Frequently Asked Questions

F&O stands for Futures and Options — the derivatives segment of the Indian stock market. Unlike buying shares where you own actual stock, F&O involves trading contracts whose value is derived from an underlying asset (like Nifty 50, BankNifty, or individual stocks).

• Futures: A contract to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price on a future date. Both buyer and seller are obligated to honour the contract.
• Options: A contract that gives the buyer the right (not the obligation) to buy (Call) or sell (Put) an asset at a set price before expiry.

F&O is regulated by SEBI and traded on NSE and BSE. The most commonly traded F&O instruments in India are Nifty 50 options and BankNifty options, which expire every week.

In the Indian stock market, F&O (Futures and Options) is the derivatives segment traded on NSE and BSE. It's separate from the cash/equity segment where you buy actual shares.

Key differences from equity trading:

• Leverage: You can control a large position with a small margin. A Nifty futures contract worth ₹10–15 lakh might require only ₹1–1.5 lakh as margin.
• Expiry: F&O contracts expire — weekly (for index options) or monthly. After expiry, the contract settles.
• Time decay: Options lose value every day as expiry approaches, even if the underlying doesn't move. This is called theta decay.
• No ownership: You don't own shares in F&O. You're speculating on price movement or managing risk (hedging).

Nifty 50 and BankNifty are the two most popular F&O instruments in India:

• Nifty 50 Options: Based on the NSE's benchmark index of 50 large-cap stocks. Weekly expiry every Thursday. Lot size: 75 units.
• BankNifty Options: Based on the index of the top banking stocks on NSE. Also weekly expiry. Lot size: 30 units.

Most retail traders buy Call (CE) or Put (PE) options on these indices, speculating on short-term directional moves. Options can expire worthless if the expected move doesn't happen — which is why SEBI data shows over 90% of options buyers lose money.

Any Indian resident with a demat and trading account at a SEBI-registered broker can trade F&O. You need to:

• Complete KYC (PAN, Aadhaar, bank account)
• Sign the F&O segment activation form with your broker
• Maintain sufficient margin in your trading account

Popular brokers for F&O trading include Dhan, Zerodha, Upstox, and Angel One. FnoDiary is specifically built for Dhan users.

SEBI's 2023 study found that 9 in 10 individual F&O traders lose money. The reasons are mostly psychological, not strategic:

• Overconfidence bias: After a few wins, traders take larger, riskier positions.
• Revenge trading: After a loss, traders re-enter immediately with a bigger position to "recover" — usually making the loss worse.
• Theta decay blindness: Buying out-of-the-money options on expiry day where time decay guarantees rapid value loss.
• No feedback loop: Most traders look at P&L but never review why they made specific decisions. Without systematic review, losing patterns repeat.

A structured trading journal that scores discipline independently of P&L is one of the most evidence-backed tools for breaking losing patterns. Read more →

Revenge trading is entering a new trade immediately after a loss — usually with a larger position size — driven by the emotion of wanting to recover quickly rather than a rational market setup.

It's caused by loss aversion: research by Kahneman & Tversky shows losses feel 2.5× more painful than equivalent gains feel good. This emotional pain drives impulsive re-entry.

To stop it:

• Set a pre-defined maximum daily loss and stop trading when hit
• Enforce a 20-minute cool-down after any loss before re-entering
• Write a journal entry before taking the next trade
• Never increase position size immediately after a loss

FnoDiary automatically detects revenge trading patterns in your Dhan sessions and flags them in your daily discipline score. Full guide →

A trading journal is a systematic record of your trades combined with structured reflection on your decision-making. It goes beyond a simple trade log to capture:

• Trade data: Symbol, strike, entry price, exit price, quantity, P&L
• Chart context: What the market was doing at the time of entry and exit
• Reasoning: Why you entered this trade — what was your setup?
• Psychology: Your emotional state — were you calm, anxious, in revenge mode?
• Lessons: What you'd do differently next session

Research on deliberate practice (Ericsson et al.) shows that expert performance in any domain requires a structured feedback loop — a trading journal is that feedback loop for traders.

Without a journal, you're flying blind. You feel like you're learning from experience, but you're actually repeating the same patterns with increasing confidence.

A journal matters because:

• P&L is misleading: A profitable day with poor discipline can feel like skill. A losing day with perfect process can feel like failure. Only a journal separates process from outcome.
• Patterns are invisible session-to-session: You can't see that you always overtrade on Fridays, or that your worst trades happen in the first 15 minutes — until you have 30+ sessions logged and reviewed.
• Emotional memory fades fast: The feeling of FOMO that drove a bad trade is gone by evening. A psychology entry written immediately after the session preserves the real context.
• Chart review creates real learning: Seeing your entry and exit plotted on the actual option chart re-activates the emotional memory of the decision — this is the mechanism of genuine behavioural change.

There are two approaches — manual (Excel/spreadsheet) or a dedicated app. Here's the manual method:

• Step 1 — Log every trade: Date, symbol, CE/PE, strike, entry price, exit price, lot size, P&L.
• Step 2 — Add a chart screenshot: Paste the 5-min chart showing your entry/exit. Without the chart, reviewing is guesswork.
• Step 3 — Write your reasoning: One sentence — why did you take this trade?
• Step 4 — Log your emotional state: Calm, anxious, revenge trading, FOMO?
• Step 5 — Score your discipline: Did you follow your rules? Rate 1–10.
• Step 6 — Write one lesson: What would you do differently?

The problem with manual journaling is friction — it takes 30–45 minutes per session. Most traders quit within 2–3 weeks. FnoDiary reduces this to under 10 minutes with automatic Dhan sync and live charts. Why Excel isn't enough →

A good trading journal entry for one session should cover:

• Pre-session: Market bias for the day, key levels, planned setups
• During session: Each trade taken — setup, entry, exit, P&L
• Post-session (most important):
  • How did I feel at session start? (mood, energy level)
  • Did I follow my plan or trade emotionally?
  • Was there any revenge trading or overtrading?
  • What was my best trade today and why?
  • What was my worst decision and what drove it?
  • One specific thing to improve tomorrow

In FnoDiary, your psychology entry is written after each session and linked directly to that session's trade charts — so future you can see the context of every entry you wrote.

If you prefer Excel, a basic F&O trading journal template should have these columns:

• Date | Symbol | Type (CE/PE) | Strike | Expiry | Entry Price | Exit Price | Qty (Lots) | P&L | Setup | Emotion | Lesson

However, Excel templates have significant limitations for F&O journaling — no charts, no auto-sync from Dhan, no discipline scoring, and the friction usually causes traders to quit within a few weeks.

FnoDiary is a free alternative that does all of this automatically for Dhan users. Sign up via a referral link and it's free forever — no Excel setup required. Get free access →

FnoDiary is an F&O trade journaling platform built specifically for Nifty and BankNifty options traders using Dhan. It connects directly to Dhan's API to auto-sync your trades, then lets you review each trade on live option and index charts, score your session discipline, and write psychology entries — all in one place.

Key features:

• Dhan auto-sync: No CSV exports. One click and your trades appear.
• Live dual charts: Option price chart + Nifty index chart, synced and side-by-side.
• Discipline score: Auto-calculated per session — flags revenge trading, overtrading, quantity doubling.
• Psychology journal: Write session entries linked to your trade charts.
• Trade calendar & analytics: Monthly P&L heatmap, win rate, best/worst days.
• Chart sharing: Public link to share any trade chart with a mentor.

A discipline score is a process metric — a number that measures how well you followed your own trading rules in a session, independently of whether you made or lost money.

FnoDiary calculates a discipline score out of 100 for every session by detecting three key behavioural patterns:

• Revenge trading: Re-entering immediately after a loss with equal or larger size
• Overtrading: Taking significantly more trades than your baseline session average
• Quantity doubling after losses: Increasing lot size after a losing trade

A score of 80+ means disciplined process. Below 60 signals patterns that research identifies as account-destroying. The score is independent of P&L — you can have a 95/100 discipline day and still lose money if the market moved against you, and that's actually valuable information. Full explainer →

Yes. FnoDiary supports multiple brokers:

• Dhan — full live auto-sync via API. Trades import automatically, no CSV needed.
• Zerodha — upload your tradebook CSV from Zerodha Console. F&O trades import instantly.
• Fyers — upload your tradebook CSV from the Fyers platform.

Upstox and Angel One CSV import are coming soon. All brokers get the same live chart review, discipline scoring, and psychology journaling.

Yes. Your Dhan access token is:

• Stored encrypted in our database
• Used only to read your trade history and historical candle data from Dhan
• Never used to place, modify, or cancel orders
• Never shared with third parties

Our infrastructure runs on AWS Mumbai (ap-south-1) with encryption at rest and in transit. You can disconnect your Dhan account at any time from the Broker settings page. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes — FnoDiary is free forever if you sign up through a referral link. No credit card, no subscription, no expiry. Every feature is included.

Without a referral, the Standard plan is ₹199/month with full access to all features.

Every FnoDiary user gets their own referral link. Share it and when someone signs up through your link, they also get free access. Get started free →

Signing up takes under 2 minutes:

• Step 1: Go to fnodiary.in/signup.html (or use a referral link for free access)
• Step 2: Enter your phone number — no OTP, no email verification
• Step 3: Paste your Dhan access token (found in Dhan's API settings)
• Step 4: Click Sync — your trades appear immediately

No app to install. Works in any browser.

Yes. Email support@fnodiary.in with a deletion request. We will permanently delete your account, trade data, and psychology entries within 30 days. See our Privacy Policy for full details.