Is Stock Trading Halal?
Stock trading can be halal under the fatwas of Indonesia's National Sharia Council (DSN-MUI), as long as two conditions are met: the shares are sharia-compliant, and the way you trade avoids the practices the fatwas prohibit. DSN-MUI Fatwa No. 80/DSN-MUI/III/2011, issued on 8 March 2011, permits buying and selling equity securities on the stock exchange's regular market under a sale contract (bai'). It builds on Fatwa No. 40/DSN-MUI/X/2003 on applying sharia principles in the capital market. Under Fatwa No. 80, only shares on the Sharia Securities List (Daftar Efek Syariah, DES) qualify. OJK sets this list twice a year, effective 1 June and 1 December, and can update it in between. The fatwa prohibits practices such as speculation, market manipulation, insider trading, short selling and margin trading financed with interest. So whether your trading is halal depends on which stocks you buy and how you trade.
What Fatwa No. 80/DSN-MUI/III/2011 allows and prohibits
| Under the fatwa | |
|---|---|
| Allowed | Buying and selling sharia-compliant shares (those on the DES) on the regular market of the stock exchange, under a sale contract (bai') |
| Prohibited: deception and manipulation | Front running, misleading information, wash sales, pre-arranged trades, pump and dump, cornering the market and marking the close |
| Prohibited: insider trading | Trading on information that is not public |
| Prohibited: short selling | Selling shares you do not own (bai' al-ma'dum) |
| Prohibited: margin with interest | Buying shares with interest-based financing (riba) |
How to check whether a stock is sharia-compliant. Look for the stock on OJK's latest Sharia Securities List (DES), published on OJK's official website. The Indonesia Sharia Stock Index (ISSI), calculated by IDX, is made up of sharia-compliant stocks listed on the exchange.
Margin and short selling on Pluang. Pluang does not offer margin trading or short selling for Indonesian stocks, so every purchase is paid in full from your own funds and you can only sell shares you already hold. Which stocks you choose, and how you trade them, is up to you.
This article summarises the published fatwas. It is not a sharia certification of any product. If you are unsure about a specific situation, ask a sharia scholar.
Related questions:
Q: What is the Sharia Securities List (DES)?
The Daftar Efek Syariah (DES) is OJK's official list of securities that meet sharia criteria. For a company's shares to qualify, its business must not conflict with sharia principles, its interest-based debt must not exceed 45% of its total assets, and its interest and other non-halal income must not exceed 10% of its total revenue. OJK sets the list twice a year, effective 1 June and 1 December, and can update it in between, for example after a new listing.
Q: Is margin trading halal?
Fatwa No. 80/DSN-MUI/III/2011 prohibits buying shares with interest-based financing, because the interest is riba. That is how conventional margin trading works, so it does not fit within the fatwa. Pluang does not offer margin trading for Indonesian stocks: every purchase is paid in full from the cash in your RDN.
Q: Is short-term trading or day trading halal?
The fatwa does not set a minimum holding period. It even allows a buyer to resell shares before the trade has settled. What it prohibits is speculation and manipulation, such as pump and dump or creating false demand. Scholars differ on where frequent short-term trading crosses into speculation, so if you trade often and want certainty, discuss your approach with a sharia scholar.
Q: Does Pluang offer other sharia investment products?
Yes. Pluang offers sharia mutual funds alongside conventional funds, and the five sharia gold ETFs listed on IDX on 10 August 2026. Pluang's digital gold is not MUI-certified halal; its permissibility rests on general DSN-MUI fatwas on non-cash gold trading. See "Is Pluang gold halal?" for details.