301 – 600 | Rs.75 per Lot | |||
| 51 – 300 | Rs.85 per Lot | |||
| 01 – 50 | Rs.95 per Lot |
ICICI Direct Prepaid Brokerage Plan
Prepaid plan is used by high volume traders who are certain about their trading volumes –
Equity Delivery, Intraday & Futures
| Prepaid Amount with GST | Delivery | Intraday | Futures |
| Rs.11,800 | 0.25% | 0.025% | 0.025% |
| Rs.29,500 | 0.22% | 0.022% | 0.022% |
| Rs.59,000 | 0.18% | 0.018% | 0.018% |
| Rs.118,000 | 0.15% | 0.015% | 0.015% |
| Rs.236,000 | 0.12% | 0.012% | 0.012% |
| Rs.354,000 | 0.09% | 0.009% | 0.009% |
Equity Options, Currency Futures & Options
| Prepaid Amount with GST | Equity Options | Currency Futures | Currency Options |
| Rs.11,800 | Rs.35 per Lot | 0.00% | Rs.0 per Lot |
| Rs.29,500 | Rs.30 per Lot | 0.00% | Rs.0 per Lot |
| Rs.59,000 | Rs.25 per Lot | 0.00% | Rs.0 per Lot |
| Rs.118,000 | Rs.20 per Lot | 0.00% | Rs.0 per Lot |
| Rs.236,000 | Rs.155 per Lot | 0.00% | Rs.0 per Lot |
| Rs.354,000 | Rs.10 per Lot | 0.00% | Rs.0 per Lot |
ICICI Direct Other Charges
| Other Charges | |
| Transaction Charges | 0.00280% of Total Turnover |
| STT | 0.0126% of Total Turnover |
| SEBI Turnover Charges | 0.0002% of Total Turnover |
| Stamp Duty | Depends on State (very minimal) |
| GST | 18% of (Brokerage + Transaction Charges) |
The chart of contents, as mentioned above has been deliberately placed there in order to inform you of all sorts of charges levied by ICICI Direct up on their respective traders and investors in the form of various taxes.
As you can clearly observe from the table, the company levies a charge worth 0.0002 % with respect to the total turnover value in terms of SEBI Turnover Charges, 0.00280 % with respect to the total turnover value in terms of Transaction Charges.
Apart from this, they charge 0.0126 % with respect to the total turnover value in terms of Securities Transaction Tax, 18 % with respect to the total turnover value in terms of GST and a minimal charge in terms of Stamp Duty with accordance to the state laws and requirements.
Few more ICICI Direct Charges are below –
ICICI Direct Depository Service Charges
| Resident Retail for Customers and Corporate | |
| Buy-Market and Off-Market | Nil |
| Dematerialization | Rs 3 for each extra certificate |
| Rs 50 for each request form | |
| Re-materialization | Rs 25 for every hundred securities or parts |
| thereof, subject to max. fee of Rs 300000 or | |
| flat fee of Rs 25 / certificate (whichever is higher) | |
| Closure of Account | Nil |
| Additional Account Statements | Rs 20 |
ICICI Direct Demat Account Opening Charges
| Demat Services | ICICI Direct |
| Depository Source | NSDL & CDSL |
| Account Opening Charges | Zero |
| Demat AMC Charges | Rs.500 per Annum |
| Trading AMC Charges | Rs.975 |
| Margin Money | Minimum Rs.20,000 |
| Offline to Online | No |
Being an open conciliator and a wealth trading subsidiary of the ICICI Group, ICICI Direct has always embraced any and every trader or investor interested in trading across a plethora of equity and derivative based assets throughout the country.
In fact, if you want to join them as a trader or as an investor, you can register yourself for opening up a Demat or Trading Account with them at no cost at all.
Nevertheless, the company does require you to pay a charge of Rs.975 per annum with respect to the annual maintenance charge for maintaining a Trading Account and a charge of Rs.500 per annum with respect to the annual maintenance charge for maintaining a Demat Account.
They also need you maintain a minimum balance of Rs.20,000 in your Demat or Trading Account in terms of minimum Margin Money.
ICICI Direct Offers
| Offers | |
| Free Demat Account | Yes |
| Free Trading Account | No |
| Discount on Brokerage | No |
| Trading Happy Hours | Yes |
| Flexible Brokerage Plans | Yes |
| 1 Month Brokerage Free | No |
| Holiday Offers | No |
| Referral Offers | Yes |
| Zero Brokerage for Loss Making Trades | Yes |
We have again deliberately put in the above chart of contents in its place so as to enable you to gain proper knowledge about all the offers that ICICI Direct comes up with either regularly or occasionally for their respective traders and investors across the nation.
As you can clearly observe, they have pretty interesting offers in relation with Trading Happy Hours, Free Demat Account, Zero Brokerage for any and every loss making Trade, Flexible Brokerage Plans and Referral Offers.
Nevertheless, you must also not neglect the part that concludes that the company does not come up with any offer whatsoever in terms of One month worth time for brokerage free trading, Holiday Offers or Discount on Brokerage Charges.
How to Open Demat Account with ICICI Direct?
For Online Stock Trading through ICICIDirect, you need to open 3 accounts: ICICI Bank Account, ICICI Direct Trading Account & ICICI Demat Account (DP Account).
ICICI Direct undoubtedly is amongst one of the finest and the most reputed full service brokerage houses in the entire nation who have been thriving for well over two decade in a row.
Considering this fact also tells us that you may get interested in joining them as a trader or perhaps as an investor. If that is the case, then this is all you will ever need to do:-
- Click on the green button underneath this section that specifically states ‘Open Demat Account’.
- This will pop up a new form on your computer screen.
- As soon as the from pops up, go through it carefully reading each line and paragraph.
- Once you have completed going through the entire form, fill it up with every required information correctly.
- After you have completed filling up the form, you will be needed to upload a few documents in order to conclude the KYC verification procedure.
- This particular step will require you to have Aadhar Card, PAN Card, and a photograph so as to verify your age, identity and address.
- After you conclude all the above steps, you will be contacted by an authorized personnel on behalf of ICICI Direct who will take care of the last few verification procedures.
- You can expect to gain complete and hassle free access to your new account with the company in a matter of a few hours as soon as you have correctly completed all the steps as mentioned above.
Why open ICICI Direct Trading Account?
In accordance to the government of India and several laws that govern the overall wealth trading industry of the nation, trading within Indian Territory across any segments of equity or derivative based assets requires a person to have at least a Demat or a Trading Account.
However, there are far more compelling reasons for you to consider that may help you out to make up your mind in order to register yourself with ICICI Direct as a trader or as an investor. Some of them are:-
- It has 3-in-1 account that integrates your banking, broking and demat accounts. This is truly online trading environment.
- Many other online trading companies in India which require transferring money to the towards deposits or broker’s pool. But at ICICIDirect you can manage your own demat and bank accounts through same portal ICICIdirect.com.
- Online investments in IPOs, GOI Bonds, Mutual Funds and Postal Savings Schemes all from one website.
- General Insurance is can also be available from ICICI Lombard.
- Trading is available in both BSE and NSE.
- Low bandwidth website is available for slow internet connection or for trading from mobile devices.
- You can buy or sell limit orders in equity scripts through myGTC options.
ICICI Direct Products & Services
The various products & services offered by the broking house are –
ICICI Direct Product Offerings
| Products | |
| Equity Trading | Yes |
| Commodity Trading | No |
| Currency Trading | Yes |
| Options | Yes |
| Futures | Yes |
| Mutual Funds | Yes |
| Forex | Yes |
| Banking | Yes |
| SIP | Yes |
| Insurance | Yes |
The aforementioned chart has again been deliberately positioned there so as to give you a proper information about all the products ICICI Direct, as a full service trading and brokerage firm has to offer to you.
As you can see, they have exclusive products with respect to Insurance, Equity Trading, Forex, Banking, Futures Trading, Systematic Investment Plans, Options Trading, Mutual Funds and Currency Trading.
However, they do not extend ant sort of support or service or deal in any product based up on Commodities Trading.
Services offered by ICICIDirect
| Services | |
| Demat Services | R |
| Trading Services | R |
| 3 in 1 Acount | R |
| Intraday Services | R |
| IPO Services | R |
| Stock Recommendations | R |
| Robo Advisory | R |
| PMS | R |
| Trading Institution | R |
| Trading Exposure | Upto 16x |
Statistically speaking, ICICI Direct, as a full service proving trading and brokerage house provides every considerable service related to financial trading in India.
As you can conclude after looking at the aforementioned chart of contents, they typically provide services across Portfolio Management Services, Initial Public Offerings Services, Demat Services, Trading Services, Intraday Services, 3 in 1 Account Services, Stock Recommendations, Robo Advisory and Trading Institution.
Furthermore, they provide all of the aforementioned services with up to sixteen times the average trading exposure provided by other firms.
ICICI Direct Research & Advisory
| Research & Advisory | |
| Fundamental Reports | Yes |
| Research Reports | Yes |
| Company Reports | Yes |
| Annual Reports | Yes |
| Company Stock Review | Yes |
| Free Stock Tips | No |
| IPO Reports | Yes |
| Top Picks | No |
| Daily Market Review | Yes |
| Monthly Reports | Yes |
| Weekly Reports | Yes |
| Offline Advisory | Yes |
| Relationship Manager | Yes |
By looking at the table of contents provided above, one can easily conclude the fact that ICICI Direct takes Research and Advisory very seriously for their respective traders and investors.
As a matter of fact, they every possible support with respect to Research Reports, Annual Reports, Fundamental Reports, Company Reports, Relationship manager, Weekly reports, Offline Advisory, Monthly Reports, Daily Market Review, Company Stock Review and Initial Public Offerings Reports.
However, they do not provide anything with relation to Free Stock Tips or Top Picks.
ICICI Direct Exposure / Leverage / Margin / Limit
| Exposure / Leverage | |
| Delivery | Upto 8x |
| Intraday | Upto 16x |
| Futures | Upto 8x |
| Options | Upto 5x |
| Currency Futures | Upto 8x |
| Currency Options | Upto 8x |
| Commodities | NA |
| Margin Calculator | ICICI Direct Margin Calculator |
The aforementioned table of contents has been provided for you to acquire information about every sort of leverage you can expect out of ICICI Direct when trading with them as a trader or as an investor.
As you can clearly observe from the table of content above, they offer a huge leverage of up to eight times the average exposure on Delivery Trading & up to sixteen times the average exposure on Intraday Trading.
They also offer up to eight times the average exposure on Currency Futures Trading, up to five times the average exposure on Equity options Trading and up to eight times the average exposure on Currency Options Trading.
This should be enough for you to get an overall understanding of what kind of exposure to expect from the well-recognized brokerage firm.
However, if you still want any more and accurate information on the leverage you may expect over a particular set of shares you are looking forward to trade, then you must definitely refer to the company’s dedicated margin calculator tool which goes by the name of ICICI Direct Margin Calculator.
ICICI Direct Trading Platforms
ICICI Direct relies a lot on technology to deliver the optimum services to their respective traders and investors throughout the nation.
As a matter of fact, they have deliberately evolved as a full service trading and brokerage firm over the past twenty five years.
| Trading Platforms | |
| Desktop Platform – Windows | Yes |
| Desktop Platform – Mac | Yes |
| Desktop Browser Platform | Yes |
| Mobile Site Platform | Yes |
| Android App Platform | Yes |
| iOS App Platform | Yes |
| Windows App Platform | No |
| Other Mobile OS Platform | No |
| Real time Updates | Yes |
| Portfolio Details | Yes |
| Online MF Buy | Yes |
| News Flash | Yes |
| Research Reports | Yes |
| Easy Installation | Yes |
| Global Indices | Yes |
| Stock Tips | Yes |
| Personalized Advisory | Yes |
| Interactive Charts | Yes |
| Live Markets | Yes |
| SMS Alerts | Yes |
| Email Alerts | Yes |
| Multi Account Management | Yes |
Here is a glimpse of the kind of platform they have to offer to their respective traders and investors in order to enable them to trade remotely:-
ICICI Direct Web Trading Platform – Browser based Platform
The very website of ICICI Direct, that is icicidirect.com acts as the web based version for their dedicated and home (custom) built remote trading platform.
The web app is a HTML based development that uses browser to function as a remote based trading platform across a number of different devices like computers (Windows), computers (Mac) and mobile phones.
This software has been developed with precision and provides the following feature to the respective users:-
- The web app enables respective users to access the world of trading through live streaming quotes from across several exchanges and indices throughout the nation in real time.
- It enables the respective users to bring into use the Cash Trading feature that allows the users to take delivery of shares or money.
- Web application enables the respective users to bring into use the Trend Scanner feature which is a tool with the ability to track Intraday price movements across several exchanges and indices in order to locate the trending scrips by using a number of pre-defined technical parameters.
- This platform enables the users to bring into use the Live Scanner feature that is basically an integrated tool with the ability to track new highs and new lows for stocks with real time price movement across various exchanges and indices.
More about ICICI Direct Web Application
- The web app enables the respective users to bring into use the Snap View feature that allows the users to get a complete image of any particular scrip with exact and appropriate information on Chart, Gross Delivery Data, Market Depth, Peer Group etc.
- Browser based platform enables the respective users to bring into use another integrated tool that goes by the name of ‘Market @ Finger Tips’. This is a flexible tool that can fetch the scrips with respect to a set of pre-defined searches including bargain buys, highest yielding stocks in Sensex, top profitable companies, top revenue companies, momentum stocks & more.
- It comes equipped with a number of analytical tools like the Advanced Decline Ratio which is a market breadth indicator meant to compare all the total number of stocks that are trading positive with the total number of stocks that are trading negative with respect to their previous day’s closing prices.
- This web platform has a feature called the Heat Map which is basically a tabular representation of stocks across a group or an index in accordance to their price based movement with respect to the previous day’s closing price.
- The web app enables the respective users to access Moving Averages which are supposed to be the most common variables to be used for the sake of technical analyses. These basically average the price of a particular stock across a specified time frame.
- It comes loaded with a default setting that enables the respective users to access most frequently used widgets using their respective icons that are present within the toolbar section on the top of the screen.
- This application allows the respective users to customize multiple widgets in accordance to their own conveniences. The users can also opt to auto-hide these widgets anywhere within the web app.
ICICI Direct Trade Racer – ICICI Direct Trading Terminal
ICICI Direct has developed their own version of a terminal based remote trading platform that can be accessed through either a Windows based computer or a Mac based computer.
This software has been developed with precision and provides the following feature to the respective users:-
- The software enables respective users to access the world of trading through live streaming quotes from across several exchanges and indices throughout the nation in real time.
- Trade Racer enables the respective users to bring into use the Cash Trading feature that allows the users to take delivery of shares or money.
- Trading Terminal enables the respective users to bring into use the Snap View feature that allows the users to get a complete image of any particular scrip with exact and appropriate information on Chart, Gross Delivery Data, Market Depth, Peer Group etc.
- It comes equipped with a number of analytical tools like the Advanced Decline Ratio which is a market breadth indicator meant to compare all the total number of stocks that are trading positive with the total number of stocks that are trading negative with respect to their previous day’s closing prices.
- Software enables the respective users to access Moving Averages which are supposed to be the most common variables to be used for the sake of technical analyses.
- It comes loaded with a default setting that enables the respective users to access most frequently used widgets using their respective icons that are present within the toolbar section on the top of the screen.
- Trade Racer allows the respective users to customize multiple widgets in accordance to their own conveniences. The users can also opt to auto-hide these widgets anywhere within the software.
ICICI Direct Mobile Trading App
The Full Service Broker also provide their respective traders and investors with the Android based mobile trading platform known as ICICI Direct Mobile that comes loaded with the following features:-
- ICICI Direct App enable the traders to commence Equity based trading across several exchanges and indices.
- It enable the traders to commence Futures and Options based trading across several exchanges and indices.
- This App enable the traders to keep a track of their respective portfolios in real time.
- The Trading App enable the traders to keep a track of the stock market in real time through quotes across several exchanges and indices and a lot more.
You can access the Android app within Google’s Play Store or Apple App Store with over 1 lakh downloads and over fifteen thousand ratings with an average of 3.4 stars. Considering the rating and the reviews by the users, this app does need some update.
ICICI Direct Customer Care
| Customer Support | |
| Dedicated Dealer | Yes |
| Offline Trading | No |
| Online Trading | Yes |
| 24*7 Support | No |
| Email Support | Yes |
| Chat Support | No |
| Toll Free Number | No |
| Branches | 226 |
You can easily conclude by looking at the aforementioned table of content that ICICI Direct has a total of 226 branches located throughout the country that provide support regarding a Dedicated Dealer, Online Trading and Email.
Nevertheless, they do not provide any support with respect to Chat, Offline Trading or 24*7 Support and also do not have any toll free number for their respective clients to access.
ICICI Direct Complaints (Current Year)
| Complaints (Current Year) | |
| Lodged in BSE | 225 |
| Resolvd in BSE | 215 |
| Lodged in NSE | 196 |
| Resolved in NSE | 182 |
As of the last year, ICICI Direct received a total of two hundred and twenty five complaints against them in the BSE and one hundred and ninety six complaints against them within the NSE.
However, approximately two hundred and fifteen and one hundred and eighty two complaints against them has already been resolved within the BSE and the NSE respectively.
ICICI Direct Disadvantages
Although considered amongst one of the major and reputed stock brokerage houses within the nation, ICICI Direct still has a few problems that happen to be troublesome for most of their respective traders and investors.
As a matter of fact even you should be aware of these before deciding to join them:-
- The brokerage is higher and non-negotiable.
- It doesn’t offer commodity trading so you cannot trade at MCX or NCDEX.
- The Demat Account and the Bank Account has to be opened with ICICI Bank only.
- ICICI minimum brokerage charge is Rs 35 per trade.
- ICICI charges Rs 75 per month fee for using Trade Racer if the customer pays brokerage less than Rs 750/month.
- It is very difficult to trade in penny stocks because ICICI charges flat Rs 0.05 per share brokerage on stocks quoting upto Rs 10.
- ICICI Direct also charges Rs 25 per calling for call & trade after first 20 free-calls in a month.
ICICI Direct Conclusion
The banking broker has definitely worked their way to achieve the fame they boast today and they most definitely have one of the best trading institutions throughout the country.
Nevertheless, ICICIDirect still need to take care of a few shortcomings.
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