Kotak Securities and Zerodha are among the 15 Qualified Stock Brokers (QSBs) according to the NSE. The list contains other distinguished firms such as Angel One, 5Paisa, ICICI Direct, etc. There are about 15 companies on the list. There has to be one which is better than the rest. To find out the top broker, I will be comparing various trading platforms mentioned on the NSE’s list of top QSBs. Let’s get started with Zerodha and Kotak Securities!
Charts
If you’re using the mobile or web app of Zerodha, you have the option to use the ChartIQ or TradingView charts. The firm uses TradingView Pro APIs instead of free APIs. One of the top features of the Pro edition of TV is the multi-chart layout. You can thus see multiple charts instead of one on Zerodha. For some reason, the application doesn’t offer the volume profile indicator despite using the Pro application programming interface. You must enable the ChartIQ library to use this indicator.
Kotak Securities uses the TradingView charting platform. It doesn’t provide an option to switch to ChartIQ. The company has integrated the free edition of the charts with its mobile and web application. Now, they have switched to the Pro version (with some limitations).
GTT
Zerodha GTT is a feature many traders like to use. GTT not only limits the losses but also lets you focus on other things happening in the market by automatically closing the position when the price of the scrip has reached the target or SL price. Once you create a GTT order, you should keep an eye on it. Why is this so? Although the Good Till Triggered feature is very useful, sometimes it may not execute the order.
Users of Kotak Securities had to create and modify SL orders as the broker doesn’t provide the GTT order feature. The company launched the bracket order function in April 2023. BO is similar to the Good Till Triggered module of Zerodha. It accepts two things along with the “limit” price. The two things are SL and target points. They can be positive integers or decimals.
Kill Switch
Trading is very addictive. It doesn’t matter whether your positions have resulted in a profit or a big loss. If you’re in a loss, you will try to reduce the loss by executing new orders as no one loves to lose their hard-earned money. In other words, you will keep averaging the loss-making position. If you’re in profit, you can kill your earnings by taking one wrong trade. To control the trading adrenaline, there’s an option called “kill switch” in Zerodha. Kill Switch lets users deactivate the cash, derivatives, or commodities segments temporarily. When you activate it for a certain segment, you cannot trade in that segment until the next day.
Kotak Securities doesn’t let you temporarily disable a particular segment. You have to control to your emotions as there’s no other way that can stop you from trading.
Brokerage
The two brokers I’m discussing here send orders to the Indian stock, and commodity exchanges but the biggest difference between them is the brokerage. The former company started the flat “20” Rs order trend in India and due to this, it is known as a “discount broker”. KS will charge money only if you don’t sell the share or buy the scrip (in case you have shorted it) on the same day. For intraday trades, the company won’t charge a single Rupee. In simpler terms, if you place 1000 orders, you will have to 2000 Rs as a fee + GST to Zerodha. You don’t have to do so if Kotak Securities is your broker.
Performance
Zerodha has a highly reliable infrastructure. I used it for a year and never encountered any technical or payment-related issues with it. KS encountered serious technical glitches in December 2022 due to which I thought of switching to another broker and closing my account with them. Soon after the incident, the company explained the reason that caused the issue and promised to curb such issues in the future. I gave Kotak Securities another try. After a few weeks after the incident, the performance of KS improved significantly. The broker also started adding new features to their application. The performance of its web and mobile apps is now great.
Is Zerodha better than Kotak Securities or vice versa? No. I find KS better. It offers every feature its counterpart provides and also has a GTT feature in the form of Bracket Order.
