In an electronic world, Bangladesh’s trading remains defiantly analogue
One would feel that the opportunity to conduct stock trading online would remove like a rocket, given the immense comfort the facility presents. But, the initiative, that was launched four years back, didn't capture the creativeness of retail investors.
Not that the system is exculpated from almost all blame for the lukewarm response. A host of problems that had been present during release are however to be fixed.
Launched about March 9, 2016, the DSE Portable app and its own desktop version DSE-Investor managed to find 53,307 takers, which is 2.07 % of the full total beneficiary owner's (BO) accounts of 25.74 lakh now, according to info from the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
Among the glitches of the program is that it does not have any price modification choice, said Masum Ahmad, a good stock investor.
Every time he really wants to modify the trading price, he must cancel the order and start over.
Options have not been incorporated for stop-loss order, which can be an order placed with an agent to buy or sell a reliability when it reaches a certain price.
Notifications are actually also not turning up now.
"For instance, I am carrying out a bank that's currently trading in Tk 30 and We desire to be notified when the price might fall below Tk 28. But I don't get such notification," said Ahmad, who's an accountant at an exclusive firm.
But in the beginning, he used to get such notifications.
Were the web trading platform a well-oiled model, the currency markets could have run effortlessly amidst the countrywide shutdown, Ahmed added.
Bourses had remained closed for just two months since March 29.
"We can not restrict short advertising if a customer trades on both inventory exchanges as the bourses aren't linked up with each other," said an official of a stockbroker, that is a subsidiary of a state-run bank.
Short offering occurs when an trader borrows a security and sells it on the open up market with the program to get it back in the future for less money.
The premier bourse has didn't address the problems within the last four years, he added.
There are other risks and hassles with the online trading platform.
"When an investor trades via the online trading platform, we cannot stop them from investing in non-marginable securities at a margin," said a high official of a brokerage house, asking never to be named.
Investors cannot be barred from investing in a, B, G and N category shares by selling junk shares on a single day though rules usually do not permit this, he added.
Online trading cannot restrict the get of stocks in the spot marketplace with the proceeds made from sales found in the normal market on the same evening, he said. In the spot market, securities can be purchased in trade for cash instantly.
If investors take action wrong while executing a purchase through the online trading program, the regulator keeps the brokers sensible, the official said.
"Why should brokers take this responsibility? We happen to be held responsible for the clientele' wrongdoings, so we decided not to give them the web trading service," he added.
DSE Managing Director Kazi Sanaul Hoq did not reply to messages and phone calls from The Daily Star for a comment on the matter.
But a top official of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission stated on state of anonymity that they have previously asked the DSE to fix the problems.
"The complete trade settlement process can't be made automated yet. We're focusing on it."
Even so, the BSEC official said many investors still prefer to come quickly to the brokerage residences or call brokers over the telephone to execute trades.
