Although India crossed the milestone of opening 20 crore demat accounts in 2025, many beginners still feel unsure about what holdings are in a demat account. Your holdings are simply the shares that appear in your demat account after settlement. This blog will help you decode your holdings step by step, allowing you to monitor your investments effortlessly.
What Is Holding in the Share Market?
In the share market, the term holding is used to refer to the stocks held by an individual in their demat account. Once the trade is settled and shares are credited to the demat account, they become a part of your holdings. The shares become your legal property, meaning you can decide whether to keep them for long-term investment, sell them in the future, or use them for margin through pledging.
Holdings act as the base of your investment portfolio and give you an overview of the assets you currently own. They reflect not only the stocks you purchased but also how your investments evolve as market prices fluctuate.
How Holdings Work in the Share Market
Every holding starts from a buy order. When you purchase a share, the trade is not finalised on the very same day. In India, a T+1 cycle is followed, meaning transactions are settled on the next business day. After the settlement, the shares are credited to your demat account and become your holdings.
Suppose a person, Mr. A, buys HDFC Bank shares on Wednesday. These shares will settle on Thursday and become part of his holdings.
This process creates a clear separation between intraday trades and delivery trades. Intraday positions never enter your holdings, because they are squared off the same day. Delivery-based trades, however, get settled and added to your holdings the next day.
Types of Holdings in Trading
Holdings vary depending on how you store or hold them. Each type serves a different purpose, whether it’s ownership, trading convenience, or margin requirement.
Demat Holdings
Your demat account acts as the digital locker where shares are stored. The demat accounts are maintained by National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) or Central Depository Services Ltd. (CDSL), the two main government depositories in India.
Investors mainly focus on the demat holdings as they represent ownership. Even if you switch your broker, your demat holding stays safe with the depository. This means your assets remain protected regardless of which trading platform you use, giving you the freedom to explore brokers without worrying about losing your shares.
Trading Account Holdings
A trading account is the gateway for placing orders. It doesn’t hold the shares but acts as a dashboard where all your demat holdings are displayed in a simplified format.
Through the trading app, you can see the number of shares you own, their current market value, your average purchase price, unrealised profit or loss, and performance charts.
It essentially gives you a user-friendly interface to monitor what is actually stored in your demat account.
Pledged Holdings
Pledged holdings help in getting trading margins from the broker. They allow us access to funds without the need to sell off our investments. When holdings are pledged, the shares are temporarily locked and can’t be sold until they are unpledged.
Generally, active traders in need of margins pledge their holdings. Although pledging comes with interest or fees, it offers flexibility for those who need trading capital without liquidating existing investments.
Difference Between Holdings vs Positions
You must have come across the two terms: holdings and positions, and got confused. Let’s understand how these two terms differ from each other.
| Aspect | Holdings | Positions |
| Meaning | The tally of shares held in a demat account | The investor’s stake in a particular share through an ongoing trade |
| Duration | Holdings can be either short-term or long-term | Positions are generally short-term |
| Risk | Lower risk due to diversification | Higher risk due to market volatility |
| Information | Gives an overall view of all holdings in a portfolio | Provides status and details of each specific trade. |
Holdings reflect ownership, while positions reflect active exposure. A position becomes a holding only after the trade is settled and added to the demat account.
How Holdings Are Displayed in a Demat Account
Holdings in a demat account are displayed in the Portfolio or Holdings section of your trading app or website. They bring your holdings to life by showing:
- Stock names
- Number of units
- Average buying price
- Current market price
- Total current value
- Net gain or loss
- Whether the shares are free or pledged
- Corporate action tags (split, bonus, dividend eligibility)
Why Holdings Change Daily
Holdings change daily due to the movement of stock prices in each trading session. Even though your quantity stays fixed, the value of your holdings shifts constantly because stock prices never sit still.
Each day’s movement is influenced by:
- Market sentiment
- Sector-specific changes
- Company news
- Quarterly results
- Domestic and global trends
Your holdings simply mirror what the market feels about the company at that moment. The market’s opinion is reflected in the price, and your holdings react to that opinion.
What Affects the Value of Your Holdings?
A stock doesn’t rise or fall randomly. Several forces push the price around, and your holdings respond to all of them:
- Financial performance of the company
- Interest rate decisions by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
- Government policies impacting the industry
- Macro-economic indicators
- Competition and new product launches
- Global market fluctuations
Occasionally, even anticipation of news, rather than the news itself, affects prices. This is why your holdings can jump or fall even when nothing seems to be happening.
How to Check Holdings in Different Broker Apps
Although different apps might have different layouts, the steps to check your holdings rarely differ:
Step 1: Open your trading app and log in to your demat account.
Step 2: After logging in, look for the Portfolio or Holdings tab. Your holdings will be displayed here.
Step 3: Here, you can review the list of stocks you own, along with their quantities and current values
Step 4 (Optional): Other financial insights, like charts, profit-loss details, fundamentals, etc., can be accessed by clicking on a particular stock.
How Long Should You Hold a Stock?
There’s no one rule to decide your holding period. Some investors hold their stocks for days or weeks, while others may hold for years or even decades. You should decide the holding period on your own, depending on:
- Your investment goal
- The company’s fundamentals
- Your risk appetite
- Market conditions
- Entry price
Conclusion
Holdings are simply the stocks held in your demat account, and are usually displayed in the Portfolio or Holdings section. Factors such as financial performance, economic indicators and market fluctuations affect their value. Having a clear grasp of your holdings ensures you stay confident while participating in the share market.
FAQ‘s
In the share market, holding means the shares you bought and hold in your demat account. You have complete ownership of these shares and can hold them as long as you wish.
The holdings in a demat account are stored digitally, eliminating the need for physical paper certificates. The government depositories – NSDL and CDSL maintain records of these digital holdings.
The price moves through the trading sessions, causing the value of holdings to change daily. As the prices rise or fall, the holding’s worth adjusts accordingly with them.
A position is used to refer to a trade that is currently active. On the other hand, holding is a settled transaction, where the shares have been credited to your demat account.
Yes, you can sell your holdings whenever the market is open. As long as the shares are not pledged, you can sell them anytime you want.
To check your holdings in a broker app, log in securely and head to the Portfolio or Holdings section on the dashboard. There, you’ll see all the stocks you own along with their quantities, prices, and current values in a clean, easy-to-read layout.
During a stock split, a company divides its existing shares into smaller shares but proportionally lowers the price per share. Although the number of shares you own increases, the value of your holdings remains the same.
