What is Circular Trading

Circular Trading is a fraudulent activity in the stock market involving two brokers or market players trading a stock back and forth to give the impression of huge trading volume.

In Circular Trading sell orders are entered by a broker who knows that offsetting buy orders, the same number of shares at the same time and at the same price, either have been or will be entered.

Circular trading is typically rampant in a market that is tending upwards. The problem is that retail investors trade on momentum. This means that these investors enter the market when volumes are high; for high volumes are perceived to mean higher market interest and therefore higher prices.

The trouble starts when the market players who engage in circular trading decide to offload their holdings, sending the stock into a tailspin. Should retail investors get stuck with such stocks, the total money flow into the market will reduce. And that could be some cause for concern for the economy as a whole. The reason is that vibrant markets can propel economic growth, if they sustain for a long while. It is to prevent circular trading and, perhaps, its consequences that the stock exchange has shifted certain stocks to the trade-for-trade segment.

What is Trade-for-trade?

Under the trade-for-trade segment, every transaction is individually settled. Suppose a trader buys 1,000 shares of a stock for Rs 45 per share in the morning and sells the same quantity of shares in the afternoon for Rs 50 per share. Under the rolling settlement system, the broker is permitted to net the buy and sell transactions, and pay Rs 5 per share less brokerage to the trader.

In the trade-for-trade segment, the trader will have to pay Rs 45,000 to take delivery of the 1,000 shares bought, and will have to make delivery for the shares sold. Since each transaction is treated separately, scope for circular trading is restricted. The reason is that trader ramping up the stock price will have to pay the amount to take delivery of the shares bought. And that would entail large outlays.

The trade-for-trade segment appears a good measure to lower the systemic risk due to circular trading. The stock exchanges should, hence, actively consider shifting stocks to this segment rather than slapping special margins on the stocks considered speculative.

Now the BSE routinely raises the special margin on stocks based on some undisclosed criteria to deter speculative trading. But it is not effective in a vibrant market because retail investors enter in droves in stocks based on momentum; and such speculative stocks carry high momentum.

That said, shifting stocks to the trade-for-trade segment would help contain systemic risk better if the stock exchanges are more transparent in their criteria for choosing such stocks.

Transparency: At present, neither the BSE nor the NSE states the criteria for shifting a stock to the trade-for-trade segment. Defining the basis for such a shift would provide a perspective for traders and retail investors of the quality of trading in each stock.

Suppose the exchanges state that they consider stocks with delivery-to-traded quantity ratio of less than 10 per cent, and price change of more than 50 per cent in a week for shifting to the trade-for-trade segment.

Traders and investors will keep hawk-eye on stocks that fit such a criteria (such an information can be obtained from the NSE Web site). This will prevent retail investors from getting trapped in stocks that are victims of circular trading. Such transparency is important because stocks may decline in value after they are shifted to the trade-for-trade segment because of a likely drop in volumes.

In short, the BSE and the NSE should actively consider shifting stocks to the trade-for-trade segment as a measure to curb circular trading. Importantly, the exchanges should be transparent in their criteria for choosing such stocks.