What does it cost you to get in and out?
One number per product per day, computed from real notes — and the hurdle it sets for scalping.
Round-trip cost is the total of entry and exit charges for one lot of one product, on a particular day, under your particular plan.
It is the least glamorous number in trading and one of the few that reliably changes behaviour.
Compute it from the note, per product
Equity delivery, equity intraday and derivatives will produce very different figures, and derivatives figures moved again when STT on futures and options was revised in April 2026.
| Product | Entry charges | Exit charges | Round trip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Index option (1 lot) | ₹24 | ₹78 | ≈ ₹102 |
| Index future (1 lot) | ₹31 | ₹165 | ≈ ₹196 |
| Equity intraday (₹1L) | ₹28 | ₹53 | ≈ ₹81 |
Illustrative composition only. Compute yours from current contract notes and your own brokerage plan.
Use it as a hurdle in review
If a scalping subset shows an average win below its own round-trip cost, that subset paid the exchange to keep you entertained. Stating it that plainly is usually enough; it does not need to become a rule handed down by software.
Count every leg of a structure
A four-leg spread opened and closed fully is four round trips of charges. Strategy-level cost is the only honest figure for a multi-leg idea.
Rupees of profit required before a round trip is worth taking. Illustrative composition; compute yours from current notes.
Key takeaways
- Compute round-trip cost per product from real notes.
- Compare scalp-subset average wins against that cost.
- Multi-leg structures pay charges on every leg.
Where these numbers come from
Not advice, not a call. NiyataBook is a personal trading journal, not a SEBI-registered investment adviser or research analyst. Everything above looks backwards at trades that already closed. What happened in a book does not promise what happens next, and F&O can take a year’s savings in a week.