As a % of client funds, our brokerage revenue is 20-25% of our listed peers. That means our clients trade a lot less (75% lesser) as a proportion of their capital.

Here’s something counterintuitive but true: With few exceptions, the more frequently people trade, the lower their odds of being profitable. More activity doesn’t mean better returns; it usually means a higher chance of blowing out your account.

So it’s actually in a platform’s best interest to get customers to trade less, not more. While pushing clients to trade more may boost short-term revenues, it ultimately harms them in the long run.

From day one, we’ve avoided the standard playbook for finance apps: no push notifications pushing you to trade, no landing screens showing “trending stocks” or “most traded F&O contracts,” no dark patterns to manufacture activity. In many cases, we’ve actually built features that reduce activity.

We want customers who trade thoughtfully to stay with us for longer. This is beneficial for both customers and us. Also, this is why no one at Zerodha is incentivised on brokerage revenue and has been the case since day 1.

But I’d be lying if I said it’s easy to resist the FOMO of taking shortcuts that can potentially cause a bump in revenues. 😬

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