Check your trading habits
Most traders do not lose on the trade they picked. They lose on what they do next. Ten things take money from traders again and again — answer twelve quick questions and find out which one is doing it to you.
Check your trading habitsTakes about a minute
Twelve questions, one tap each.
Nothing is saved
No account, no sign-up. Your answers never leave your browser.
Free, and stays free
Every calculator and every page on this site is open.
Question 1 of 12
About a minute for all twelve
After a losing trade, how soon do you take the next one?
Think of the last time it actually happened, not what you would like to do.
At the end you get the one thing costing you most, the number it came from, and the other nine ranked.
Ten things that take money from traders
Every one of these is something you do, not something the market does to you. The twelve questions tell you which one shows up most in your own answers.
- 1You are already in before you decide where to get out
- 2You get in after the move has already happened
- 3The market turns right after your stop loss is hit
- 4Nothing was setting up, but you traded anyway
- 5You take the next trade to win back the last one
- 6You add more to a trade that is already losing
- 7You took far more trades than you planned to
- 8Small profits booked fast, losses left to run
- 9Weeks of profit, then one day takes the month away
- 10Cheap options that end up worth nothing
Recognise one of these?
The twelve questions take about a minute and tell you which one is costing you the most.
Free calculators
Nine of them. Put your own numbers in. Nothing you type is saved anywhere.
For any trade
- How much you need to make it backFall 20% and a 20% gain does not bring you back. It takes 25%. The further you fall, the faster that gap widens.A 40% fall needs a 66.7% riseOpen
- How big a positionTurns the rupees you are willing to lose into the size of one position, given how far you are sizing for the price to go against you.₹5,00,000 capital, ₹2,500 at riskOpen
- What your risk percent is in rupeesA percent of capital sounds small on one trade. This turns it into rupees, and into the whole day across the trades you plan to take.2% across 5 trades puts 10% in playOpen
- What your trading costs youThe brokerage on one order looks like nothing. Over a year of orders it stops looking like nothing.₹20 × 20 orders × 250 daysOpen
- What a monthly SIP adds up toKeeps the money you actually put in separate from the growth you are assuming on top of it, because those are two very different numbers.₹10,000 a month for 20 yearsOpen
- How long a fall takes to recoverNot how much you need to make back, but how many months it takes at a rate you pick yourself.25% down at 1% a month: 29 monthsOpen
- What your returns work out to in a yearTurning a total change over several years into a yearly figure, so one year can be compared with another.₹5L to ₹8L in 3 years is 16.96% a yearOpen
- Your average price after addingWhat the second order does to the price of the whole position, and to how much is now riding on it.100 at ₹250 plus 100 at ₹200 averages ₹225Open
- Your risk against your rewardBoth distances are yours. This only divides one by the other, and turns both into rupees.30 points risked for 60 is 1 to 2Open
- How far price has to move to cover your costsBefore a trade makes anything it has to pay for itself. This works out how much of a move that takes.₹60 of charges on 75 units is 0.8 pointsOpen
For F&O
- Where your option breaks evenAn option that you bought is not profitable the moment the price moves your way. It has to cover what you paid for it first.₹120 premium, 100 points awayOpen
- Your F&O turnover for taxFor F&O, turnover is not what the contracts were worth. It is the profit or loss on each trade, added up ignoring the minus signs.+₹8,000 and −₹5,000 is ₹13,000Open
- What one lot actually costsThe margin is what leaves your account. The contract value is what is actually moving. They are not the same number, and the gap is the point.₹16,00,000 lot on ₹2,00,000 marginOpen
- What one point is worth to youLot size times the number of lots. The figure that decides whether a twenty point move is noise or your week.75 × 2 lots = ₹150 a pointOpen
F&O rules that changed
Six changes SEBI made to index F&O. All six apply today. Taken from the circular itself, not from a news story.
Full premium upfront
1 Feb 2025Your broker has to take the whole option premium from you before the buy goes through.
No spread benefit on expiry day
1 Feb 2025A position expiring today no longer offsets one expiring later, so you pay more margin.
Limits checked during the day
1 Apr 2025Exchanges now check your position limits at least four times a day, at random, not just at the close.
One lot is now ₹15–20 lakh
20 Nov 2024A contract has to be worth at least ₹15 lakh. It used to be ₹5–10 lakh, a level set back in 2015.
One weekly expiry per exchange
20 Nov 2024Each exchange can offer a weekly expiry on only one of its main indices, instead of one every day.
Extra 2% margin on expiry day
20 Nov 2024If you are short options expiring that day, you pay an extra 2% margin on them.
| What changed | What it means for you | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Full premium upfront | Your broker has to take the whole option premium from you before the buy goes through. | 1 Feb 2025 |
| No spread benefit on expiry day | A position expiring today no longer offsets one expiring later, so you pay more margin. | 1 Feb 2025 |
| Limits checked during the day | Exchanges now check your position limits at least four times a day, at random, not just at the close. | 1 Apr 2025 |
| One lot is now ₹15–20 lakh | A contract has to be worth at least ₹15 lakh. It used to be ₹5–10 lakh, a level set back in 2015. | 20 Nov 2024 |
| One weekly expiry per exchange | Each exchange can offer a weekly expiry on only one of its main indices, instead of one every day. | 20 Nov 2024 |
| Extra 2% margin on expiry day | If you are short options expiring that day, you pay an extra 2% margin on them. | 20 Nov 2024 |
Where this is from
- From
- SEBI circular SEBI/HO/MRD/TPD-1/P/CIR/2024/132, 1 October 2024 — Measures to Strengthen Equity Index Derivatives Framework for Increased Investor Protection and Market Stability.
- Applies to
- Equity index derivatives, at every stock exchange and clearing corporation except commodities.
- Checked
- Read in full, all 8 pages, on 4 October 2026. The dates above come from the circular's own table, not from anyone's summary.
Nothing here tells you what to trade, when, or how much. These are simply the rules the segment runs on.
Your F&O profit is business income
Not speculative income. So a loss can be set against anything except your salary, and carried forward for eight years — as long as you file on time.
Income Tax Act, s.43(5) and s.72. You file ITR-3.
Turnover is not what the contract was worth
For F&O, turnover means adding up the profit or loss on each trade. A ₹16 lakh contract that made ₹8,000 adds ₹8,000 — not ₹16 lakh. That difference decides whether you need an audit.
Worth checking your own case with a CA. This is the rule, not advice on your return.
Short explainers
Nineteen short pages. Each one explains a single thing, with the working shown.
- The ten things, explainedOne page each, on why it happens and what it looks like in your own trades.10 pages
- The arithmeticOne formula, one worked example, and your own figures in the blanks.9 calculators
- Where our numbers come fromRules and research, with the original document linked every time and read in full.1 circular, 1 study
- How contracts actually workTime decay, margin, expiry and what charges come off when. Being written now.Coming
How we handle numbers
Every figure on this site shows where it came from, what period it covers and who was counted — and links the original document, not a news story about it. If we cannot do all four, we leave the number out.
Longer reads
Two at the moment. Both about what happens around a trade, never about what to trade.
- When size stops being a decisionMost traders can tell you their maximum position size from memory. Far fewer can say what they actually took last Tuesday.8 min read
- The trade you take after a lossThe order placed in the twenty minutes after a losing session is a different kind of order — and you can count it.11 min read