Regarding the HDFC securities online trading account, I would like to mention certain specific disadvantages of trading site, compared to ICICI direct website.
I am not a day-trader, but look to buy and sell shares over short(2-3 months) to long(2-3 years) periods.
In fact since I have been using both these sites(ICICI direct and HDFC security for my father) I can compare.
The ICICI direct is more user friendly and looks much better.
Other specific disadvantages:
- On HDFC sec. I am unable to trade on the exchange when the market is not open.
As a result I am forced to do the activity of buying selling during office hours,
On ICICI direct, I usually place orders in the night from my home computer. In case of ICICI direct, both options are available which is more convenient.
- The person in-charge of designing the HDFC securities website is not at all a market oriented person. He seems to be a technical geek who has no idea of’user friendly’. For every damn thing a new window opens. He seems to be obsessed with new windows and pop-ups. If I go to the website, the moment I click on’Trade now’ it will open a new window. Similarly if I click on’ Call and Trade’ another pop up will appear. If my computer has disabled pop-ups, then again I have to re-enable pop-ups if I have to see the things. If I want to view the order history again a new window will open in my browser. What is the need for these unnecessary complications?
Compare it with ICICI direct where I have to click on’order book’ and then on the same page give the start and end date and immediately it will show the order book. In fact on this same page order history can also be seen(but only after market hours).Similarly no new page opens if I want to trade on ICICI direct.
In HDFC securities, the moment I click on Order history a new window opens and then again it asks me dates and also exchange and all that information.
- In HDFC securities site, every day before trading I have to go and allocate funds(or’hold’ funds) for trading. Whereas in ICICI direct, once I allocate funds, it remains allocated till I de-allocate. That is convenient because every time I don’t have to keep going back to allocate funds before trading.