Zerodha is one of the most popular names in the list of top discount brokers in India. So much that Zerodha has been giving a tough competition to all of its competitors since its inception. Apart from its most likeable feature of flat brokerage, one of its other feature that is gathering attention is Zerodha Pi.

Zerodha Pi is an advanced Desktop trading platform developed by TradeLab Software Pvt Ltd. in association with Zerodha. It was introduced in the year 2015, and is extremely user-friendly. Users can simply download and install the software on their desktops and laptops and start using it for trading purposes. The software can work seamlessly, even on low internet bandwidth, and needs less CPU and memory usage. Here you can download the Zerodha Pi file.

Zerodha Pi offers unique and innovative features for trading in the Indian stock market. The product has been designed by traders. In this blog, we will see if this application is good enough to use or not.

Zerodha Pi is suitable for intraday traders, and proves to be a high-performance software. Initially, Pi had faced few concerns with order placing, charting & price ticks. Later with software upgradation in mid-2016, bringing in new features and digital advancements, it turned out as a trusted trading platform.

This is how Zerodha Pi Trading platform looks like – 

Here are some of the key features of the Zerodha Pi software:

• It is the fastest platform in terms of speed, software updates, and reduced bandwidth utilization.
• Allows trading on all exchanges
• Connects faster with the user interface, making it easy to use
• Quick view of the chart gives a glimpse of the performance
• Provides day wise positions
• Provides 5 best bids and 5 best offers
• User can place order by directly clicking on the bids

The software is customizable according to user requirements. Following are the features:

• Multiple themes available
• Arrange multiple windows
• Unlock windows for multiple monitors
• Sound alert
• Marketwatch feature allows clients to add up to 250 scrips
• Quick order window on chart
• Reconcile button to refresh the chart
• Shortcut keys

The platform allows live tracking of bracket orders. For semi-automated trading – Bridge with Amibroker and Metatrade. Traders who use AFL (AmiBroker Formula Language) can fire orders directly from AmiBroker into Pi. Zerodha Pi allows you to trade and invest across different indices such as BSE, NSE, MCX, NCDEX, etc.

Additional Features

• Pi offers advanced charting functionality which used more than 50,000 candles in a single chart
• Live & Historical Charts with different time Intervals 1Min/2Min/3Min/5Min/10Min/15Min/30Min/Hour/1 Day/1Week/1Month.
• 10 chart types - Line chart, Bar Chart, Candle Chart, Candle Volume, EquiVolume, EquiVolume Shadow, Heikin Ashi, Kagi, Point & Figure, Renko, Three Line Break.
• User can pull out intraday data for the last 1 year, and historical data for last 5 years to carry out analysis.
• The historical data for equity stocks, derivatives, indices, commodity and currency segments can also be obtained.
• Direct order placement provision from the charts in provided
• 100+ indicators.
• Backtesting help traders to check their strategy accuracy using historical chart data and even semi-automate them. To backtest, Traders has to code strategy in Trade script Language. 
• Stock Screener feature allows clients to concentrate on the trading platforms, stock options, etc based on clients’ interests.
• Pattern Recognition is another feature that allows clients to draw personalized patterns on the user interface. This is done simply by drawing a pattern on the screen. The platform then starts looking for similarity within the charts.
• Zerodha Pi provides real-time tips from its experts.
• Scanner is used to scan on a big group of scrips using TradScript for Semi-automatic trading opportunities. Scanners also help to set up alerts and notifications based on some preconditions. This allows traders to get large number of opportunities to place trades in the stock market.
• The software provides algo-trading and AI-based optimization tools and a provision to integrate it with the external software. This is beneficial for the expert traders.

Shortcuts for faster trading experience

Zerodha offers some advanced order types.

• BRACKET ORDER - A type of order where you can enter a new position along with a target/exit and a stop-loss order. As soon as the main order is executed the system will place two more orders (profit-taking and stop-loss). When one of the two orders (profit taking or stop-loss) gets executed, the other order will get cancelled automatically.
• COVER ORDER - A Cover Order is an order which is placed along with a compulsory Stop Loss Order, in a specified range. This Stop Loss Order cannot be cancelled.
• AFTER-MARKET ORDER (AMO) - Users can place orders for the next trading day any time from 4:00 PM to 8:59 AM (until just before the pre-opening session) for the equity segment and up to 9:09 AM for F&O, and up to 9.59 AM for Commodity segment.

For Mac users, Zerodha does not offer any specified version of the software. However, if you are an Apple computer user, then you can install Zerodha Pi using Virtualbox. Following are the steps to download the software if you are a Mac user.

• Download and install Virtualbox on your machine and download Virtual windows
• Unzip the downloaded files
• Import the download Virtual windows into the Virtual Box
• Run Virtualbox and click on the file followed by Import Appliance
• Once the Virtual window is set, select OS from the left menu in Virtual box
• Click “Start” and download and install Google Chrome
• Browse for Zerodha Q, login and download Zerodha Pi.

Charges

Zerodha Pi Bridge – This feature is available for free 7-day trial, after which you will be charged Rs 500 per month.

Zerodha Pi Software – If you are a client of Zerodha, then you are allowed to use this terminal based trading free of cost.

Managing Errors and Difficulties

Sometimes while using Zerodha Pi, the screen can get hanged and there is nothing much that the user can do to control it. In this case, report to the broker and the technical support team for assistance. The team immediately starts working on it. However, until the issue is fixed, you can use Zerodha Kite app for trading purpose.

Disadvantages of using Zerodha Pi

Some of the concerns faced by users while trading on Pi platform-

• Can be installed only on WINDOWS OS. No Mac version is available.
• Experience using Trend Lines is not that great and can be improved for the user.
• Stability of the trading software is a concern, especially incase of high-traffic situations and order submissions.
• Does not offer any fundamental analysis or reports to clients like the full-service brokers do.
• Fewer backup options are available

Advantages of using Zerodha Pi

Not everything is worth being concerned about. Here are some of the features users enjoy while trading on Pi platform:

• Offers advanced charting without any cost for data
• Zerodha Pi uses very low memory & CPU resources. This helps users to trade even by using laptops and computers with basic configuration.
• Works well even at low internet bandwidth
• Trading directly from the charts is possible. This saves time specially for intraday traders
• Multiple market watch for better trading decision making
• Can transfer funds instantly using the 3-in-1 account
• Suitable for all types of traders – beginners, intermediate and advanced

Conclusion 

Technically, Zerodha PI is top-notch in its charting feature and the way it provides the technical analysis for traders. Despite being a discount broker, the software offers tips and reports to help the traders take informed trading decisions The Back-testing is a great feature for research and technical analysis. In terms of performance, it is considered to be one of the best desktop trading platforms. Moreover, being able to function efficiently even at low internet, low memory and CPU resources, Zerodha Pi is indeed one of the favourites of the traders. All of the features shall continue to strongly contribute towards Zerodha’s growth.

In case you are looking to get started with stock market investments or  looking at transferring to a new brokerage company? let us assist you in taking the next steps ahead.

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