Variable cost / trade
₹4.00
Exchange, clearing, DP, OMS and comms
Contribution / trade
₹16.00
80.0% of ₹20.00 gross brokerage
Fixed OPEX / month
₹44.5L
₹5.34 Cr annual run-rate
Breakeven volume
1,80,781 trades
9,039 trades/day over 20 sessions
Model assumptions
Scale profile
10k – 100k active clients
Vendor rate card50% high-volume
Per-order vendor rates fall as volume rises — slide toward high-volume pricing.
Gross brokerage per order (₹)
Flat-fee benchmark for intraday equity, futures and options.
Ancillary income cover35%
Share of fixed cost funded by DP fees, float interest and MTF spread.
Direct transactional cost on every executed order
These costs move one-for-one with volume and are the only genuinely variable layer in broking. Everything else is a fixed base that must be apportioned.
| Component | Cost driver | Low vol | High vol | Applied | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OMS / RMS software licence | Per order processed, billed by the platform vendor | ₹1.50 | ₹0.50 | ₹1.00 | OMS vendor / in-house stack |
| Clearing & settlement (PCM fee) | Professional clearing member fee per trade | ₹1.20 | ₹0.60 | ₹0.90 | Self-clearing or PCM |
| Exchange gateway & bandwidth | API connectivity and FIX throughput | ₹0.80 | ₹0.30 | ₹0.55 | NSE / BSE co-location and POP feeds |
| Depository processing (DP debit) | Per debit instruction on sell-side delivery | ₹1.50 | ₹1.00 | ₹1.25 | CDSL / NSDL |
| SMS, OTP & regulatory comms | Mandatory trade confirmation and OTP verification | ₹0.40 | ₹0.20 | ₹0.30 | DLT-approved telecom gateways |
| Total variable cost per trade | ₹4.00 | ||||
| Contribution per trade on ₹20.00 brokerage | ₹16.00 | 80.0% margin | |||
Statutory pass-throughs (client billed):
Securities Transaction Tax (STT)
Exchange turnover charges
SEBI turnover fees
GST at 18%
Stamp duty
These never touch broker revenue or cost and are excluded from the cost sheet.