Lesson 9 of 13 · Free
Contents
- 1 The Trading Terminal
- 1.1 What the trading terminal really is
- 1.2 The market watch
- 1.3 Bid, ask, and the order book
- 1.4 Order types
- 1.5 Order validity
- 1.6 The contract note
- 1.7 Order books, trade books, position books
- 1.8 Order Types Every Investor Must Know
- 1.9 Product Types and What They Mean for Margin
- 1.10 FAQs — Terminal Best Practices
The Trading Terminal
Inside the broker’s app. Market watch, order book, bid-ask, the five order types, contract notes and position books.
What the trading terminal really is
Whether you use Zerodha Kite on the web, Groww on the phone, or ICICI Direct’s desktop platform, you’re using a trading terminal. A terminal is software that displays live market data and lets you place, modify, and cancel orders. Beneath the UI, all terminals do the same thing: talk to the exchange via FIX protocol or its broker-specific equivalents.
Every terminal has roughly the same four sections — Market Watch, Order entry, Order book, Trade book. Learn the layout once and you’ll find your way around any platform.
The market watch
This is your live ticker. You add stocks you care about, and the terminal streams their last traded price (LTP), percentage change, volume, and sometimes additional fields like 52-week high/low, bid/ask, market cap. You can have multiple watchlists — large caps in one, small caps in another, portfolio holdings in a third.
The terminal also shows the depth (the order book) for the stock you’ve selected, plus quick charts.
Bid, ask, and the order book
The bid is the highest price buyers are currently willing to pay. The ask is the lowest price sellers are willing to accept. The difference — say, ₹2,840.00 bid and ₹2,840.50 ask — is the spread.
The order book shows the top 5 bids and top 5 asks, with quantities at each level. If you want to buy a stock right now, the cheapest you can do it is the best ask. If you want to sell, the most you can get is the best bid. If your order is bigger than what’s available at the best level, the terminal will “walk the book” — fill some at each successive level.
Order types
- Market order. Buy or sell at the best available price right now. Fastest, but no price guarantee — useful for liquid stocks.
- Limit order. Buy or sell only at a specified price or better. The order sits in the order book until matched or you cancel.
- Stop-loss (SL) order. Triggers a sell limit order when the stock falls to your trigger price. Hardcodes a maximum loss.
- Stop-loss market (SL-M). Same trigger logic, but executes as a market order once triggered. Faster but slippage-prone.
- Cover orders / Bracket orders. Bundled stop-loss + target combinations. Most discount brokers have removed these following SEBI margin reforms; some retain them in specific segments.
Order validity
- Day. Order is valid until end of session today. If not executed, cancels automatically.
- IOC (Immediate or Cancel). Order executes whatever can be filled immediately; rest cancelled. Useful for fast markets.
- GTT (Good Till Triggered). An order that sleeps until your trigger price is hit; then placed as a fresh limit order. Discount brokers have made this popular for retail.
The contract note
End of every trading day, your broker emails a contract note: a legal document listing every trade you did — security, quantity, price, brokerage, statutory charges (STT, exchange fees, GST, stamp duty, SEBI fees). Read it. Reconcile against your order book. Disputes have a 7-day window before the trade is considered confirmed.
Order books, trade books, position books
- Order book — every order you placed, with status (open, executed, cancelled, rejected).
- Trade book — only executed trades.
- Position book — current open positions, especially for intraday and F&O. Different from your demat holdings, which only show delivery-based holdings.
Cement what you just learned
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Order Types Every Investor Must Know
The order ticket on every Indian trading terminal (Kite, Pro, Smallcase, ICICI Direct) offers a handful of order types. Choosing the right one prevents costly mistakes:
| Order Type | Behaviour | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Market | Executes immediately at best available price | Urgent exit; risk of slippage in illiquid stocks |
| Limit | Executes only at specified price or better | Default for entries; protects against slippage |
| Stop-Loss (SL) | Triggers limit/market order at stop price | Risk management; mandatory for leveraged trades |
| Stop-Loss Market (SL-M) | Triggers market order at stop price | Ensures exit; risk of bad fill |
| Cover Order (CO) | Combined entry + mandatory SL | Higher intraday leverage; SEBI restricted certain combos |
| Bracket Order (BO) | Combined entry + SL + target | Discontinued for cash since Sep 2021 |
| GTT (Good-Till-Triggered) | Order sits until trigger condition met (up to 1 year) | Set-and-forget entries; replaces watchlist-watching |
Product Types and What They Mean for Margin
Indian brokers classify trades into product types that determine settlement and margin: CNC (Cash and Carry — delivery, no leverage, no time decay), MIS (Margin Intraday Square-off — high leverage, must close by 3:15 PM or auto-squared), and NRML (Normal — carry F&O positions overnight at SPAN+Exposure margin). Choosing the wrong product type can cost you: an MIS trade you forgot to close gets auto-squared with brokerage; an NRML F&O trade attracts margin call if price moves against you.
FAQs — Terminal Best Practices
Why do my orders sometimes get rejected?
Common reasons: insufficient margin (most frequent), price outside circuit limits, broker’s risk management blocking the stock, or SEBI ban on the contract.
What is AMO (After Market Order)?
Place orders between 4:00 PM and 8:57 AM next morning. They queue for pre-open at 9:00 AM. Useful for working investors who cannot watch the market live.
Should I use GTT or just place a limit order each morning?
GTT is more efficient — set once, lasts up to a year. Limit orders expire end of day. GTT works for long-horizon entries and stop-losses on delivery holdings.
The Hidden Costs of Trading and How to Minimise Them
Beyond explicit brokerage, every trade carries: STT (Securities Transaction Tax — 0.1% on delivery buy and sell, 0.025% on intraday sell, 0.0625% on options sell), exchange transaction charges (~₹0.345 per lakh on NSE cash), SEBI turnover fee (0.0001%), stamp duty (0.015% on buy), and GST 18% on brokerage + transaction charges. For a ₹1,00,000 round-trip on equity delivery: STT ₹200, exchange ₹0.69, SEBI ₹0.2, stamp ₹15, GST ~₹0.13 = ~₹216 total or 0.22% all-in. For intraday F&O, the cost can be 3-5x higher due to STT on options sell side. The single biggest hidden cost is SLIPPAGE — paying ₹0.10 above the visible bid/ask on illiquid stocks. Stick to liquid names (NIFTY 100 cash; near-the-money NIFTY/Bank Nifty options) where slippage stays below 0.05%.
Backups, Audit Trails, and the Forgotten Password
Every trading platform records orders, executions, and modifications with timestamps. If you ever dispute a trade, your broker is required to produce the audit trail within 7 days. Maintain your own backup: download the daily Trade Confirmation PDF and monthly Statement of Holdings (P&L Report) to a local folder. SEBI mandates broker-side retention for 5 years; your personal archive is your protection beyond that. Also enable two-factor authentication on every trading account — single-password compromises are the leading cause of unauthorised retail trades. The 2-FA setup takes 5 minutes and prevents 99% of account takeover attempts.
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