Now ‘Happy Hours’ for stock trading

 Reliance, Kotak Securities are offering discounts to retain customers

Stock brokerages keen on making their products more appealing are now turning to an unlikely source for inspiration — bars and restaurants. 

They are now introducing ‘Happy Hours’, when customers can get their services at a discount. 

This is beside the other changes they are introducing like trading through apps. 

Older, traditional brokers now realise they need to stay current if they want to hang on to their customers. 

On Friday Sep 09,2016, Reliance Securities offered a “Happy Hours” plan that gave customers who traded on its platform between 11 am and 12.30 pm a 10 % discount on brokerage. 

“The discounts are for delivery trades (in the cash market) made in a certain time frame, up to maximum ₹5,000,” said B Gopkumar, CEO, Broking and Distribution, Reliance Capital. 

“This is to build scale, and increase participation and volumes, so we’re targeting the lean hours and for the first time, giving retail customers an incentive to actively trade.”

The offer will be on through September and the discounted brokerage will also apply to trades made after the daily market closes — that is, 3.30 pm to midnight. 

A similar scheme is in the works at Kotak Securities, which has been, ironically, named the same. Kotak’s own “Happy Hours” programme, out in a few weeks, ups the brokerage discount to 50 % on trades placed and squared off within a set time-frame with no cap on the maximum discount