Understanding what is the minimum money I need to start stock trading in India: Whenever a newbie enters the work of the stock market, the biggest question that comes to his/her mind is that What should be the ideal amount to start investing in the Stock Market or What is the minimum money I need to start stock trading in India. Basically, they want to trade or invest in share market, but do not know how much to invest.
In this post, we are going to discuss what is the minimum amount that one needs to invest in stock market. By the end of this post, you’ll be able to figure out how much money you need and what’s the minimum requirement to trade or invest in share market. Let’s get started.
What is The Minimum Money I Need to Start Stock trading in India?
The shortest answer to all these questions is that there is no minimum money required to start investing in the stock market in India. You can buy stocks for even less than Rs 10 also.
(Fig: Stock Prices Updated till May 2021 | Trade Brains Portal)
It totally depends on which stock you find interesting enough to trade or invest. Indian stock exchanges, BSE & NSE, have a number of stocks pricing less than even Rs 10. You don’t need to have thousands or lakhs to start trading in India. Any amount from which you can buy a stock is decent enough to start trading, no minimum money required to start trading in the Indian stock market.
Here is a list of a few popular companies whose stock prices are less than Rs 100 (at the time of writing this post).
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You can easily invest in any of these companies. Funny, the stock prices of these companies are even less than the Ola or Uber ride fare that you take in your hometown. Still, people speculate that buying stocks are expensive. In addition, you can also find a complete list of stocks listed on Indian stock exchanges here.
Overall, the answer to the question of ‘what is the minimum money I need to start stock trading in India?’ is that there is no minimum money limit required for starting stock trading in India. However, is this all that you wanted to learn from the topic of the post? I don’t think so. Let’s move forward to understand a few more things that a beginner should know.
Ideal Amount for Beginners to Start Investing or Trading
The next big question should be then ‘How much should I invest in the stock initially if there is no minimum money I need to start stock trading?’.
The answer is that if you are new to the market and still in the learning phase, it is always recommended to start small. Invest as low as possible and focus on learning. Anything between Rs 500- Rs 2,000 is good enough. You really don’t want to lose thousands of money at the start of your investment journey and then angrily leave and promise to yourself that you won’t ever return to the market.
But, this doesn’t mean that you should take this amount as a stern rule for your initial investment. Suppose, you found a stock, which is a bit costlier, say Rs 2500 per share. Here, you have done your homework, read the stock fundamentals, and are confident that the stock will give a good return in the future, then, you should go for it. Anyways, as a thumb rule for beginners, anything between Rs 500- Rs 2,000 can be used as the first stock market investment amount.
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The best advantage of this thumb rule is that you won’t lose too much if things don’t work out as you imagined. Maybe, you misinterpreted the stock or did the fundamental study wrong, or the stock price fell due to some bad fortune. Still, you won’t be affected too much financially by the loss. Nonetheless, this investment will teach you a few lessons. As the saying goes: “Failures are the best teachers.”
A Few Other Points to Know
— Your First investment will teach you a lot
From your first investment, you will learn a lot. Remember, it’s not always about winning. You should always remember this famous quote ‘Sometimes you win, & sometimes you learn’. Further, from your first investment, you will learn more important things. You will learn what things to do and moreover, you will learn what things not to do.
Besides, losing small money won’t affect your morale and you can come back in the game again, and next time even more prepared and informed. On the other hand, if you win i.e. the stock performed well, then congratulations. You have done a good job!
Your first investment teaches you a great lesson if it is a failure. On the other hand, if your first stock is a winner, it gives tremendous joy and becomes a memory for a lifetime. Both ways, you’re gonna receive something. Either a lesson or joy.
In my case, I bought three stocks during my first investment. Out of three, two performed well and the third underperformed for three continuous months. Although the overall portfolio was in profit, still the returns were not as good as I expected. Therefore, I sold the third stock after the third month. (Quick spoiler: The third stock became a multi-bagger in the next two years. But, I don’t have any regrets.)
For beginners, I will suggest following their stock portfolio for three-five months before investing heavily in the market. The initial big profits on your stock might give you great confidence to keep buying additional stocks. But you shouldn’t be greedy at that moment. You must remember that for beginners, it’s more important to learn how to do value investing, that to earn money. And once you have learned the basics, the game is yours.
Also read: How to create your Stock Portfolio?
— Basic Charges and One-time Payments
Before we move forward, you need to know that Demat and Trading accounts are required to trade or invest in stocks. For both these accounts, account opening charges and Annual maintenance charges (AMC) will be applicable. The account opening charges can be somewhere between Rs 200-500 (one-time payment) and AMC can be Rs 300-600 per year for most stock brokers with which you open your account. Therefore, be ready for these charges.
Further, there are also some additional charges while buying a stock online and the stock buyer/sellers have to pay them. They are generally less than even 0.5% of the amount of the transaction. The additional charges are brokerage charges, transaction charges, GST, etc. Therefore, you also have to keep these charges in mind during buying a stock. Although these are a very small amount, still they will add up in the final amount of the stock that you bought.
Trade Brains' recommended top brokers to open demat and trading account in India
— 100 Minus your age rule
There is a famous rule regarding how much you should invest in the stock market and widely known as the ‘100 minus your age rule’. The rule is based on the principle of gradually reducing your risk as you get older. The rules go like this. ‘The percentage of the stock holding in your net worth should be equal to 100 minus your age.’
For example, Let’s say your age is 20 and your total savings to date is Rs 1,000. Then, the amount that you should invest in the stock market should be (100-20) = 80% of your total net worth. In other words, you should invest Rs 800 in the stock market if you are of age 20 from a total saving of Rs 1,000.
You can read the complete post about ‘100 minus your age rule’ here.
— The X/3 Rule of Investing
This is another popular rule for beginners to reduce risk while investing. The rule says to invest only x/3 amount in the beginning if x is the total amount you intended to invest in a stock. After a few weeks, you can invest your next x/3 amount to the stock if it’s doing good. And finally the last x/3 again after another few months.
For example, if you intend to invest Rs 10,000 in a stock, don’t buy from the whole amount all in one go. Invest only 10,000/3= Rs 3,333 initially. If you find your investment grow, then you can add Rs 3,333 in the next round of investment and the last Rs 3,334 in the final round. The rule greatly minimizes the risk and helps in averaging out the purchase price.
Anyways, a minor problem with this rule is that it reduces the focused amount. Therefore, the final profit might be a little less than expected if the whole amount was invested at the same time. Still, it’s a great rule for stock market beginners and helped a lot of newbies to reduce their risk and losses significantly.
There is one more rule called the ‘75% profit rule’. However, it is more like a hypothesis than a rule. It states that if 75% of stocks in your portfolio are doing good, then you can invest further. For example, if you have bought 4 stocks and 3 of them are doing good, then it means that your strategy is working and you can increase your investment. The chances of all the stocks in your portfolio(4/4) working great is very limited. Even Warren Buffett, the greatest investor of all time, has some stocks in the portfolio which gives him negative returns.
In short, if 75% of your stocks are doing great, it means that your strategy is good and it’s not the luck that is driving your portfolio. In other words, if you have only one stock in your portfolio and it’s growing fast, there might be a luck factor. But if 7 out of 10 stocks in your portfolio are growing, it’s more because you did your research correctly.
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Closing Thoughts
For all those who are asking ‘What is the minimum money I need to start stock trading in India?’, the answer is that there isn’t minimum money you need to start trading in India. Anything that suits you is good enough for the market. Any money at which you can buy a stock works fine for entering the market. Any amount that you are ready to invest, is great to start stock trading in India.
That’s all. These were the basics tips and tricks for beginners to invest in the stock market. Also remember the answer to the original question ‘what is the minimum money I need to start stock trading?’ is that there is no minimum money you need to start stock trading. That is no lower limit for that minimum money you need to start stock trading.
Lastly, I hope my post on what is the minimum money I need to start stock trading in India is useful to you. If you need any further clarification or have any doubts, feel free to comment below. I’ll be happy to help you out. Have a great day and happy investing.
