BTST stands for Buy Today, Sell Tomorrow. The Indian capital markets follow a T+1 settlement cycle. For instance, if a stock is purchased on Monday, it is delivered to the demat account on Tuesday. However, the stock can be sold even before it is received in the demat account.
Example scenario
Here's how BTST works:
- You have ₹10,000 in your Zerodha account
- On Monday, you purchase 5 shares of Reliance at ₹2,000 each (total: ₹10,000). This trade settles on Tuesday (T+1 day)
- On Tuesday, you sell the same 5 shares of Reliance at ₹2,100 each (total: ₹10,500) before the Monday trade settles
- On Tuesday, Zerodha allocates the received shares to your upcoming delivery obligation, and the sell transaction settles on Wednesday
The credit from selling T1 holdings (BTST trades) cannot be used on the same day as per regulations
(PDF).
This means you cannot use the
proceeds from your BTST
sale immediately.
The risks associated with the BTST transaction are that the client may not receive delivery of the shares on Wednesday and subsequently fail to deliver the shares for the sell transaction leading to short delivery.