Money Basics · Stocks & demat

Delivery vs intraday

Your broker's order screen has a toggle: CNC (delivery) or MIS (intraday). One is investing. The other is a same-day game where the data says 7 in 10 players lose. Know which button you're pressing.

Delivery (CNC)

You pay full price, shares land in YOUR demat account, you own them for as long as you like. Days or decades. Dividends, bonuses, compounding: all yours. This is what every previous chapter meant by 'buying a stock'.

Intraday (MIS)

You buy and sell the SAME stock the SAME day. Squared off before ~3:20 PM whether you like the price or not. The broker gives you leverage (₹50,000 of exposure on ₹10,000 margin), which multiplies gains AND losses by 5×.

What the referee says

SEBI's own study of individual intraday traders in the equity cash segment:

7 out of 10intraday equity traders who LOSE money

9 out of 10individual F&O traders who lose money, per SEBI's study of the equity derivatives segment

> These aren't 'bad traders'. They're the population average, playing a same-day zero-sum game against algorithms, institutions, and full-time professionals, while paying charges on every attempt.

Why intraday seduces beginners

Leverage feels like a boost. Daily wins feel like skill (a coin flips heads 10 times in a row somewhere every day). Losses feel recoverable with 'one more trade'. That's not a strategy. That's the psychology of a slot machine with a candlestick chart.

The rule

The arithmetic is the argument: at 5x, a move of just over 20% against you is the entire margin, and a 4% move is a fifth of it. Set that beside the regulator's published base rates for the same activity, and both numbers are available before anyone risks anything.

Takeaway. Delivery = owning shares, time on your side. Intraday = leveraged same-day trading where SEBI data shows ~70% lose. Beginners: CNC only.